William Stuckey

Scottish reissue label Athens of The North has your back when it comes to rare boogie, outsider funk, Northern Soul, those rare jams…things you hear and love straight away without always knowing the story behind them. Like Light In The Attic and other reissue labels their job is to put in front of you the magic you didn’t know you needed.

William Stuckey’s 1979 gem Love of Mine is one of their latest finds; a rare soul gem that receives its first ever reissue since its original limited release. Care was taken to restore the original tapes and present a decent-sounding funk-soul mini-masterpiece.

Stuckey, a blind multi-instrumentalist has Philly-soul grooves here (Wise Men Say), earnest balladry (opener, The First Time) and southern country-soul grooves (Got Plans). It’s like Harold Melvin meets Swamp Dogg.

At the Arkansas School for the Blind Stuckey started on trumpet before moving to alto sax and clarinet. Here he’s at the piano and leading a band that includes Don Garrett on bass, Rudy Osbourne on steel guitar and the harp of Martha Rosenbaum.

There are disco edges (Country People) Stevie Wonder-visits-Philadelphia instrumentals (Just Around The Corner) and soul stirring ballads (Hold Me Close). And a big of cruise-ship funk with the closing title track, Eight songs you won’t have heard before that you can drop into any new playlist or sit and enjoy as an album in its entirety. A new gem, some 40 years old. Athens of the North do fantastic restoration work and William Stuckey is your new favourite soul singer.
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