The Carter Brothers
Listen/Download -The Carter Brothers – Do the Flo Sho
Greetings all.
I hope everyone had themselves a nice, long, filling Thanksgiving weekend.
Things hereabouts have been status quo, aside from number one son getting sick (he appears to have acquired what felled number two son last week), which this being November, may also be considered part of the aforementioned status quo.
In non blog-related news, if you get a chance, and you have a taste for alternative comedy and social commentary check out Marc Maron’s WTF podcast (available on iTunes). Maron has always been a favorite comedian of mine and his podcasts are both funny and intellectually stimulating.
Also, the fam and I caught ‘The Fantastic Mr. Fox’, which was, true to the title, fantastic, yet a little on the complicated side for small kids. My wife and I agreed that it seemed more like a regular Wes Anderson movie (a la Rushmore, Bottle Rocket etc) presented in animated form.
The tune I bring you today is a greasy bit of 1965 blues/R&B/soul crossover from the Carter Brothers.
Though they hailed from Alabama, the Carter Brothers (Al, Roman and Jerry) relocated to California which served as their base of operations through the 1960s. They recorded their first 45s for the Rexie label, moving on to Louisiana-based/nationally distributed Jewel records in 1965. They recorded a half-dozen 45s for the label between 1965 and 1967, with Roman Carter recording one solo 45 in 1968.
The a-side of their first Jewel 45, ‘Southern Country Boy’ was a Top 40 R&B hit in the summer of 1965. Today’s selection was the flipside of that very record.
‘Do the Flo Sho’ was a medium tempo dance craze number with a churning horn section, overlayed by a sinuous guitar line. The vocalist issues terpsichorean instructions via soul shout, which kind of go on for a while, but are worth wading through for Roman Carter’s admonition that while doing the mashed potato, “don’t slip in the gravy”, which any soul fan will tell you are indeed words to live by.
The Carter Brothers went on to record dozens of 45s for a variety of labels, and have maintained their popularity in Europe and Japan.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back on Wednesday with something funky.
Peace
Larry
Check out the Funky16Corners Store at Cafe Press
PS Head over to Iron Leg for a new mix of 60s pop.
Funky16Corners 
December 1, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Hmm, my B-side is a song called “Booze In The Bottle.” Sounds like you may have gotten the better B-side. Nice. “Booze…” is a slow moving but Soulful Blues number.