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James Carr |
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(6/13/1942, Coahoma, MS - 1/7/2001, Memphis, TN) |
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| One of soul music's greatest and most underrated voices, Carr sang gospel in the Sunset
Travellers and the Harmony Echoes and was discovered by Memphis gospel-group mentor Roosevelt Jamison. This budding manager and songwriter brought Carr to the Goldwax label. It took four singles to define the singer's style, but the deep, magnificent 'You've Got My Mind Messed Up' burned with an intensity few contemporaries could match. A US Top 10 R & B hit in 1966, 'Love Attack' and 'Pouring Water On A Drowning Man' also followed that year. In 1967, Carr released 'Dark End Of The Street', southern soul's definitive guilt-laced 'cheating' song, which inspired several cover versions. His later work included 'Let It Happen' and 'A Man Needs A Woman', but his fragile personality was increasingly disturbed by drug abuse. 'To Love Somebody' (1969) was Carr's final hit. Goldwax Records collapsed the following year and Carr moved to Atlantic Records for 'Hold On' (1971), which was recorded at Malaco Studios in Jackson, Mississippi. His problems worsened until 1977, when a now-impoverished Carr was reunited with Jamison. One single, the rather average 'Let Me Be Right', appeared on the RiverCity label and the singer temporarily disappeared from the scene. Carr re-surfaced in 1979 on a tour of Japan, the first concert of which was a disaster when he 'froze' on stage, having taken too much medication before his performance. In 1991, he had an album of new material entitled 'Take Me To The Limit' released by Goldwax Records in the USA (Ace Records in the UK), with Quinton Claunch and Roosevelt Jamison back among the production credits. The following year, Carr appeared at the Sweet Soul Music annual festival in northern Italy, and three of his songs were included on a 'live' album of the festival on the Italian '103' label. By 1993, Claunch had left Goldwax and set up his own Soultrax Records, for which Carr recorded his 'Soul Survivor' album (again also on UK Ace), the title track of which had a single release in the USA. Meanwhile, having lost Carr to Claunch, Goldwax's new President, E.W Clark, exhumed some prime late 60's Carr material for inclusion on Volume 1 of the projected (and perhaps optimistically titled) 'Complete James Carr (a US only release)'. James Carr died on Sunday January 7, 2001, in Memphis. He was 58. The cause was cancer, said his friend and producer Quinton Claunch. ...why not take a listen to his excellent soul ballad 'You've Got My Mind Messed Up'; click right here. The man will be sorely missed. |
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