In recent days, we’ve turned the spotlight on a quartet of classic soul reissues, two each from Big Break Records (Arthur Prysock’s All My Life and Caston and Majors’ self-titled Motown album) and SoulMusic Records (Nancy Wilson’s Can’t Take My Eyes Off You/Now I’m a Woman and Jerry Butler’s Love’s on the Menu/Suite for the Single Girl).  But those are hardly the only recent releases from these two imprints of the Cherry Red Group. Big Break has offered two titles, both from 1979 and both with ties to legendary southern soul incubator…

A recent trio of releases from Cherry Red’s SoulMusic Records imprint is sure to get the pulses racing of ’70s and ‘80s soul fans. Freda Payne’s second album for Capitol Records, 1978’s Supernatural High, followed 1977’s Stares and Whispers, also the recipient of a past SoulMusic reissue.  Skip Scarborough (Earth Wind and Fire, Dionne Warwick, Phyllis Hyman) took the production helm from Motown’s Frank Wilson and wrote a few tracks for the project.  Like many of Payne’s best albums, Supernatural explored numerous sides of the versatile artist.  Freda had, after all, been…

Stephanie Mills’ very first LP was titled Movin’ in the Right Direction. And although the 1975 LP on the ABC-Paramount label didn’t launch her career as a recording artist with a bang, its title was certainly apt. A few years later, the label would be 20th Century Fox instead of Paramount, and Mills would skyrocket to superstardom in the disco era. Her hitmaking records for 20th Century Fox Records are being compiled by Hip-o Select for the August 23 release of Feel the Fire: The 20th Century Collection. This 2-CD anthology brings…