The Golden Toadstools - Silly Savage (Minaret 138)

Silly Savage

Hey everybody, check it out! I came across this one in the stacks the other day, and knew right away it was destined for the A side. I have no clue who the Golden Toadstools were (or for that matter, Merlin Jones and Wayne Branham), but this good time sice of funk sure kicks it up a notch!

The Minaret label was founded in Nashville in the early sixties by Herb Shucher. It was bought by another Nashville record man, Finley Duncan in 1966.

By the end of the decade, Finley had hooked up with the legendary Shelby Singleton and, using some of the money Singleton had earned from the smash hit Harper Valley PTA in 1968, they built the Playground Recording Studio in Valpraiso, Florida the following year. Great records by the likes of Big John Hamilton and Doris Allen would follow, and the studio's output remains in demand to this day.

The good news is that Playground has just undergone a major restoration, and is poised to get back into the game of recording great Southern Soul once again. During the renovations, new studio chief Jim Lancaster discovered hours and hours of unreleased master tapes amid the debris, and has just issued the first volume of material culled from those tapes, Soul Resurrection. You should go out and buy one right now. It's the real deal.

I'm not sure if 'Silly Savage' was recorded at Playground or not, but it has the same good time vibe as the 'hidden track' on the Playground CD... that one's about worms.

It's all good!