Soul Togetherness USA

50% OFF STUSA TICKETS!!!!

Thalia Hall will be offering, for a limited time, 50% off both Weekend Passes and Single Day Event Tickets to Soul Togetherness!!! Purchase now via www.thaliahallchicago.com using the promo code "STUSA15"

Great news for weekender attendees!

A little over a year ago, Chicago lost a friend and true lover of soul music, Bob Abrahamian. Bob was an historian, collector and radio host dedicated to preserving the memory and efforts made by Chicago musicians in the realm of group harmony and soul. On his radio program, Sitting in the Park, he tracked down and interviewed hundreds of lost and forgotten artists from our cities musical past, bringing their stories and their music to new listeners across the globe.

Bob always took the time to support us by DJing our events, to everyone's delight, and was always there to share his stories with anyone he could.

Since his passing, an effort has been made by his family to archive and preserve the thousands upon thousands of soul, rnb and harmony 45s from his expansive collection through the Bob Abrahamian Charitable Fund, and it is our great honor to be able to contribute 100% of the profits from our weekender towards that cause.

Even if you aren't able to make the event to support, we encourage any who can to make any donations possible via the link below:

https://forms.dwollalabs.com/bob-abrahamian-charitable-fund

Or simply, take some time to listen to the archived episodes of his radio shows and see what kind of impact he had to the lives of the people that he interviewed:

http://sittinginthepark.com/interviews.html

Wow, the weekender kicks off TOMMORROW, and we are down to our final DJ Spotlight. We are happy to have the opportunity to partner up with the fine folks at Disco Illusion to host our Kick Off party at Punch House tomorrow. These guys are holding it down in Chicago on the modern soul/boogie tip ... really right up our alley.

Disco Illusion is a weekly party @ Smart Bar w/ residents Tone B. Nimble (All Natural/Al-Tone Edits) Darryn Jones (Fatty Fatty Phonographics) & Solson (A Love Supreme/Disco Illusion) who all have a passion for vinyl. Their weekly party focuses on rare groove, afro, funk, modern soul, gospel, boogie & disco! Every week they bring in a local guest & at end of the month bringing in a guest from out of town! 

Past guests have included STUSA guest Andy Noble (Lotus Land)and tonight will host STUSA guest, David Haffner (Friends Of Sound), & next month from NYC's Love On The Run ( Secret Rendezvous) fresh off the boat from the You're A Melody party @ Plastic People in London w/ Floating Points & Red Greg!

We are looking forward to partying with these folks, and all of our guests tomorrow night at Punch House. In the meantime, here is a mix the fellas put together for the event.

Today we spot another local, one who doesn't DJ nearly as much as he should do these days, Shaun Pauling.

Shaun comes to Chicago by way of Austin, Tx, where he has DJ'd alongside other STUSA guests David Haffner and Brian Sears.

Here in Chicago, he was a part of the crew at the always popular and always amazing Soul Night at Dannys. 

Shaun doesn't DJ all that much these days, but he is always on the lookout for new sounds, and he certainly has quite a few 'under the radar' things in his goodie box. 

We are very honored to have Shaun join us for STUSA, especially considering how often he DJs. Here is a rare opportunity to hear a master in action! In the meantime, have a listen to a mix from his old days at Danny's below.

Chicago resident, by way of Germany and a few places in-between … we are happy to have Ray Bausa back at STUSA!

Ray’s taste in music is heavily influenced by having spent the summers of the early 90s attending scooter runs throughout Europe. He collects and plays what he partied to after having clocked hours on the Autobahn on the back of ratty Vespas and Lambrettas, primarily Motown, Northern Soul & Modern Soul. Some of the anthems during his day included Chuck Jackson’s “I Only Get That Feeling, ” The Drifters’ “You Got to Pay Your Dues” and Harold Melvin’s “Satisfaction Guaranteed” - not necessarily super rare or expensive … just a good time.

Ray occasionally guests DJs at Windy City Soul Club here Chicago, and Hip Shaker in Minneapolis and has maintained the ‘Motown-Northern Soul-Modern Soul’ podcast since 2009.

Tonight, here in Chicago, our "Soul of Latin America" room hosts Sonorama celebrate their 4 year anniversary here in their home neighborhood of Pilsen. My neighborhood too, and so I am lucky enough to say I have been to many of these fella's functions and they are always full of young, energetic vintage latin music aficionados ready to dance! Oh and the boys really know their stuff too. Here is what the guys have to say about themselves ...

"Sonorama is a Chicago-based Dj collective fronted by Charly Garcia, Eddy Baca & Marlowe Baca and created with the objective of promoting world roots music through our obsessive love of vinyl music culture. More than just DJs, we collect, scavenge, and are ever in search of new sonic and rhythmic delights both new, old, or sometimes forgotten, but with the purpose to share our discoveries with the rest of the vintage latin community. Through podcasts and other various media we try and criss-cross geographic borders and genres with ease, and together with our different musical tastes and backgrounds; set out to showcase an eclectic program of rare grooves, musical curios, and Afro influenced dance music, along with any other surprises we dig up along the way."

We are really happy to have Sonorama hosting a room at STUSA next weekend, and we were also thrilled when they asked Brenda and myself to play a few tunes tonight at their anniversary party. Also on hand will be STUSA guest from France, Laurent Reus. So if you are in town, come on down to our hood and give us all a listen. A great preview of whats to come next Saturday!!

That said, if you arent able to make it down, do have a listen to a recent mix by the boys below:

We are happy to welcome back to STUSA our good friend from right here in Chicago, Xavier Velez!

A founding member of Windy City Soul Club here in Chicago, Xavier has been collecting soul 45s since he was 24 or so, and also has a passion for powerpop and 90s punkrock. When he's not playing records with the Windy City folks or messing around with guitars and effects pedals, X is busy baking vegan brownies and forcing us all to try them. Things could be worse.

After a lot of difficulty getting the bus tour details squared away, we are happy to announce that you can now reserve your seats for the STUSA Bus Tour hosted by Reggies Live!!

The STUSA "Soulful Chicago" tour will feature clubs where the magic happened, studios and labels where that magic was nurtured and captured on vinyl, and the ghosts of music past coming alive to celebrate their influence on the present. From the chamber halls of Seward Park to the walls of 2120 S. Michigan Ave., we tour the street corners where the music was created and the classic landmarks that put faces on names and sounds. Musician and critic James Porter shares it all, along with a soundtrack of classic soul that you may not even know originated in Chicago. As James puts it, "Any town that gave the world Soul Train has definitely got a good thing going on." This is history you can dance to!

The STUSA edition of the tour culminates at the Maria's alldayer.  Suggested donation of $15 to cover tour costs.

Reserve your seats by following the link below!!! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/soul-togetherness-usa-soulful-chicago-bus-tour-tickets-11017951991

Shortly before I moved from Seattle to Chicago, and was still promoting Emerald City Soul Club there, I met Kenneth MacDonald, who had recently moved to the area from Australia. We got along swell, and I eventually asked him to be my replacement as DJ at ECSC. Its been roughly 5 years since I've seen him, and am extremely excited to have him here in Chicago for STUSA!

As previously mentioned, Kenneth comes to us from Emerald City Soul Club in Seattle and enjoys playing across the board soul music from hard to find rare soul and even nice cheapies,

He has DJed with Keb Darge and really cant remember who else, but has been collecting since 15 years old with a passion for rare unusual LPS.

Ken is originally from Glasgow and has played all over the world from London to Cape Town and Sydney.

The days are just racing away now until Soul Togetherness USA, and we are thrilled to continue our DJ Spotlights with one of the hardest working ladies that we know, Malayka!

Malayka is an extremely busy soul person. Aside from traveling constantly for her day job, she also manages to find time to run "Top Dog records" with Dave Thorley, organize and promote arguably one of the best weekenders in Europe, Soulshakers in Bamberg Germany, and DJ regulary all over the world. When she'd not doing any of that stuff, she is traveling to dig for records, or attend other soul events just to have a dance.

When it comes to the music, she enjoys seeking out new sounds, whether it be soul, funk, disco, boogie ... bring a fresh perspective to the rare soul scene, something that is often very much needed.

Being from Hawaii, there is nothing I want to hear more on a bright and sunny Saturday morning than the sweet sounds of reggae, and so we couldn't think of a better way to kick off your Saturday than spotlighting the hosts of our "Soul of Jamaica" room at STUSA, Jamaican Oldies Productions!

Early in 2013, Chuck Wren of Jump Up! records decided to celebrate the labels 20th anniversary by hosting a series of live performances by legends of early Jamaican music. Chuck then enlisted the help of fellow reggae lovers Darren Reggae and Bryan Martin to organize the shows and artists, and since the series has been a great success. Jamaican Oldies have brought many artists to Chicago for the very first time, including Eric Monty Morris, Derrick Harriott, and most recently Susan Cadogan. 

Along with helping to organize these live performances, Darren and Bryan can regularly be seen DJ vintage Jamaican music on original vinyl at a host of spots around town. These guys really know their stuff, and we immediately felt impelled to include them at STUSA, and luckily Darren agreed to host the "Soul of Jamaica" room for the weekender.

Darren has assembled an amazing group of guests to join them on Friday March 28, including: 

David Read (Bashment on Ashland - Chicago) Jimmy Becker (Chicago) Ric Vespa (Moonstomp - Milwaukee) Brendan McDermott (NYC) Micheal Saretsky (TNT - Washington DC) and Matt Baker (Iowa)

We can't wait to hear all of the amazing rarities these folks will have on offer, but in the meantime, we have put together a selection of tunes contributed by the DJs for your listening pleasure!

Happy Friday once again! We are officially 2 weeks out now and are getting real excited for STUSA2014! To kick off the weekend, we are happy to spotlight our 2nd guest from Sho'nuff in Wales, Robert Anthony!

Robert Anthony is a soul fan and DJ from Blackwood, in the south of Wales who began attending nighters in 1973, his first being the 1st anniversary of Wigan Casino, and since then he has been hooked.

He has played allnighters and soul nights all around the UK and promoted soul events in South Wales since the late 70’s. He loves northern soul, crossover and funk, but his roots have always been on the northern scene.

Last year he and Jay Jones were invited to Bamberg soul weekender to play a warm up slot on opening night where he met Kevin and Brenda who run the Soul Togetherness weekender in Chicago, so like the cheeky Welsh fuckers that they are, they asked if we could do a spot at our  weekender, and we must of liked what they were doing because we said YES!! Hahaha.

We hope, and guarantee that you will too when you hear them here in Chicago on March 28th!

Once again, these older welsh fellas aren't too savvy with the all this "computer rubbish," so Anthony has provided us a few youtube links to tunes you may hear him play over the course of the weekender. Have a listen and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX3cISZakFA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SydJaoiT-dU