WELCOME TO SIR SHAMBLING'S DEEP SOUL HEAVEN

Here you’ll find articles – some brief, some less so – on soul music and the artists who made it. Mostly concentrating on deep soul and southern soul recordings from below the Mason - Dixon line in the Golden Age between about 1960 and 1980 when the dreaded synthesisers began to take over. But like all the “rules” of the site, this one was made to be broken, and a lot of other sorts of black music have found their way here as well.

To help you find your way around the site:

Artists - an ever growing index that will lead you to biographies, discographies, label shots and, of course, the music from deep and southern soul artists - famous and not so famous. Sound files you can listen to or download are highlighted by this symbol

Articles - Index of some reviews, articles and ramblings from Sir Shambling and various guest writers. These include small features on what this site is all about, a definition of the music highlighted here, who Sir Shambling is and a "thank you" list of friends without whom this site would not have been possible.

Links - Sir Shambling's favourite websites, record dealers, magazines and other friends of this site.

Contact Sir Shambling - leave your comments positive or not right here.



NEW!! Search - Search for artists, labels or anything or anybody else covered in this website.



NEW!! CD Reviews - a section highlighting CDs both old and new of interest to southern and deep soul fans.

ANNOUNCEMENT ON SOUNDCLIPS.

This website has been open for well over 15 years now and during that time many tracks which can only be found here have been included on commercial CDs, both legitimate and bootleg. As have numerous images and information. Sometimes this website has been acknowledged as the source, sometimes compilers have asked my permission to use my material but mostly music and other stuff has simply been taken.

I have tended to view this thievery as the price that has to be paid for making this rare music freely available to everybody who wants to hear it, and to increase awareness of deep and southern soul.

But recently matters have taken a substantial turn for the worse. Two individuals – one in the US and one in the UK – have issued CDs that don’t just include the odd track from here but are actually entirely based on this website. Pretty much all the tracks, images and whole paragraphs of text have been lifted wholesale. These cynical and blatant attempts to make easy money from my work are completely unacceptable. And since taking pictures and text are dependent on the taking of the music I have had to act to prevent the music being such an easy target.

Accordingly all the tracks on this website have now been “seeded” with a series of “bleeps” through the course of the song which will make it much harder technically and music more expensive to use them for any sort of commercial CD. Sadly this also means that listening to them for pleasure has been seriously compromised. I must apologise to all who come here for the music and not to make money out of the site – but since the only alternative was to close the site completely I hope you will understand. The cause and responsibility for this action rests with the greedy bad guys not me.

I will of course be pleased to send music to anybody who is interested in any of the songs here and who wants a track purely for their own enjoyment rather personal gain. Just use the contact form here to send me an email and I will respond. Again I am sorry for this inconvenience but the blame for it lies elsewhere.