Product Review

Ace's excavation of the Ric and Ron catalogues continues, bringing the best of 1960s New Orleans R&B and soul back into circulation. This CD is devoted to the complete Ric/Ron catalogues of two R&B luminaries, neither of whom recorded enough material for Ric/Ron to fill a whole disc on their own. Many tracks have never been on CD before and all of them are presented here from fresh transfers of the original sources. Tommy Ridgley and Bobby Mitchell's careers began some years before they signed to Joe Ruffino's labels, but they cut some of their most enduring sides during their respective Ric/Ron tenures. They demonstrate how well New Orleans dealt with the transition of black American music from R&B to soul.