With a smart assist from Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples transforms Funkadelic’s “Can You Get To That” from a sing-along slab of greasy-good uplift into this Americana-inflected groover.

The best peace, love and harmony anthem of 1985 didn’t come from the composing pen of Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, wasn’t produced by Quincy Jones and not sung by hordes of rock music’s biggest stars.

The last recordings of an early rock legend had none of the crunchy grit of “Dizzy Miss Lizzy.” Instead, Larry Williams reimagined his sound (and with “Bony Moronie,” one of his most famous songs) as ass-shaking 1970s funk bombs.

This is a first-time CD reissue in any form of Sam The Sham’s fine 1971 solo album, originally released on Atlantic Records and produced by the legendary Tom Dowd at Criteria Studios in Miami

If your complaint about Michael McDonald’s brand of city-slicker soul, dating all the way back to the Doobie Brothers, was that it lacked a certain grease-popping earthiness, “Judgement Day” certainly bolsters the argument.

Long a shadowy figure, Shuggie Otis had become known more for his absence than for psychedelic soul successes like 1974′s Inspiration Information and writing songs like Brothers Johnson’s No. 5 1977 hit “Strawberry Letter 23″

This song, a new live interpolation of a Miles Davis cut from 1961′s Someday My Prince Will Come, might be the best argument Nicholas Payton has ever made for the use of the term Black American Music (or #BAM) instead of jazz.

Big musical weekend in these parts. Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes will be visiting the New Hampshire seacoast and me & TheWife™ are more than ready.

It’s a song about a certain day. This day. December 21, 2012. William Pulliam, aka Darondo, is a soul and funk singer from the San Francisco Bay area who cut several sides in the early 70s, but only three singles were released.

From the quiet affirmations of this album’s opening stringed overture, George Woods sets a mood of heartfelt expectancy. Don’t get too comfy, though.