Stax & Volt Recordings 1969 - 1974

For an excellent, detailed account of this neglected group and their recordings, read Mark Barry's very thorough review of this CD reissue. Unlike Mark, I had never heard anything by The Newcomers previously, but like him I have confidence in the Ace label to put out excellent reissues and this one definitely qualifies as excellent. Man, hard to believe that a group this good was not more popular, or in this case, were not marketed better. This is top-shelf soul music!Perhaps one of the problems that the label faced was how to properly market this group. Listening to the songs on this CD I find it very hard to pigeonhole their sound. Sweet soul music and excellent harmonies, but they remind me of many different groups. On some of their early singles they bear a resemblance to the Jackson 5, while on other tracks the tunes remind me of the Four Tops, and others songs bear an almost uncanny resemblance to mid-70s O'Jays. Not a bad thing, right? Perhaps one reason for the variance in styles was the sheer number of different songwriters used to pen these tunes; names such as Bettye Crutcher, Mack Rice, Melvin Davis, Allen Jones, and several others.But no matter who the Newcomers might remind the listener of, the songs are almost all keepers. And these "demos" on the CD are high quality recordings too. Many thanks to Ace for resurrecting these old recordings from Stax & Volt, all from 1969-1974. Fans of this era of soul music should give this one a listen. Excellent stuff!

I HAD A 45 FROM THEM FROM MANY YEARS AGO. i ENJOYED THIS CD.

it's too bad listening to a group that you never heard of, & they are good!!!!!

HAPPY WOW THANK YOU