VA- Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label

Label: Numero

Released 2022

Where everything Numero begins. Three guys in a purple Saturn station wagon drove down to Columbus, Ohio, and came back to Chicago with a lost label - the rest is history. In the early '70s, Bill Moss' Capsoul imprint could barely break wind in the larger music marketplace, and yet today the label's output can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any classic soul of its era. Isolated in central Ohio and lacking the funds to back them, groups like the Four Mints and Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum & Durr might've easily withstood ten rounds against the Temptations, Smokey, or Otis. The scrappy Capsoul writing team of Dean Francis, Jeff Smith, and Norman Whiteside would've thrown blow-for-hook-filled-blow with any Gamble & Huff or Holland/Dozier/Holland thrown at them. From Bill Moss' civil rights meditation "Sock It To 'Em Soul Brother" to Marion Black's future hit about the future "Who Knows" to Kool Blues bounding "I'm Gonna Keep on Loving You," Eccentric Soul: The Capsoul Label remains dollar-for-dollar the best soul compilation of its century and the perfect primer for anyone piqued by the Eccentric Soul series - otherwise known around here as the "budding Numero enthusiast."

Track listing:

1. Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum & Durr–    You're All I Need To Make It
   
2. Marion Black–    Who Knows
   
3. Kool Blues–    I'm Gonna Keep On Loving You
   
4. Bill Moss–    Sock It To 'Em Soul Brother
   
5. Four Mints–    Too Far Gone
   
6. Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum & Durr–    You Can't Blame Me
   
7. Bill Moss–    Number One
   
8. Four Mints–    Row My Boat
   
9. Ronnie Taylor–    Without Love
   
10. Kool Blues–    I Want To Be Ready
    
11. Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum & Durr–    Your Love Keeps Drawing Me Closer
    
12. Elijah & The Ebonites–    Hot Grits!!!
    
13. Ronnie Taylor–    I Can't Take It
    
14. Kool Blues–    Can We Try Love Again
    
15. Four Mints–    You're My Desire
    
16. Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum & Durr–    A World With You
    
17. Marion Black–    Go On Fool
    
18. Elijah & The Ebonites–    Pure Soul
    
19. Bill Moss–    Sock It To 'Em Soul Brother (Instrumental)
    
20. Capsoul Group–    All I Need To Make It