Format Details: Jewel Case
Release Date: 27 January 2003
Label: Ace Records
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 029667187824
Genres: Rock 'N' Roll Rhythm and Blues Soul/R&B R&B
Description
Author and broadcaster Charlie Gillett truly opened the doors in Britain and Europe for South Louisiana music - and Floyd Soileau's Jin label - when in 1974 he released the LP ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT on his Oval label. A CD version with bonus tracks is still available on Ace CDCH 288. Thanks to Charlie's vision, records like The Promised Land by Johnnie Allan and Sweet Dreams by Tommy McLain have well outlived their original short existence on Jin 45s. Indeed, due to constant reissues, The Promised Land is now a genuine accredited million-selling gold record. Over the years, hordes of collectors and music lovers have visited Floyd Soileau at Floyd's Record Shop in Ville Platte, mainly in springtime during the free days of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The affable Floyd always treats these fans royally, regaling them with stories about his artists, competitors and even his infallible rice cookers. Often he would take his visitors to a tasty Cajun lunch at the nearby Pig Stand. Then everyone would return, contently, to the store to buy up 45s, LPs, CDs, cassettes or whatever. How different business was in 1958 when Floyd, barely out of his teens, established his tiny Jin label. It was cleverly named after his soon-to-be wife Jinver. At the time, Floyd was concerned only with selling his records in the South Louisiana/East Texas axis along the Gulf Coast stretching from New Orleans to Houston. He would have his records pressed by RCA in Indianapolis and then shipped them out to the 'mom and pop' stores and local distributors, with promo copies to the radio stations. His biggest hope was to get the records placed with jukebox operators, which would mean immediate bulk sales. All the while he was building up a mail-order business that was soon to flourish. Floyd reckoned that one good seller would pay for eleven duds. If a record broke big, he would arrange, wisely, for the master to be handled by a national label to save him the headaches - and possible financial ruin - of dealing with a hit. In 1959, Floyd launched Swallow Records as a receptacle for his Cajun music releases. As an aside, it has to be said that our pioneering FLOYD'S EARLY CAJUN SINGLES (CDCHD 743) has been horribly lost in the digital shuffle. With Floyd, I started working on this CD some five years ago. We went through his vault located in an old bank safe, which made me feel quite at home. The majority of the early tapes were still stacked fortuitously on the shelves, whether on the original singles reels or transferred to subsequent LP reels. Oddly enough, we found only one unissued track - Once Again by Red Smiley & the Veltones with Clint West, which is included here. This shows that Floyd did not waste time, tape or money on unnecessary sessions. What he recorded was released. Originally this compilation was destined to feature South Louisiana rock'n'roll music only, but the appearance of a brazen European bootleg last autumn encouraged a last minute twea
Tracklisting
Richard Thompson
Little Richard
Elmore James
B.B. King
B.B. King
Young Jessie
Wynonie Harris
Willie Hightower
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
Various Artists
