Various Artists Country Funk Volume 3 1975-1982 (Red & Blue Swirl)

Release Date: 08/06/2021
Format: 2 X LP
Label: Light In The Attic Records
Release type: Red & Blue Swirl Double Vinyl LP Pressing

Over a decade ago, friend, music supervisor, and DJ Zach Cowie reached out to Light in the Attic with the idea of producing a comp showcasing the funkier side of all things country. Zach envisioned artists like Bobbie Gentry, Jim Ford and Bob Darin hanging with Link Wray at his Three Track Shack. Soon after, he helped birth Country Funk 1969-1975, Volume 1, which landed in 2012, followed by Volume 2 in 2014. Now, years later, we’re happy to say that the reigns have been passed by Zach to Jason Morgan & Patrick McCarthy (who co-produced Vols. 1 & 2) to revisit the sound for a third installment. So without further ado…

The horse still bucks, the band still funks, and well…the fire still burns.

That’s right—Country Funk is back.

In the summer of 2012, a new sound blew in from the dusty desert. It was a sound difficult to pin down, to codify; a sound that, like some wild horse, resisted one’s grasp. But this was no trend, no flash-in-the-pan movement, no shotgun marriage of styles, no ma’am. This sound went back decades, back to the latter half of the 1960s and early 1970s when adventurous artists started to blend country hoedown harmony with the elation of gospel, the sexual thrust of the blues and a touch of inner-city grit. This was a new sound with a simple name: Country Funk.

Country Funk 1969-1975, first released in 2012 and co-produced by Zach Cowie, Patrick McCarthy and Matt Sullivan, brought together a disparate group of artists that were neither bound by geography nor a shared ideology, but connected through the simple feel of their songs. Country Funk is alternatively playful and melancholic, slow jammin’ and booty-shakin’. It’s a sound both studio slick and barroom raw, as evident in the artists featured on Volume I: Johnny Adams, Mac Davis, Dale Hawkins, Tony Joe White, Bobbie Gentry, Larry Jon Wilson, and many others. Just two years later, we chased Volume I with a new collection of songs for Country Funk 1967-1974 (LITA 116, 2014). Volume II didn’t let up, dealing out all the loose-talking and lap-steel twangin’ one could handle. Heavy hitters like Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and J.J. Cale shared barstools with the lesser-known voices of Bill Wilson, Donnie Fritts and Thomas Jefferson Kaye.

With Country Funk Volume III 1975-1982 (LITA 194) we’re here to say there’s more funk left in the trunk yet. This time around, the jeans are tighter, the hair is bigger and the disco ball spins along to a country-synth beat. Produced and compiled by Jason Morgan (Bay Area DJ/collector) and Patrick McCarthy (co-producer/compiler of Volume I & II), the tracklist features regulars Dolly Parton, J.J. Cale, Larry Jon Wilson and Tony Joe White (whose track is released here for the first time) alongside new faces like Steven Soles, Gary & Sandy, Conway Twitty, Travis Wammack, Billy Swan, Rob Galbraith, Brian Hyland, and so many more. As the 1970s began to wane and the 1980s approached, the Country Funk pallet expanded to include disco beats, heavy Moog synth bass lines and more clavinet than you could shake a stick at. Volume III shows artists continuing to buck traditional country tropes and production while embracing modern soul, disco, and coked-up 80s synth-pop. This is the true soundtrack of the Urban Cowboy. Saddle up, partners.

1. Steven Soles – Shake The Dust
2. J. J. Cale – Nobody But You
3. Conway Twitty – Night Fires
4. Eddie Rabbit – One And Only One
5. Jerry Reed – Rhythm And Blues
6. Dolly Parton – Sure Thing
7. Billy Swan – Oliver Swan
8. Rob Galbraith – I Got The Fever
9. Travis Wammack – Do Me
10. Larry Jon Wilson – I Betcha Heaven’s On A Dirt Road
11. Gary & Sandy – Gonna Let You Have It
12. Brian Hyland – Hale To The Man
13. Tony Joe White – Alone At Last
14. Ronnie Milsap – Get It Up
15. Delbert McClinton – Shot From The Saddle
16. Terri Gibbs – Rich Man
17. Dennis Linde – Down To The Station