RUBY WILSON and QUEEN EMILY are two Texan born, cult soul heroines. If you’ve not come across them yet, then SOUL4REAL’S subsidiary JAI ALAI is offering you the opportunity of making their acquaintance via a new 7” that offers a side from each of the soulful ladies. The 45 is the second brand new Jai Alai single ( see; https://www.soulandjazzandfunk.com/news/double-dynamite-5/ )
Ruby Wilson was born deep down in Texas but spent most of her career in Memphis. She first came to the attention of serious soul collectors via two mid 70s Glades singles, ‘Number One In Your Heart’’ and the funkier ‘Sky High’. After TK/Glades she moved to Malaco and cut an acclaimed eponymous LP in 1981. It meant little and so Ms W moved on again to find work with first, the Hot Cotton Jazz Band and then the Climax Jazz Band. In 2000 she released a couple more albums before turning to acting and working the Memphis club and bar circuit where she was known as “the Queen Of Beale Street”. We use the word “was” because, sadly, she died in 2016, but she has left a strong, if undervalued music legacy as witnessed by her side on the new Jai Alai 45. It’s a sweet, building ‘Love Has Come’ which has been lifted from that aforementioned Malaco LP. It’s a timeless piece of modern soul that shows that Ruby Wilson had the potential to be much more than just the ”Queen of Beale Street”.
Queen Emily (Emily David) was born and raised in Houston, Texas but now resides in California and in 2008 (aged a remarkable 40; it seems she’d spent her 20s and 30s looking after family ) she was a semi-finalist of America’s Got Talent. Her show stopping performances won her a contract with Malaco. Working with Tommy Couch Jr, she released a 4-track EP in he US and , oddly, an eponymous full album in the UK. And that LP is the source of the cut on the Jai Alai 45. It’s a stunning ‘Throw Away Me’. With full-on, Southern soul production (the Muscle Shoals Horns and Rhythm Section are in there!), Emily delivers the George Jackson-penned ballad with heart-wrenching feeling. It’s as good as Southern soul gets and if it don’t shiver your proverbial timbers, then, sadly, you ain’t got soul! It’s a stunner!
The double A sided single is all set to go and you can learn more @ https://www.soul4real.es/soul-4-real-records-jai-alai-records/ and , you know, though the two cuts were recorded 30 years apart, you wouldn’t know. Their soul quotient is timeless.
