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Sweet-soul music, rare, pure and done the down-home classic way is the order of the day on Atlantic Unearthed: Soul Sisters, a compilation showcasing some of the finest B-side, rare, and never-heard tracks from Atlantic Records' female roster in the 1960s/early '70s.

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Compiled by the proclaimed "British Ambassador of Soul," David Nathan, this set features well known singers such as Aretha Franklin and Patti Labelle as well as lesser-known, but equally powerful, artists such as Margie Joseph, Doris Troy and Esther Philips. The majority of the songs found in this compilation are rare, in fact, ironically, although recorded with all-American singers in the States, many have never been released in the U.S. until this CD. Franklin's version of "My Way" falls into this category as it was only available on an Italian compilation.

Drama transcends decades as Mary Wells lays down the law to the other woman on "Hands Off My Baby," while Dee Dee Sharpe waxes straight scandalous with "My Best Friend's Man." And while the majority of the songs are beautifully and well executed (read "I Got To Love Somebody's Baby" by Judy Clay) a few of the vocals sound like something from the early weeks of American Idol, such as Dee Dee Warwick's cracked version of  the classic tune "Rescue Me." I had to scratch my head as to why Nathan included this, but perhaps the "unearthing" of enough rare female songs to fill out the collection was more difficult.

Overall, Atlantic Unearthed: Soul Sisters misses the sheer power of well-known female vocals from this time period... perhaps because the strong female vocals were more likely to become popular, a good number of these tracks come off as syrupy. Either way, listening to this set, and its male counterpart Atlantic Unearthed: Soul Brothers, is like stepping back in time. Although many of these singers are unknown to most except soul historians and hardcore fans, this set does a great job of introducing new generations to classic soul.

Download:  "I Got To Love Somebody's Baby" "Hands Off My Baby" "What A Man" "I Ain't That Easy To Lose"

  To purchase CDs, click on the cover art or title link. To legally download, click on the iTunes logo. If you do not have iTunes, you can download it here by clicking the "download iTunes" logo above.