EVER-SOUL

We are proud to announce our new imprint, EVER-SOUL Records, extending a careful selection of timeless vintage recordings to our customers. Daptone Records house of soul is musician-owned and run, as much as we see our reflection in the sound of bygone powerhouses like Stax and Motown, we also feel special empathy and affection for the smaller independent soul artist and effort. Daptone owes a special debt and feels a warm kinship to the example and aesthetic of these past artists and their recordings. So, Daptone goes forward, anxious to use this new arm of our company to tell the story of some of Soulful music’s little known sounds that continue to guide us today.
Darrell Banks
"Don't Know What To Do" b/w "My Love Is Reserved"
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When it comes to sixties soul music, Memphis vs. Detroit equals raw vs. smooth, gritty vs. slick,down-home vs. uptown, right? At least that's the received wisdom. So how do you explain these two polished yet gut-wrenching tracks, originally released on the Memphis-based Stax/Volt label, by Detroiter Darrell Banks. You can star t by throwing that tired Detroit-vs.-Memphis cliché right out the window. As it turns out, the 1969 LP on which "Don’t Know What to Do" and "My Love Is Reserved" benefited from a bit of the magic of both cities. READ MORE...
Eddie & Ernie
"Bullets Don't Have Eyes" b/w "In These Very Tender Moments"
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Sometime in the early 1960s Hank Mullen’s friend and fellow Buffalonian Carl LaRue, an organ player, traveled with his group (Carl LaRue and His Crew) all the way to Phoenix, Arizona, where he’d secured a steady gig as the house band at the local Zanzibar club. Soon after starting the job, he would invite a young (16yr & 19yr old) vocal duo to perform some of their original songs in front of his band during shows. Ernest Johnson Jr. and Eddie (Edgar) William Campbell were eager to make it in music and for the next 10 odd years would attempt to do so. They managed to record and release a handful of singles across varied imprints spread throughout the United States, from South Carolina to Chicago, from New York to Phoenix. One of the pairs singles, “Time Waits for No One”, hit 1 on New York’s WWRL, which subsequently landed them on the bill at the Apollo, appearing alongside soul heavyweight’s gene Chandler, Wilson Pickett and the Temptations. Through ups and downs, none of their pair’s recordings ever served to catapult them to greater fame and sadly in the early ‘70s, Eddie’s premature death would close the door on their partnership.
"Bullets Don't Have Eyes" with alternate B-side "You Make my Life a Sunny Day" also available exclusively on our website only. Limited copies so get yours now!! CLICK HERE

Hank "Soulman" Mullen
He Upset Your Dreams b/w Listen
DAP 1035 (ES-101)
NOW AVAILABLE
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Our debut release, Hank Mullen’s ‘He Upset Your Dreams’ b/w ‘Listen’, is a record for which we have special affection . . . The A side is an up-tempo Grover concerning the saddest subject of all; not one, but two broken hearts. The Avengers formed in Buffalo, NY in the mid ‘60s and toured as a dynamic show with three very different vocalists: Hank Mullen, Moe Jones and Carlena Weaver; they released two singles in fall of 1970 on the homegrown/financed Audel imprint. Through then manager, all around music hustler and Macon, Georgia native James Reese, the Avengers traveled to Capricorn Records Studio (Macon, GA) for a session in October of ’70. “Listen” & “He Upset Your Dreams” were penned by two staff writers: Earl Simms & Alan Osborne for then Walden Artists and Productions, under the publishing Redwal Music (Redwal was formed in 1965 by Otis Redding, Phil & Alan Walden. Earl Simms was first Otis Redding’s, later Arthur Conley’s road manager and wrote Conley’s 1968 hit, ‘Funky Street’.)
In the ‘70s the group toured the Midwest and the South as backing band for Eddie Floyd, Arthur Conley, Betty Wright and Betty Swan. Carlena additionally has a lone 45 on William Nunn’s MO-DO imprint and spent time singing with the Ikettes. Sadly, soon after the records release, Hank Mullen, then in his mid twenties, died tragically due to a heart attack.