Soul City New Orleans presents records which served to establish the musical direction of the city in the early 1960s, at the dawn of the soul era. Perhaps the most glowing testimony to the city came from songwriters Frank Guida and Joe Royster in their 1960 smash hit “New Orleans” for Gary ‘U.S.’ Bonds: “Where the magnolia blossoms fill the air, you ain’t been to heaven if you ain’t been there.” New Orleans is also known as the Crescent City for its geographic shape, or the Big Easy for the city’s atmosphere and pace of life, largely driven by the high humidity and the general bonhomie endemic of South Louisiana.

The music of New Orleans has tended to match the lifestyle, easy tempo with gently insistent rolling beat and a rhythm driven either by a thumping on-beat (Mardi Gras marching bands and second-line parades) or a laid-back off-beat. While the formative talent from the city’s rhythm & blues years was all signed to remote labels, by the end of the Fifties things were beginning to look up in the local industry, and there was a relative wealth of labels active in the city.

Compiled and annotated by soul music authority and radio presenter Clive Richardson, Soul City New Orleans features significant releases on local labels like Minit, Instant, Ric, Ron, Bandy and AFO, as well as NOLA-related recordings for other imprints both large and small. Here we have music from the formative period of the soul era in the Big Easy.

A limited edition 28-track 2LP vinyl set is also available.