Listen/Download -Faye Ross – Faith Hope and Trust
Listen/Download -Faye Ross – You Ain’t Right
Greetings all.
I hope the middle of the week finds you all well.
I almost wasn’t going to do a post today, as I am up to my ass in the proverbial alligators, but I managed to get the little Corners off to dreamland in a timely manner, so I sit here, typing, digi-ma-tizing some vinyl and being otherwise productive.
The tunes I bring you today are both sides of a mid-60s (I’m guessing) Los Angeles area 45 by a singer named Faye Ross. Aside from the fact that Ms. Ross recorded at least one other 45 for the Trevor label, I have been able to discover nothing about her.
The a-side ‘Faith Hope and Trust’ is a great Northern Soul-ish banger, the flip a nicely produced, bluesy torch song.
Naturally, as is always the case, when I can’t turn up anything on a performer, I start digging into the other info on the label to see what I can find.
As the label itself goes, Round Records was probably based in the vicinity of Los Angeles, California. I’ve found a couple of direct and indirect connections to the LA-based Kris label, but aside from the three Round 45s I own, by Jimmie Preacher Ellis, BW Souls and Faye Ross, little else.
‘Faith Hope and Trust’ was written by Kent Harris. Harris was born in Oklahoma and moved west in the 50s. Under the name Boogaloo and His Gallant Crew he recorded the 45 ‘Clothesline’ b/w ‘Cops and Robbers’ in 1956. Both sides of that record would be redone (and apparently unfairly appropriated) as big R&B hits, first as ‘Cops and Robbers’ by Bo Diddley, and in 1960 the Coasters retitled ‘Clothesline’ as ‘Shopping for Clothes’ (originally credited to Leiber and Stoller, but later shows up with Harris’ name in the credits).
Harris went on to marry and work extensively with LA soul diva Ty Karim, writing and producing many of her records through the 60s.
As I said, I haven’t been able to find any info on Faye Ross. She had a great voice, and the sound of ‘You Ain’t Right’ suggests to me that she was as comfortable singing the blues as she was with straight-ahead soul.
It’s a cool record, and if any of you have anything to add, please drop me a line.
Peace
Larry
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Funky16Corners 
October 22, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Very nice song.”Round Records” is definetely not the most Google friendly name! I was trying to find something this weekend for that BW Souls 45 and nothing showed up.