Butch Ingram’s Philly revival label has just released several singles for the Christas season – not Christas songs, per se, but tunes that are sure to ring nostalgic bells and interest soul buffs particularly those with a penchant for the classic, gentle sounds of the City of Brotherly Love.
First up is a sweet cover of Anita Baker’s ‘Caught Up In The Rapture’ from MARKI FIELDS. Ms Fields, you may know, has over the years treated us to her respectful versions of Maxwell’s ‘Ascension’ and Stevie’s ‘Overjoyed’ and on ‘Rapture’ she again delivers sensually and soulfully.
Gospel collectors might be tempted to check out an old school cut, ‘Good God Almighty’ from, God’s Miracles. The band – Maria Lowery, Johnny Smalls, Pastor Lamont Purnell, Randy Smith, Reginald Fields and Ernest Richberg – are self-contained and deliver a sound quite different to what we’ve come to except from Society Hill – old school testifying at its best.
More typical of the Society Hill sound is a lovely Ter Ree version of the soul gem that is the Royalettes’ ‘It’s Gonna Take A Miracle’. Like ‘Caught Up in the Rapture’, it’s such a great song that deserves another outing. This one , by the way, was featured on the April ’23 LP, ‘The Sensational Ladies of Society Hill’
