Ranked #50 in the Soul Strut 200

The FAVORITE MELLOTRON SONGS forum thread on here sparked my interest in pulling this one off the expedite. I was fortunate enough to get an original copy of this a few years back for a great price and it's safe to say this record is going NOWHERE.

I must say, years and years ago, before the days of widespread reissues and mp3 blogs, I had longed to hear this. I thought it was some funk / soul / break masterpiece with one of the coolest cover art displays ever. My buddy finally paid an arm and a leg for an original copy and shared the .wav files. It was nothing like I had envisioned.

The music of the first two tunes were airy, emotional, spiritual, hardly the organ funk that I expected. In fact, the album moved me and took me to another place. This is a Detroit record from ex-Denis Coffey bandmate, organist Lyman Woodard. A who's who from the Detroit scene helped him record this on Strata records and the result is nothing short of amazing. It's gorgeous jazz music, but still gritty and raw enough to still remain hip and cool. The rest of the record falls under the early-70s Blue Note, Prestige sound of the day. But still, like I said, recorded in an organic way.

Highlights include the title cut, my favorite "Joy Road," and the guitar jazz funk of Ron English on "On Your Mind."

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