Mr. G's Texas Funk

Mr. G's Texas Funk: Hard Texas Funk 1968-1975

Funk. This is an amazing collection, practically a Ph.D. thesis on obscure funk bands. Most of the records on this collection were originally pressed in quantities of 200 to 2000, making them rarer then gold capped hen's teeth. Jazzman Gerald and his collaborators brought light to these forgotten sides by actually tracking down the artists and their original master tapes to make a top quality, legitimate reissue compilation. This compilation is in the class of, and compares favorably to the Stones Throw Records "Funky 16 Corners" collection. Of course, it's not the obscurity that makes these tracks great, it's the fact that the funk gods smiled down upon Texas and inspired a high school garage band, or working class barroom soul band, or even some Tejano bands to record 2 to 4 minutes of pure booty-shake. I don't want to reiterate too much background, be sure to read the extensive liner notes covering the scene and the bands if you're interested. MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, you really can't go wrong with any of the songs (unless you don't play them).
1) **Hard bouncing funk with male vocals, great horns hitting on the one
2) *Open drum break opening, sour horns, then the guitar hits to make an uptempo groover with lo-fi duet vocals
3) **Head nodding tempo funky soul, cover of a War song
4) **Spirited funk instrumental with the occasional James Brown style "Uhhhhh!" and "Heeeyyy!"
5) **Siren opening, blasting sassy horn, generally tight instrumental
6) *Mellow soul instrumental
7) **Killer instrumental cover of "Evil Ways"
8) Vocal cover of Isaac Hayes soul
9) *Funk with vocal call/horn response JB style
10) *Long instrumental jam featuring organ and some wah-y guitar
11) *Rolling Meters style (Drums/Guitar/Bass/Hammond) instrumental
12) *Mellow, space-y funk instrumental featuring echoed organ. Reminds me of Blow Your Head by the JBs
13) *Great percussion
14) *
15) *Cover of Meters classic, lo-fi but tight
16) **Happy, dancable funk
17) **Charging with Marva Whitney style female vocals
18) *Lo-Fi cover of James Brown dance floor killer
19) **Powerful male vocal testifyin'
20) **Awesome! Tejano band cover of one of James Brown's best instrumentals
21) **Fast psychedelic funk
Tom Purcell, March 2003