New arrivals from the South

Record Store Day pretty much came and went without me, and that’s OK.

Judging from Facebook, it looked like all of my favorite record stores had plenty of folks come through. We were headed south on vacation, but stopped briefly at Shangri-La Records in Memphis, Tennessee.

They have lots of soul records, as you’d expect, but there was none was compelling enough to haul back to Wisconsin. There was one that piqued my interest, but it looked a little rough for a $17 record. Maybe next time.

They have lots of soul records at The End of All Music in Oxford, Mississippi, too. They were still recovering from Record Store Day two days later.

It was quite a thrill to come across this one, filed under “F” as I made my way through an alphabet full of soul records.

It appeared to be Eddie Floyd’s “I’ve Never Found A Girl” from 1969 — which I would have loved to have had — but inside that jacket was another, less interesting Eddie Floyd record from the early ’70s. Dang. That happens.

Just when it seemed there again wouldn’t be any records compelling enough to take home, I realized I’d overlooked two crates of “New Arrivals.” Don’t you love record stores with fresh supplies of new arrivals? There, I saw this.

I rarely see Willie Mitchell records in Wisconsin. I have only one other. In several years of record digging, I’ve developed this little rule. If you’ve never seen something in all that time, you ought to think about getting it.

So please enjoy a little something from this new arrival to Green Bay, Wisconsin, which comes via Oxford, Mississippi.

“Young People,” Willie Mitchell, from “Soul Bag,” 1969. It’s out of print. (This cut and some others from this LP are available on “Poppa Willie: The Hi Years, 1962-1974,” a double-CD import comp released in 2001.)

Written by Andrew Love and Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns, this was the only single from “Soul Bag,” It peaked at No. 120 on the U.S. charts in 1969.

“Soul Bag” is a bag full of tremendous instrumentals by the Memphis Horns and the Hi Rhythm Section, including four other Love-Jackson originals along with covers of songs by Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett and Sly and the Family Stone, and a cover of the “Hawaii Five-O” theme.

Eventually, though, Mitchell focused on producing records for the Hi label rather than recording his own. Only four more LPs followed “Soul Bag,” two each in 1970 and 1971, before Mitchell took a long break from recording.

And on the same week I visited that Oxford record store, so did Archie Turner and Howard Grimes, two members of the Hi Rhythm Section.