VARIOUS ARTISTS
DEEP SHADOWS THE BEST OF KENT BALLADS

It has been some time since Kent has championed a soul ballad collection. Southern soul has been well served but the general great soul ballad has usually been compiled as part of label stories that majored in dance music and soul fans who don’t boogaloo may have decided to give them a miss. 45s by the Ravins, Austin Taylor and Ray Pollard are very scarce and extremely expensive because of the interest in their flips by Northern Soul collectors. Little Ann, the Shaladons and Hesitations tracks have only previously been available on relatively obscure Kent CDs. The previously unissued Jeanette Jones track is a major find. Austin Taylor, Danny White and the Quotations show the world how New Yorkers could deliver terrific soul ballads too, the latter sounding unbelievably fresh from the recently found master tape. A few tracks of stand-out deep soul had been on CDs that are now deleted so this was the perfect CD to place the Charmells, LV Johnson and Johnny Gilliam tracks. It’s also the best of Kent, so killer ballads by Lolleatta Holloway, Act 1, Sam Dees and Jaibi (the single version from master tape for the first time) reflect on what a great slow soul history Kent has.