Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Johnny Acey - My Home/The Complete (repost)


The gently swaying ListenWhy is a blues ballad of some considerable charm on which he sounds oh so relaxed, and the cooing male chorus add to the mood beautifully. Acey's other 45 for Bobby Robinson under his own name features another strong side in ListenWhat Am I Going To Do but here Johnny hollers much more forcefully, his gruff tones and lovely sense of timing really hitting home. The fierce flip "I Go Into Orbit" has deservedly had some dance floor plays. His "Johnny Chef" single "Baby Please Come Back" is a typical hard driven New York blues of the period. During his stay with Robinson he also played paino on a lot of sessions including ones for such stellar names as Elmore James and bandleader Riff Ruffin.
Acey cut at least 3 45s for Clarence "Fats" Lewis' New Jersey Falew label in the early 60s with the best side being ListenYou Walked Out on which his vocal is even tougher as he tells his errant woman the score. I just love these hard tough slow blues. From a deep soul point of view his cut of ListenForever More is the pick - this is a superb demonstration of Johnny's  forceful and committed vocal style over aJohn Acey Goodelock who was born in Gaffney, SC on 3 September 1925 was a fine East Coast R & B singer and pianist who made a series of tasty 45s into the soul era. He first appeared on record backing Wilhelmina Gray on Seeco in 1953 but didn't make a disc under his own name until five years later.
The gently swaying ListenWhy is a blues ballad of some considerable charm on which he sounds oh so relaxed, and the cooing male chorus add to the mood beautifully. Acey's other 45 for Bobby Robinson under his own name features another strong side in ListenWhat Am I Going To Do but here Johnny hollers much more forcefully, his gruff tones and lovely sense of timing really hitting home. The fierce flip "I Go Into Orbit" has deservedly had some dance floor plays. His "Johnny Chef" single "Baby Please Come Back" is a typical hard driven New York blues of the period. During his stay with Robinson he also played paino on a lot of sessions including ones for such stellar names as Elmore James and bandleader Riff Ruffin.
Acey cut at least 3 45s for Clarence "Fats" Lewis' New Jersey Falew label in the early 60s with the best side being ListenYou Walked Out on which his vocal is even tougher as he tells his errant woman the score. I just love these hard tough slow blues. From a deep soul point of view his cut of ListenForever More is the pick - this is a superb demonstration of Johnny's  forceful and committed vocal style over a classic horn led soul ballad. Sadly the recording is so "muddy" it is very difficult to pick out the instrumentation clearly but the side is one to cherish all right. The flip is a really strong uptempo R & B number about another wayward relationship.
He went on to cut enough sides for an LP for Joe & Sylvia Robinson's All Platinum outfit in the later 60s but only a couple of 45s appeared including a slowed down recut of "My Home" done as a small band blues but packing the same lyrical punch. "You" is a solid soul ballad on which Johnny's tough vocal is accompanied by the famous "anaemic" All Platinum 60s strings. A real odd ball of a cut. One day I hope that all his recordings for the Robinsons will apear.
The Smog City 45 seems to have been his last recording before his death on February 19 2009. classic horn led soul ballad. Sadly the recording is so "muddy" it is very difficult to pick out the instrumentation clearly but the side is one to cherish all right. The flip is a really strong uptempo R & B number about another wayward relationship.
He went on to cut enough sides for an LP for Joe & Sylvia Robinson's All Platinum outfit in the later 60s but only a couple of 45s appeared including a slowed down recut of "My Home" done as a small band blues but packing the same lyrical punch. "You" is a solid soul ballad on which Johnny's tough vocal is accompanied by the famous "anaemic" All Platinum 60s strings. A real odd ball of a cut. One day I hope that all his recordings for the Robinsons will appear.
The Smog City 45 seems to have been his last recording before his death on February 19 2009.

Thanks go to Gyro1966 who kindly provided this rip. Believe me it's as rare as hen's teeth.

18 comments:

Gyro1966 said...

i have (own) this in good sound @320, I will send it later after work. Thanks again for all the great music here.

Xyros said...

Wow, that was fast and to be honest very unexpected as it's a very rare record. I don't think it's ever been re-released in any form. Many thanks Gyro1966

Anonymous said...

Thanks in advance Gyro!

DrHepcat

Gyro1966 said...

I have a question - has anyone ever seen a copy of Moonshine 118 (Train I Ride) Lp? It is listed in the Moonshine Lp list, yet there is no information about it anywhere.

Xyros said...

@Gyro1966, many thanks for Johnny Acey. had no idea that it had been released on cd (Thailand??) together with all his other tracks.

Gerard Herzhaft said...

@Gyro1966: Thank you very much for this unbelievable Johnny Acey (from Thailand!). It gathers all the Johnny Acey's recordings on one CD, including the much sought-after LP from the same title ("My home")!!! I wonder if there are more of those kind of blues reissues in Thailand... Maybe our friend BobMac could tell us?

Gyro1966 said...

I bought this in the US. I have many Cd's from this company, as they have a similar look and feel. I am not sure if they are being made here or in the UK, but I wouldn't believe the print about being made in Taiwan or Thailand or such. It's probably just a cover up.

Gyro1966 said...

Here is some info about the Johnny Acey Collection:

http://www.sirshambling.com/artists_2012/A/johnny_acey/index.php

Bob Mac said...

@ Gerard & Gyro1966. If there are any blues reissues being made in Thailand then they've done an amazing job of avoiding my attention. I certainly never seen nor heard of anything (generally blues to Thais means EC/Gary Moore et al)

I suspect it's as Gyro1966 suggests, some sort of cover up, or perhaps the covers were printed in Thailand, which would be far cheaper than USA/UK prices.

However, I'll see if I can track down Li-Jan Music, or suite 249, Crown Plaza. I'll get back to all you guys when I know something.

Xyros said...

I did some more searching and found an an old Ebay auction from February 2014 from Bignickelpublications. He usually has on offer limited edition/small run CD's with a strong Bootleg flavour. Bought a reasonable amount over the years from him.

Anonymous said...

What a pleasant surprise!!!

Marineband

Anonymous said...

great stuff!!
unknown to me !!
some of the vocals reminds me of magic sam

thnks
MapleB

cuorediformaggio said...

sorry to tell but the link is not working anymore: any chance of reupping?
Thanks.
Ciao.

Luca

Xyros said...

@cuorediformaggio, Johnny Acey has a new link for you. Enjoy the music.

pmac said...

This Johnny Acey album is unbelievable. Many thanks for reposting.

Guitarradeplastico,scraping oddities said...

OLE

Anonymous said...

could you re-up please?

daba said...

Johnny Acey – My Home

Label: Turbo Records – TU-7010
Format: Vinyl, LP
Country: US
Released: 1972
Genre: Blues
Style: Rhythm & Blues

Tracklist:
A1 My Home
A2 The Watchman
A3 Can't Keep You Home
A4 You
B1 Nobody's Woman But My Own
B2 Love Stay Away
B3 Hungry For Affection

Spine of LP has Catalogue number TU-7009. Sleeve has TU-7010

Gyro1966 & Xyros. TYVM