THE LAST SOUL COMPANY is a 6-CD box set commemorating Malaco Records' 30th Anniversary, including booklet and a 45,000-word essay by Rob Bowman.
THE LAST SOUL COMPANY was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Album Notes.
Compilation producers: Tommy Couch, Wolf Stephenson, Rob Bowman.
Digitally remastered by Jerry Masters and Kent Bruce.
Young Mississippi entrepreneurs Tommy Couch and Wolf Stephenson started the Malaco label in the late '60s, and over the decades they amassed an impressive catalog of soul, blues, and gospel, including stellar recordings by unknowns as well as by highly respected artists. THE LAST SOUL COMPANY is an attempt to sum up what Couch and Stephenson have done for the roots music of America's southern region. The breadth of material included on this label retrospective, spanning three decades of music, is nearly as impressive for its diversity as for its high quality.
The collection moves from the stark, uncompromising blues of Mississippi Fred McDowell to the salacious, funky R&B of King Floyd to the string-laden soul balladry of G.C. Cameron. Malaco never got stuck in the past, so we also get the synth-driven R&B of Formula V and a Z.Z. Hill cut with a drum track that sounds suspiciously electronic, but it's all part of the soulful, idiosyncratic mise-en-scene that is Malaco Records.
Professional Reviews
Vibe (4/99, p.186) - "...the last real source for home-style blues and soul....Malaco's influence echoes through the gold-and-platinum-gilded hallways of southern hip hop..."
