Funk label True Soul Records gets tribute concert

The funk comes to the Arkansas Sounds Concert Series on Friday during the Tribute to True Soul Records, the Little Rock label started by Lee Anthony that was home to many of the city's premier funk and soul groups in the late '60s and '70s.

It will be an evening of music, memories and looking toward the future, as musicians associated with the label perform and a panel discussion is held.

"This whole thing is a labor of love for me," says Tim Anthony, the 48-year-old son of Lee and founder of long-running Little Rock band Afrodesia. "This is the show I've been waiting to see, and we're going to tell a few stories, too. I'm hoping the audience can walk away with a little history, a few anecdotes and some good insight and advice on how we as an artistic community can galvanize."

Among the performers will be bassist Thomas East, guitarist John Craig, saxophonist Charles McCollum and others who recorded for the label. They will play with what Anthony calls "some of Little Rock's finest musicians, who will serve as a kind of True Soul Revue Band. We're going to play some of the True Soul releases, and we do have a performance planned by one of the original bands, Soul, Mind and Body."

DJ Swift will emcee and spin True Soul songs. Footage of vintage performances from the label's artists will be shown and there will be a segment honoring True Soul artists who have passed away, Anthony says.

True Soul was started in 1968 by the elder Anthony, who was an art teacher and owned Soul Brothers Records, one of the first black-owned record stores in Arkansas. The shop was opened in 1966 at what is now 1601 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive in Little Rock.

A two-CD, 32-song compilation called True Soul: Deep Sounds From the Left of Stax, was released in 2011 by Los Angeles-based Now-Again Records and also featured a pair of DVDs with vintage live performances from bands on the label. The collection's subtitle is 60s & 70s Soul, Funk, Disco, Party Rap and Boogie From Arkansas's Legendary Independent Label.

"That definitely gave a boost to the notoriety of the label," Tim Anthony says of the collection. "It has done a lot to bring the story forward."

In an interview with Now-Again's Eothen Alapatt, Lee Anthony said, "See, I fell in love with recording when I was in the seventh grade. Our teacher brought a tape recorder to school and let us record our voices on it. Then we convinced him to let us sing on it. From then on -- it's like if a hip-hop group went into the studio and heard their voices on tape today -- it started these little wheels turning in my head."

While running Soul Brothers, Lee Anthony, who grew up in Forrest City, made trips to Memphis to seek out records. It was there that he befriended famed producer Willie Mitchell of Hi Records, producer and engineer John Fry at Ardent Studios and Sam Phillips of Sun Records.

Inspired by the sounds of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, David Porter, Booker T. and the MGs and others coming from Memphis' famed Stax Studios, Anthony gathered a stable of musicians to capture soul music in Little Rock.

"I had the studio, some folks had the talent to write, some to play. Anyone that had a good song, we recorded them," he told Alapatt.

Through the late '60s and into the '70s, Lee Anthony recorded groups like York Wilborn's Psychedelic Six, Ren Smith, The Leaders, The Conspiracy, Albert Smith, Le'Chance, Portrait and many others while running the record store and teaching.

Soul Brothers Records closed in 1999 after Lee Anthony was shot during a robbery. He continued to teach art at Little Rock Central High School and is now retired.

Lee Anthony will be at the tribute, though he's not looking for the spotlight.

"My dad is not one for fanfare," Tim says. "That was the hardest part [of organizing the tribute]. I'm one of his biggest fans, and I'm just thankful to even be a part of his legacy. I told him that we're gonna tell some stories, we're gonna have some fun and put the focus on the music, because that's really what it was about. If there was no music, there would be no True Soul."

Weekend on 02/22/2018