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Ruth Brown & Sandra Phillips - Swamp Dogg Presents Miss Rhythm & Miss Blues
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Brown and Phillips would still be two of the most exciting rhythm and blues singers ever. By Al Hensley.
Ruth Brown & Sandra Phillips
Swamp Dogg Presents Miss Rhythm & Miss Blues
Swamp Dogg Records/ Planet
What strikes you most about this re-issue of recordings made during the ‘70s by Ruth Brown (Miss Rhythm) and Sandra Phillips (Miss Blues) is the way it demonstrates just how great a singer Brown really was in comparison to one of her contemporaries whose own voice itself contained a high level of quality, strength and character. It shows why Brown had that "x" factor which made her such an R&B superstar, garnering so many gold records and top ten hits throughout her career.
All bar one of the 75-minute CD's 22 songs were written or co-written by creative genius Jerry 'Swamp Dogg' Williams who also handled production and arrangements. Brown sings the first ten songs, which were from her only Muscle Shoals, Alabama studio session.
The always mood accurate rhythm section comprises Swamp Dogg on piano, Clayton Ivy on organ, Travis Wammack on guitar, Lenny LaBlanc on bass and Jimmy Evans on drums. A six-piece horn section and strings by the Philadelphia Symphony flourish melancholy ballads like 'What Colour Is Blue' and playful romps like 'Brown Sugar'.
Broadway and movie star Sandra Phillips gives an amazing performance on her selections recorded at Capricorn Studios in Macon, Georgia with Dogg again on piano, Paul Hornsby (organ) Pete Carr (guitar) Robert Popwell (bass) and Johnny Sandlin (drums). Horns are by the Maconites and strings are replaced by four-piece vocal backup, more in the Stax southern soul tradition.
Despite digital re-mastering, Phillips' impeccable vocals are at times almost lost in the bass-heavy mix. That said, Brown and Phillips would still be two of the most exciting rhythm and blues singers ever to grace a stage or recording studio.