Product details
- Label Shellac Disc
- Artist Ted Taylor
- Format 1LP
- Country Import
- Released Date 2023
- Genre Blues
- Sealed Yes
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Somebody's Always Trying by Ted Taylor.
There are voices in soul music that carry the church in one hand and heartbreak in the other, and Ted Taylor's is one of them. On "Somebody's Always Trying," that unmistakable high, keening delivery is on full display, gathering together a run of his Okeh sides into a single collection that traces a singer completely at home in the territory where gospel fervor meets grown-up trouble.
The A-side opens with the title track, a statement of intent, before rolling through "Don't Lie," "Pretending Love," and "That's Life I Guess." These are songs built for the dance floor and the barstool alike, tunes about suspicion, self-deception, and the quiet arithmetic of getting by. "Stay Away From My Baby" and "Need You Home" keep the emotional stakes personal and immediate, and the side closes with "Don't Deceive Me (Please Let Go)," a plea dressed in the polish of soul-era production.
Flip it over and the mood deepens. "(Love Is Like) A Ramblin' Rose" leads the B-side, followed by "Daddy's Baby" and the aching "So Hard." Taylor moves easily between the plaintive and the defiant, and "Walking Out Of Your Life" and "It Ain't Like That No More" show a man reckoning with what has changed and what cannot be undone.
The closing pair lifts the whole record. "Mercy Have Pity" reaches back toward the sanctified sound Taylor never fully left behind, that falsetto cutting clean above the arrangement, and "Be Ever Wonderful" sends the listener off on a note of tenderness. It is a fitting end to a set that keeps circling the same human questions from different angles.
As a compilation of Okeh 7" singles, this is the sort of record that rewards a full sitting rather than a quick spin. Individually these were jukebox cuts, made to grab attention in three minutes; gathered here, they build into a portrait of an artist whose gift for melody and phrasing deserves more recognition than the singles chart ever gave him. For anyone drawn to soul that still remembers its gospel roots, it is a generous and cohesive listen.
Every track collected here also appears on the 2006 CD reissue, but there is something to be said for hearing this music the way it was first meant to be heard, one side at a time, needle in the groove. For collectors of Southern soul and Okeh-era sides, or for anyone building a shelf around the great underappreciated voices, "Somebody's Always Trying" earns its place.
Pressing Details:
Track Listing:
A1. Somebody's Always Trying
A2. Don’t Lie
A3. Pretending Love
A4. That’s Life I Guess
A5. Stay Away From My Baby
A6. Need You Home
A7. Don’t Deceive Me (Please Let Go)
B1. (Love Is Like) A Ramblin’ Rose
B2. Daddy’s Baby
B3. So Hard
B4. Walking Out Of Your Life
B5. It Ain’t Like That No More
B6. Mercy Have Pity
B7. Be Ever Wonderful
Notes:
Compilation of Okeh 7"s.
All tracks available on the 2006 CD [r=7527808]
Artist: Ted Taylor
Format: 1LP
Genre: Blues
Label: Shellac Disc
Catalog Number: SHELL035
Release Year: 2023
Country: Import
Condition: Sealed (New)
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