Dave Hamilton's Detroit Dancers Vol 1-3 (2013)

Tracklist
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vol 1
01. What Should I Do - Little Ann
02. Happiness Is Here - Tobi Lark
03. You Did - Priscilla Page And Rony Darrell
04. My Sweet Baby - J T Rhythm
05. I'm Shooting High (I Reach For The Sky) - O.C. Tolbert
06. Love, Friends And Money - James Lately
07. (Marriage Is Only) A State of Mind - James Carpenter
08. That's All She Wrote - Gil Billingsley
09. The Deacons - Dave Hamilton
10. You Won't Miss The Water - Chico & Buddy
11. I'll Take My Flowers Right Now - The Barrino Brothers
12. Just A Mistake - The Ebonettes
13. Shoop Doop - Dave Hamilton
14. Sweep It Out in the Shed - Tobi Lark
15. Lean Lanky Daddy - Little Ann
16. Your Love Is What I Want - The Ravins
17. Who Are You Trying To Fool - Dave Hamilton Orchestra
18. Talkin' About Love - Tobi Lark
19. I'm Pretending - Priscilla Page
20. Nothing In This World - Dottie & Millie
21. All I Want Is You - O.C. Tolbert
22. Deep Shadows - Little Ann
23. Heavenly Thing - The Mark-Keys
24. Blue Funk - Dave Hamilton
Dave Hamilton's Detroit Dancers compiles mostly obscure material to which the Detroit session guitarist contributed his funky, grooving licks, including sides from Hamilton himself, Little Ann, Tobi Lark, Priscilla Page, and JT Rhythm.
vol 2
01. Spoken Intro To 'The Two Of Us' - Danny Cobus
02. The Two Of Us - Danny Cobus
03. Lean Lanky Daddy - Little Ann
04. You Got Me Turned Around - O.C. Tolbert
05. Challenge My Love - Tobi Lark
06. I'll Give You My Love - Sue Ann Jones
07. We're In Love - The Additions
08. Ain't That Groovy - Dave Hamilton Band
09. Falling In Love - The Tokays
10. Talkin' About My Baby - Dottie & Millie
11. My Sweet Baby - The Mark-Keys
12. I'm Going Back Home - J T Rhythm
13. I'm Me Just Me - Gil Billingsley
14. Tammie - Richard Coombs
15. That's Enough - O.C. Tolbert
16. Just A Mistake - The Barrino Brothers
17. One Way Street - Little Ann
18. Pisces Pace - Dave Hamilton
19. Who - Jackie Dee
20. The Smile On Your Face - Little Ann
21. Give It To Glory - O.C. Tolbert
22. All I Want Is You - J T Rhythm
23. No One Can Take The Place Of You - The Ravins
24. Tears Running And Falling From My Eyes - James Lately
25. That's All She Wrote - O.C. Tolbert
Dave Hamilton was a producer, session musician, and songwriter on the Detroit soul scene starting in the 1960s. You can't really tell that from the liner notes, which basically say nothing about Hamilton's role in this music other than that the CD was compiled from his collection of tapes. It can be presumed, though, that Hamilton was involved in all of these records in some capacity, and he does have songwriter and production credits on some of the tracks. Most of them date from the mid- to late '60s, although some were done as late as the early '80s; some were unreleased demo-type tracks, and several came out on the Topper and TCB labels, indicating that Hamilton might have been involved with those companies. So, the music? It's acceptable, and not exceptional, period Detroit soul. As was the case with several small Detroit-area soul labels of the time, it often sounds like a minor-league Motown (indeed, Hamilton played on some Motown sessions himself). Motown is a good model, but nonetheless, adhering to a role model does not, in fact almost always does not, mean the resultant product stands up to the prototype, and that's the case here. Sometimes the micro-model is obvious; Tobi Lark's "Challenge My Love" sounds a lot like a Mary Wells song, "Ain't That Groovy" (an instrumental by the Dave Hamilton Band) like a Marvin Gaye backing track, Dottie and Millie like an amalgam of the Marvelettes and early Supremes -- you get the picture. It's not bad, but there's the nagging feeling that the musicians involved were just below the standard good enough to get involved with Motown itself. As is the case with several Kent/Ace compilations, the decision to sprinkle in a few disco- and urban contemporary-influenced cuts from a decade or later than the end of the 1960s disrupts the groove as surely as a hoseful of cold water in the face.
vol 3
01. Until the End of Time - The Additions
02. What Should I Do - Little Ann
03. Sweep It Out in the Shed - Little Ann
04. The Wind - Simon Barbee
05. I Don't Know What You Got - Chico & Buddy
06. Along Came A Woman - O.C. Tolbert
07. True True Love - Tobi Lark
08. Blue Vibes - Dave Hamilton
09. It Takes A Lot Of Living - The Future Kind
10. In The Morning (When I Rise) - Elayne Starr
11. The Smile On Your Face - Little Ann
12. Love, Friends And Money - James Lately
13. Send My Baby Back To Me - Charmaine
15. You Did - Dave Hamilton Band
16. I Love The Way You Do - J T Rhythm
17. The Bad Things (You Said To Me) - The Barrino Brothers
18. Ride The Gospel Train - The Tolbert Family Singers feat. Brother O C Tolbert
19. Look Up And Smile - Chicago Pete
20. Side By Side aka Just A Mistake - The Ebonettes
21. Possession - Little Ann
22. Goodness - O.C. Tolbert
23. I Mean You Girl - Richard Coombs
24. Honest I Do - The Tokays
Dave Hamilton's Detroit Dancers, Vol. 3, the third volume of rare soul from the vaults of Detroit producer and musician Dave Hamilton, adds a couple dozen more cuts to what's already available from that source, most of them previously unreleased, although a few are taken from rare singles. It's not easy to characterize what's here, since it's a grab bag of local soul with various approaches, most of it done in the 1960s from the sound of things (the copious liner notes do not always give dates, or even estimates of dates, for specific tracks). Unsurprisingly, Motown casts a large shadow over much of the material in the production, songwriting, and even the singing. It's not like listening to a bunch of Motown outtakes; the style isn't quite replicated so imitatively and, to be more blunt, you wouldn't mistake any of the people involved for Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, or Martha Reeves. Instead, it's a varied, listenable assortment of tracks, usually with a pop-soul slant, in which the artists who are involved exhibited some talent, but not enough to make you think they should have been famous or have had big hits. Some tracks make the grade more than others: Simon Barbee's "The Wind" is a nice, lush, sweet soul ballad, and Charmaine's "Send My Baby Back to Me" (which actually made it onto a 1964 single) is rather like early-'60s Motown girl group-influenced records by the likes of the Marvelettes and Mary Wells. It's one of the few songs here where everyone involved seems focused on creating a catchy commercial disc, instead of just throwing some ideas that are in line with commercial trends together to see what sticks. More idiosyncratic are Priscilla Page & Pepe the Poodle's "Throw the Poor Dog a Bone," with constant irritating dog barks, and the Tolbert Family Singers' "Ride the Gospel Train" (from the late 1980s), with exceptionally hoarse vocals by O.C. Tolbert. There's no harm being done by combing through Hamilton's holdings so thoroughly, and the music's not bad, but these compilations are digging so deeply into the barrel that they have a limited appeal even to soul specialists.
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