Ella Washington: He Called Me Baby (1967-1972)

An outstanding Southern soul vocalist, Ella Washington was another performer whose style was so raw and intense that it had little chance of attracting any attention outside the R&B world. She also recorded for various small labels which were never able to break her songs, even within the soul arena. Her best material was done in the late '60s and early ‘70s; much of it produced by legendary disc jockey John Richbourg, for Monument's Sound Stage 7 label. Washington had one single, ‘The Grass Is Greener,’ leased to Atlantic from Octavia, but her 1969 self-titled LP didn't fare well, although she got good response from the single ‘He Called Me Baby / Stop Giving Your Man Away.’ Washington's work is impeccable throughout, far beyond the simple southern soul cliches that were coming to be common in the generation of Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, and instead, very much in her own space. It was recorded with sophistication and emotion that so many other singers would not tap this well until a few years later. The themes of the tunes are great, heartfelt, but still with an emotional inner strength that really matches Ella's vocals. This compilation features almost all of those historic recordings which were cut in Memphis, Nashville and Muscle Shoals from 1967-1972, including her few Sound Stage 7 singles, her rare full album, and a number of unreleased recordings from the time. Get ready to open up your heart to the mindblowing work from Ella Washington in 28 tracks that include ‘I Can't Afford to Lose Him’, ‘The Affair’, ‘He Called Me Baby’, ‘Doing the Best That I Can’, ‘It Just Be Love’, 'If Time Could Stand Still', ‘Nobody But Me’, ‘Sit Down & Cry’, ‘Sweeter & Sweeter’, ‘Fragile (Handle With Care)’, ‘He'll Be Back’, ‘You Got It’, ‘We Paid the Price’, and ‘Deeper’. http://www.dustygroove.com/, http://www.allmusic.com/.

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