She started this mess.

She started it last time, so it only makes sense that she starts it this time as well! When Soul Shower (the original) started back in 2005, I had just begun looking beyond Motown, Stax, Hi, Philly International, etc. to find those soul artists that slipped past me, not surprisingly, growing up in a suburban city in the Midwest. Unlike many audio bloggers, I didn't start crate digging until well after I began exploring the world of CD reissues. How could vinyl sound better, I thought? Oh, how naive I was...anyway. My first outlet for non-mainstream soul music, if you will, was through Dusty Groove. Now, I lucked out in finding Dusty Groove as my first outlet, because I still use them, and if you're unfamiliar you're doing yourself a disservice by not regularly visiting their site (but, if you don't have extra money for records, then it's probably best you stay away from there). Back then, and still now, their website is filled with great CDs, but at the time I was intrigued more by the concept of reissued LPs. I thought, why not buy one?

Well the first reissue LP I bought was Alice Clark's self-titled 1972 release on Mainstream Records...from Dusty Groove. She was my first real introduction to amazing soul music sung by someone I had never heard of, and it seemed like many other people hadn't heard of either. But as soon as my needle dropped on the LP...I was in love. "I Keep It Hid" is the first track on the album, and it's a song that can easily be placed in the "Sunday Morning Soul" category--a category I do not take lightly (it's not as deep as you may think, simply put it's just a great song to listen to on a lazy Sunday morning). Anyway, after Alice Clark the floodgates opened for me, and the amount of soul music that I still don't know about amazes me (and saddens me, to a certain degree).

To give you some background on Alice, well, much like my first post in 2005, I don't really have any. Here's what I do know...

Northern Soul fans probably know her from her song "You Hit Me (Right Where It Hurt Me)," a burner of a tune that was released on Warner subsidiary Seven Arts in about 1966. The flip to that record is "Heaven's Will (Must Be Obeyed)," which I've never heard, but would sure like to. Randomly, I found out just a few days ago that Alice recorded another single in 1968 called "You Got A Deal," backed with "Say You'll (Never Leave Me)," released by a label called Rainy Day Records. I've heard the A-side to that, but not the B-side. I want to buy both 45s, but neither seems to be readily available anywhere. Oh well, I'll get my hands on them some day! If you know any other releases by Alice Clark, please drop some knowledge in the comments and I'll include it in the post.

The track linked below is called "It Takes Too Long To Learn To Live Alone," and is just one of many great tracks off of her self-titled album on Mainstream (available on LP or CD reissue!). Enjoy.

Alice Clark - It Takes Too Long To Learn To Live Alone (1972)

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