The Soul Sides Sidebar

This is Ep. #1 of an informal mailbag series of mini-episodes prepped for Soul Sides and Heat Rocks fans. In this one, Oliver Wang tackles a pair of questions: 1) what were some of my favorite artists from when I was in college and 2) What's an example of an artist/album from a genre that Heat Rocks typically does *not* into? Thanks to Eric Peterson for the questions!

The Sidebar returns to fill the social distancing void. I'm joined by Michael Barnes of the Melting Pot blog to talk about a special version of Sly and the Family Stone's 1974 LP, "Small Talk" that Michael came upon years ago. Much record nerdery ensues.

We look at one of the darkest soul songs ever recorded, "Dead," arranged and co-written by Moses Dillard and produced by Fort Worth TX's Major Bill Smith who could commission over a dozen different versions of the song on his various imprints. David Haffner of the record store, Friends of Sound, joins to share details about the song's curious history.

In this episode, we revisit the 2005 song (and 2015 single), "1 Thing," originally recorded by Amerie but remixed by Siik.