Kevin “Sipreano” Howes helped compile and write the liners for the brand spanking new compilation on Light In the Attic: Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love: Motown’s Mowest Story 1971-1973. The comp anthologizes 16 songs from the short-lived Motown subsidiary label, Mowest, which boasted an eclectic roster including everyone from ’60s pop star Frankie Valli to an early iteration of the Commodores to Stevie Wonder’s one-time wife, Syreeta Wright, amongst other, one-off discoveries like Odyssey, Lodi and Suzee Ikeda.
Howes talked to us about discovering Mowest, a background of the label (and its challenges) and some history to a sample of songs off the new comp. We also have a giveaway for the anthology (just answer a trivia question asked in the podcast. Send answers to soulsides@gmail.com, subject line: “Mowest giveaway”)
Sidebar #6: Kevin Howes on the new Mowest anthology
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Songs played (all featured on Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love except the very last one):
- Odyssey: Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love
- Odyssey: Battened Ships
- Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons: You’re a Song (I Can’t Sing)
- Sisters Love: Give Me Your Love
- Suzee Ikeda: I Can’t GIve Back the Love I Feel For You
- Syreeta: Black Maybe
- Lodi: I Hope I See It In My Lifetime
- The Devastating Affair: I Want To Be Humble (7″, Mowest, 1972)
Other links:
- Kevin Howes’s blog, Voluntary In Nature.
- The Mowest 45 discography.
- The Mowest LP discography.
Coming later this week, The Sidebar #7 with Tom Brenneck of the Menahan Street Band/Dap-Kings.
Was it the Gary Bartz version of “Black Maybe”, I recognized the vocalist (Andy Bey?)
Martin: Damn, you’re right – ha, I totally used the wrong version by accident. Fixed it. That’s what I get for trying to turnaround an edit within an hour of recording the interview. Really sloppy on my part.
You should put these up on iTunes so I can subscribe to them
Riyadh: They have been on iTunes, since practically day one. That’s why each podcast post has that link that says “subscribe to this and future podcasts”.
Here’s the direct iTunes lint: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sidebar-soul-sides-com/id436800731
Music that was real music back when I was very little. Nice to see a website on this era of music.
Arian
That horn riff that starts off “Give Me Your Love” by Sisters Love was used in the “Bathtub Intro” (towards the end of the track around 1:40) on Snoop’s Doggystyle album.
Good job – off to check it out. Hope there’s more to come. ‘Battened Ships’ is a huge favourite. Jo (compiler of Soul Satisfaction series Vol 2-5 on Motown)
Hi! I recorded a cover of Lodi’s “Hope I See it in My Lifetime” a while back. Here’s the link for anyone’s that interested.
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_6182218
send me an email at r_lauback@hotmail.com and let me know what you think.