1974 Earl Carter And The Fantastic 6 “I Want To Make It With You” on Princess Records

The only release from these cats out of Roanoke, and the only soul release on Princess, which otherwise put out country singles. Which on the whole does not sound too promising, although what sounds and what is are often at odds with one another, and that’s definitely the case here. This record rules! Yup, I’m a sucker for smooth-but-gritty ensemble harmony with tight soul action filigreed with an edge of funk, let alone records with tracks like “Shake Your Poo Poo” and “When I Finally Get To Phoenix (??)” on it…there’s some seriously killer soul-wah clean guitar leads, and although Earl and the boys often are simply ripping James Brown off blind, even to the degree of Bobby Williams, and there are occasionally some annoying novelty vocals, other times they sound a lot like Nat King Cole crossed with your favorite local gospel choir, because when Earl stops trying to be a Sex Machine, he has a genuinely wonderful voice. This is just a great local down-home oddity with some real talent on it, especially the moneycut “Didn’t We”. Oh yea.