GOATEE PHIL'S MUSICAL ODYSSEY
One man's view of musical history.
Wednesdays at 1300 GMT
(repeated Saturday 1600 Sunday 0700 and Monday 0500 all GMT)

on Radio Reverb 97.2FM
and online at www.radioreverb.com

SOUTHERN SOUL

The show for August (which you can hear for the first time on 21st July) is an introduction to Southern Soul, which is a style as much as a regional sound. It was put on the map in the 60s with the success of Stax Records. Despite the troubled racial history of the Southern states one of the startling things about Stax was the multiracial mix of the musicians.Another key feature was the gritty ragged sound that a lot of Stax recordings.

Stax was based in Memphis, and for most of the 60s had things their own way. But the 70s was a different story with a number of new labels starting up, the most important of which was Hi records, home of producer/arranger Willie Mitchell and subsequently of the label's two biggest stars, Al Green and Ann Peebles.

While Hi prospered, across town Stax was in deep financial trouble. This was partly fuelled by a reckless expansion policy, which saw the label sign large numbers of new artists. The paradoxical result of that was that they signed some of their greatest acts, best epitomised by the Staple Singers, the legendary gospel singing family band, whose signature Stax vice-president Al Bell, had coveted from the first day he joined the label.

There was much great music made in the 70s in the Crescent City, New Orleans, where the jazz and blues clubd had a big influence on the sound. The city also produced some highly individual and influential talents, like Professor Longhair, Mac Rebennack aka Doctor John, but especially the pianist, arranger and songwriter, Allen Toussaint.

New Orleans though isn't seen as Southern Soul in quite the same way as the Memphis labels and as a result the one other centre of Southern Soul is regarded as Muscle Shoals, an area of Alabama close to Florence, where maverick producer Rick Hall set up his studio to produce some of the greatest soul music ever made.

I'll be playing tracks from all these labels in the latest Musical Odyssey. I hope y'all can join me!

And don't forget my Podcast, where you can hear me discuss the early 70s with my good friend Steve Coulson. I also talk about the recent BBC1 series I'm in a rock'n'roll band, and review my favourite albums of the previous month. You can hear tracks from these on MySpace. Select the playlist Podcast Recommended.