Various Artists
New Orleans Soul ‘69

After almost two decades of furious activity, the recording scene in New Orleans in 1969 was astonishingly subdued. The main reason for this was the collapse of Cosimo Matassa’s Dover conglomerate the previous year. Dover was a one stop shop for the myriad of small labels in the locality, providing a recording studio, pressing plant, distribution and publicity, all for a smallish fee. And when Dover died so did the vast majority of its clients. So instead of hundreds of 45s, only about 40 singles were released that year. Despite the small number of 45s, the quality was, if anything, higher than ever. We present the pick of the songs from 1969 here, with funk being the prominent musical genre of the moment, with a few ballads and straight ahead soul tracks as a change of pace. This LP is therefore a snapshot of a troubled year in New Orleans showing how the city’s unquenchable musical spirit still survived – and flourished.