Dave Hoekstra of the Chicago Sun-Times provides details on a fact most people already know about Barack Obama - he's a soul guy, not a hip-hop fan. Hoekstra takes it deeper to examine his connection to the music made by Chicagoans.
He notes:
“Keep on Pushing” gets a shoutout on the “Soul Music Lovers For Obama” section of the official campaign site my.barackobama.com, which states, “From the inner cities to the suburbs, Sen. Obama unites us like the music we love.”
Jerry Butler, whom Obama consulted with twice during his rise in Illinois politics, says his favorite message song is “Choice of Colors,” released by Curtis Mayfield in 1969.
“In substance and in terms of the condition of the people, ‘Choice of Colors’ was head and shoulders above a lot of the songs,” Butler said. “ ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ was so poignant and prophetic.”
Chicago disc jockey Herb Kent had Obama on his Saturday afternoon “Battle of the Best” show twice.  “About four years ago I get this call that Sen. Obama wants to be on my show,” Kent said. “I had never heard of him. I think it was a way of getting him known to the public.
“The second time he was on he had Sam Cooke and I had Lou Rawls. He said, ‘How can I win with this old stuff?’ Then he went on the air and started appealing [Cooke] to all the ladies going to church. He played Sam Cooke songs and whupped my butt. I don’t get beat too often. He was just that smart. He wasn’t like he didn’t know Sam, it was, ‘Why do you want to go that far back?’
“He quotes soul music a lot. He’s not a hip-hop person.”

Having made their way through doo-wop, the early '60s folk scare and neo-operatic pop, PBS is turning to Philly soul to fill its coffers.
On Saturday, a New Jersey  concert headlined by Jerry Butler, the Delfonics, Harold Melvin's Blue Notes, the Intruders and the O'Jays will filmed in hi-def for broadcast on PBS stations and, soon thereafter, sold on DVD. Concert, taking place at the Borgata Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, will also feature Bunny Sigler, G.C. Cameron, the Soul Survivors, Jean Carne, Russell Thompkins Jr. & the New Stylistics, the Three Degrees and Bill Jolly.
PBS will premiere the first one-hour special "Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia" as part of December's  Pledge Week with repeat broadcasts slated to run through 2009.  The "Love Train" Pledge Week broadcasts will offer PBS subscribers the "Love Train" companion DVD as well as selections from the Legacy Recordings Philadelphia International Recordings reissue catalog.  The second one-hour special will be scheduled for pledge broadcast in 2009.
The "Love Train: Sound of Philadelphia" DVD (SD and Blu-ray) will include bonus tracks, interviews with the featured artists, and a documentary on the history of Kenny  Gamble & Leon Huff.
While the evening will naturally be devoted to the hits, one  can hope the Three Degrees will perform one of the greatest "jail bait rejects pass from married man" songs ever record.

Eddie Floyd is headed back to the future.
The soul legend known for "Knock on Wood" has recorded songs he wrote for other artists in the 1950s and '60s for his return to the Stax label.
Some date back to his years with the Falcons (“You’re So Fine,” “Since You’ve Been Gone”) and his earliest solo days (“Never Get Enough of Your Love”). Among the songs he wrote for other Stax artists but never recorded until now: “’Til My Back Ain’t Got No Bone” (William Bell); “I Will Always Have Faith In You” (Carla Thomas) and “You Don’t Know What You Mean To Me” (Sam & Dave). Also on the the disc is “I Don’t Want to Be With Nobody But You,” which Dorothy Moore recorded on her 1976 "Misty Blue" album.he also has a couple of new tunes.
Album, titled "Eddie Loves You So," will be released on July 29 on Stax Records.
Cool as that is, the powers that be should know the world will be a better place if they afford the same opportunity to fellow Stax vet William Bell, a man who still sings with the power and passion of a young man getting his heart broken.   

The overdue induction of two architects of Philadelphia soul into the Rock and Hall of Fame syncs nicely with the 45th anniversary of the meeting of producer-songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.
For the uninitiated, Gamble & Huff personified soul music in the 1970s, created a distinct energy and sultriness in the sound that crossed over consistently in the days of less regimented radio. They took the Motown model, which was crumbling as the label shifted to L.A. from Detroit, and extended it to encompass albums as well as singles on their Philadelphia International Records label. G&H made the soul equivalent of Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” with the O’Jays’ “Ship Ahoy,” an album filled with lengthy, sonically shifting tracks that connected together thematically. Disco was their commercial downfall, but the best of their songs have not only aged gracefully, ther commercial vitality has become enhanced over time.
Sony BMG’s Legacy Recordings, which inked a deal with Gamble and Huff last year, is preparing to re-release their Philadelphia International recordings in droves. Gamble and Huff,  being inducted Monday as non-performers in the Hall, have been tubthumping the catalog since Grammy week, when a reception for them attracted the likes of Jimmy Jam, Elvis Costello and Billy Paul as the party turned into a performance, demonstration and master class.
This week saw the release of a hits and misses packages: "The Sound of Philadelphia: Gamble & Huff's Greatest Hits" features tracks by the O'Jays, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Billy Paul, the Three Degrees and others; "Conquer The World: The Lost Soul of Philadelphia International Records" features lesser-known PIR artists such as Bunny Sigler, Ruth McFadden, the Soul Devaliants and Love Committee.
“One of the unique things about Gamble and me, we tailored (songs) for specific artists,” Huff says. “It was time to work for Billy Paul, time for the Three Degrees. Everything was specifically for a certain artist. The publishing company was called Tailor Made, that’s how specific it was.”
The doors opened by Cameo-Parkway, the first famous Philly record company in the rock era, were filled literally and figuratively by Gamble and Huff. Gamble credits the C-P model as a key to their structure; after their early success, Philadelphia Int’l purchased the building that housed Cameo-Parkway and made it the PIR headquarters.
“Cameo-Parkway really was a major force with Chubby Checker, Dee Dee Sharp,” Gamble notes. “We grew up on that environment. Now, every time I go in, I swear I see the ghosts (of the former stars)."

No surprise in the Nielsen SoundScan chart as Bruce Springsteen takes No. 1 and third quarter releases start to fade.
50 Cent's "Curtis" has fallen out of the top 10 to No. 17 in its fourth week; Barry Manilow's "Greatest Songs of the Seventies" has gone from a No. 4 debut to No. 41 in three weeks; and Iron & Wine's "Shepherd's Dog"plummeted 30 slots to No. 54 in its second stanza.
Besides strong showings for the strong album from Springsteen and the ferociously fine John Fogerty effort "Revival," some other good albums made their debuts in the lower reaches oft he chart.
PJ Harvey's "White Chalk" sold 13,000 copies to open at No. 65.
The Cult's return, "Born Into This," started at No. 70, also selling 13,000.
Greatest hits sets from Mick Jagger (No. 77) and Chicago (No. 100) sold 12,000 and 8,000, respectively.
And Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings's "100 Days 100 Nights" sold 4,000 to premiere at No. 194. The Dap-Kings, out of Brooklyn, work as Amy Winehouse's band in the States.Would Ms. Winehouse ever dare to let Ms. Jones open a show for her and take the chance of being blown off the stage?

The documentary on Otis Redding, "Dreams To Remember: The Legacy Of Otis Redding," will receive its world theatrical premiere at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on Oct. 8.
Screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Zelma Redding (Otis’ widow), Wayne Jackson of the Mar-Keys, Stax historian Rob Bowman and the documentary’s directors David Peck and Phil Galloway.
Screening coincides with the release of "Dreams To Remember" DVD.
Redding died in a plane crash on Dec. 10, 1967.
"Dreams" includes a number of complete performances including  “Pain In My Heart,” “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,”  “Try A Little Tenderness” and “Respect.”
Following the premiere of "Dreams to Remember" and the Otis panel will be a screening of the recently discovered Stax/Volt Revue Live in Norway, 1967, featuring Redding, Sam & Dave, Booker T & the MGs, Eddie Floyd, Arthur Conley and the Mar-Keys.

It was the best show at SXSW and here's to hoping it is the best show of the summer at the Hollywood Bowl. Stax Records, the label that gave Memphis its musical identity in the 1960s and remains a standard-bearer for Southern soul, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with concerts celebrations, reissues, a PBS documentary and a revival of the label by its new owners, Concord Records.
The Hollywood Bowl will be home Wednesday to the show that was previewed at Antone's during SXSW and put Booker T.  and the MG's behind two underrated legends, William Bell and Eddie Floyd.Isaac Hayes emceed that show - he continues to recover from a stroke - and he is expected to perform at the Bowl. Naturally, they will be performing songs by the label's greatest artist, Otis Redding, and it is highly likely that some Sam and Dave material will be thrown in as well.
For all the giddiness that surrounds the celebration of Stax and its sister label Volt, there is still a scar that dates back to Warner-owned Atlantic - and then CBS Records - driving the label into the ground in the early 1970s and the city of Memphis refusing to do anything to save the label's old HQ, a shuttered movie theater dubbed Soulsville U.S.A. Memphis spent the last 30 years of the 20th century attempting to recover from its place as the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and the Stax legacy paid a price; the city seemingly wanted to wash away its black history, attracting the tourists with Graceland and Sun Studios. In the last few years, with the revival of Beale Street as blues-driven tourist outlet, Memphis has come to embrace its place in soul music history and even launched a Stax museum.
Some of the blame for the vanishing of Stax, too, lies with the former catalog owner, Saul Zaentz and Fantasy Records, which provided little followup to the label's brilliant three box sets that brought together every A and B side ever issued on 45 by the label. Those three spectacular box sets, buoyed by Rob Bowman's expert liner notes, are a model for any label attempting a completist approach to an era - and for a few years in the early 1990s, there were soul music fans wondering where they would find the Mad-Lads, the Soul Children or Barbara Lewis. (Rufus Thomas did actually enjoy a bit of a revival at the time.)
Best part of the 50th is getting Bell centerstage with a band equal to his talent. He continues to record, but the lack of financing is always apparent in the sound of his efforts. If there is one musician from Stax's past that should be ushered back to the label, it is he. And Wednesday, not only will we get Hayes, Bell and Floyd, Mable John, the former Raelette and sister of Little Willie John, will sing as well.