Genre: soul
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: The Magnetic North
Company: A-bet
Catalog: 403
Year: 1968
Country/State: Nashville, Tennessee
Grade (cover/record): VG / VG
Comments: --
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4674
Price: $50.00
Cost: $66.00
Freddie North conjurs up the image of a true soul journeyman. His recording career started in the mid-1950s as a member of the Nashville-based The Rookies. By the early 1960s North was working as a solo act recording a string of isolated singles for a myriad of labels including Phillips, Capitol and Ric.
Unfortunately, in spite of hundreds of club dates and national exposre via an appearance on American Bandstand, by the mid-1960s his recording career appeared dead. North remained active in music, working as a dj for Nashville station WLAC and in the stockroom at the small Gospel-oriented Nashboro Records. Over the next couple of years North worked his way up the Nashboro corporate ladder, eventually getting into sales and promotion.
1968 found North taking another stab at recording via a contract with A-bet Records. Self-produced, 1968's "The Magnetic North" is a surprisingly impressive effort. North had a nice voice and was quite comfortable working in a number of styles including Clarence Carter-styled story songs ('Got To See If I Can Get Mommy (To Come Back Home'), conventional blues ('Thank That Woman') and (straight ahead soul 'Love To Hate'). Virtually everyone of the nine songs is worth hear, though his cover of 'Rainy Night In Georgia' could easily be mistaken for the Brooks Benton original. Simply too diverse and derivative to be a true classic, the set is still worth hearing. Elsewhere 'I Loved Another Woman' b/w 'Rainy Night In Georgia' was released as a single on the A-bet affiliated Mankind label (Mankind catalog number M-12025).
"The Magentic North" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Got To See If I Can Get Mommy (To Come Back Home) (H. Miller - R.M. McCoy) - 3:13
2.) Love To Hate (Michael Franklin - E. Burt) - 3;40
3.) Rainy Night In Georgia (Tony Joe White) - 4:33
4.) Thank That Woman (David Hall - Howard Hunt) - 4:19
(side
2)
1.) I Loved Another Woman (P.A. Green) - 2:58
2.) From the Blind Side (David hall) - 2:48
3.) Sun Comes Up (Ralph Murphy - Shulik Krauss) - 2:15
4.) Oh Lord What Are You Doing To Me (Luther Dixon - Bert Keyes) - 3:05
5.) I Have a Dream (Jerry Keller - David Blume) - 3:07
Forever," made it to #26.