When Martha met Irma

Over the last few months I've been introduced to two quite outstanding slabs of female soul of which I was previously blissfully unaware.

First up was Martha Bass (yep, Fontella's mum) "Since I've Been Born Again". I've not seen this on original vinyl but would guess probably Checker or Cadet as I've seen something else by her on Ebay on that group of labels. It is on the Soul Jazz Soul Gospel Vol.2, where you can hear a 60 second blast, which was about all I heard when I first came across it. It ws on a "6 on 6" set on the Craig Charles' Funk and Soul Show on 6 Music probably autumn 2008. Listeners send in six top tunes of theirs and he plays (played as I think he's stopped that part now) snippets of each tune back to back. Now I don't regularly listen to the show, sometimes when cooking the tea. I'm not a huge funk fan and get a bit bored of funk by numbers (just as I'm sure some people think all Motown, Northen etc sounds a bit samey as well I guess). Having said that I've owned Eddie Bo's "Hook and Sling" and Luther Ingrams' "Puttin' Game Down" (on KoKo! - and yes it is the "Baby Don't You Weep" man!) on 7 inch for maybe 20 years , so I don't what you call hate it! Anyway, there's nearly always a little gem thrown in there even f I'm only listening for half an hour. This is all hand clappin', foot stompin' gospel at a great dance tempo. Surely too earthy for the gospel sentiments? I can't find it on any other albums and can't vouch for the rest of the album so still searching.

Then by another quirk of fate I caught a smal part of the final Radio 2 Saturday show hosted by Martin Freeman and Liza Tarbuck before Jonathon Ross completed his three moth ban around january 2009. Mr Freeman has form in compiling a Motown CD as well as citing mod influences (Independent in 2005 - article now taken off line and see also Modculture). They alternated records and bang came on Irma Thomas "Hittin On Nothin" which I'm ashamed to say I'd not heard before - flip side of "Ruler Of My Heart" and enned by Allen Toussaint - see here for example. This is available on a CD called We Sing The Blues / New Orleans Our Home Town, which is also on download at Napster and iTunes I believe (legally) for about seven quid. Great early RnB soul, right for "now" I'd say. You can see from the playlist that on that day listeners got some real treats (Terry Callier, Etta James, Staple Singers, JB...) - remember when Radio 2 was the MOR station? Either I'm getting old or people of my age and background are getting their hands on the knobs. Well worth tracking this down and as a legal and cheap download probably no excuse not to?