Like A Blanket for Baby Jesus

Charles May and Annette May Thomas - Keep My Baby Warm.

If you've been following along with this whole mp3 blog thing, then you've no doubt been reading Oliver Wang's Soul Sides for the last few years. He's always got the best hip hop, soul and funk -- mostly from his own personal collection. Back when we first started here at Robots, I used to post a lot of funk and soul, but I decided to leave that to the experts like Oliver. I just couldn't keep up.

So when his new compilation came in the mail, I flipped. It's hot like fire. He really did an excellent job of sourcing some great soul tracks. Some have been famously sampled, others have been famously covered, and others are famously obscure. It's everything you want in a great soul comp. I highly recommend it.

This track here is the opening cut. It's a sweet slice of gospel soul, with some help from the Stax rhythm section (Paul Humphrey on drums!). Charles and Annette are brother and sister, and this track comes from a record called "Songs Our Father Used to Sing." The record is a tribute to their father - a popular gospel singer named Brother Joe May. At any rate, while it may be a gospel tune, the music is pure soul, and the drumming is just ridiculous. The snares are so crisp and hard, the bass so thick and plump. It's hard to find records like this, and without guys like Oliver getting their fingers dusty, we'd probably never know about them.

A percentage of the album sales will go to the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, which raises money for aging musicians. The record, which is being produced jointly by Soul-Sides.com and Zealous Records, will be available online and instores on March 21st.