Memphis soul man RANDY BROWN is something of a cult soul hero. He was a member of Stax group, The Newcomers before embarking on his own solo career. He recorded for labels like Parachute, Chocolate City and Stax with two albums in particular, ‘Welcome To My Room’ (1978) and ‘Midnight Desire’ (1980) winning wide acclaim. If you know Randy’s work, you’ll know he possesses a magnificent true soul voice – a voice very similar to David Ruffin, who, in various interviews, Randy has always cited as huge influence.
Randy had two musical brothers – Bertram (with whom he worked in the Newcomers) and William who was part of another Stax group, The Mad Lads. What many people don’t know is that the three siblings went on to work together as one group – TEN-63. They recorded one album “sometime in the late 80s”. It was ‘Facing The Music’, but for reasons never best explained it was never officially released till 2009. One of the set’s tracks did manage to find its way onto the UK soul scene prior to that date though. Famed Sheffield soul entrepreneur/DJ Mike Ward regularly played out a wonderful, mid-tempo, proper soul groove ‘You And Me’ and its rareness and lack of availability became a talking point amongst the soul cognoscenti who raved about the gritty lead, the harmonies and the sensuous sax break.
The good news is that boutique label IZIPHO SOUL is gearing up to release this lovely ‘You And Me’ on Friday 7th June on brand, spanking new 7” vinyl. For the B side the Izipho team have cherry picked another soulful gem from ‘Facing The Music’. It’s a searing harmony ballad , ‘Say We’ll Stay’ which features a remarkable lead vocal that recalls the best of David Rufin and Ali Ollie Woodson. Listen up, too, to more sensuous sax work!
Sadly William Brown passed away in 2015 but it seems that Randy and Bertram are still going strong (pictured below). This new Izipho 7” stands as tribute to the three brothers.
TEN-63 – YOU AND ME b/w SAY WE’LL STAY released June 7th via IZIPHO. Learn more @ https://www.iziphosoul.com/
