Our friend David Lee, whose work was the subject of the very first Paradise of Bachelors release, passed away this weekend. David was an inspiring songwriter, musician, producer, and entrepreneur; a steadfast supporter of other artists; and an exceedingly caring, gentle person. Without his story we might not be doing the work we do; the label might not exist.
Happy Thanksgiving. Today is the 10th anniversary of the first PoB release, Said I Had a Vision: Songs & Labels of David Lee, 1960-1988. When we first started this work, we had no idea we’d be doing it a decade later, and in such a radically transformed landscape. But we’re still here and thankful, today as always, for the opportunity to collaborate with artists we love. Thanks for your support and your ears; we’ll keep listening and telling long stories and hope that you will too.
Today, Friday, June 19th—Juneteenth—we will join Bandcamp by matching all our revenue from digital sales with a donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. If you’re able to buy something, read on on for some links to inform your decisions and discovery of new music.
Paradise of Bachelors is proud to release the first-ever anthology of the eclectic, excellent, and highly collectable music of David Lee. Over the course of three decades beginning in the late 1950s, this unheralded songwriter, musician, producer, and entrepreneur released fourteen 45s and two LPs on his Impel, Washington Sound, and SCOP labels, run out of his Washington Sound record shop in Shelby, North Carolina.
The Bachelors have been so busy with our upcoming Hiss Golden Messenger LP (due November 1st, the Day of the Dead) and the Willie Lowery/Plant & See LP (due late winter/early spring), that we’ve neglected to post more press about David Lee.
Please pick up a copy of the latest issue of righteous magazine Wax Poetics (#47) to read Contributing Editor Jon Kirby’s thoughtful profile of David Lee on page 28. Mr. Lee finds himself among illustrious company in these pages, which are populated by the likes of the great Solomon Burke (the King of Rock ‘n’ Soul himself, RIP); cosmic songster Terry Callier; PoB hero and Carolinas favorite Roy C; the legendary Bobby Womack and Lamont Dozier; and even Earth, Wind, and Fire.
On April 2, 2011, David Lee accepted the North Carolina Folklore Society’s Brown-Hudson Award and performed two songs, “I Can’t Believe You’re Gone” and “I’ll Never Get Over Losing You,” accompanied by his custom cassette backing track. We’re delighted to share some video of the event below.
Our friends at Light in the Attic Records, who are distributing Said I Had a Vision, have posted a long-form interview with the Bachelors. You can find that here–be sure to read to the end, where we announce our upcoming projects in collaboration with brilliant North Carolina songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist Willie French Lowery, who served as Clyde McPhatter’s bandleader and fronted heavy psych bands Plant and See and Lumbee before striking out on his own.
David Lee visited Chapel Hill on the weekend of April 2nd with eight family members in order to accept the North Carolina Folklore Society’s Brown-Hudson Award. Our very full weekend included lunch with Bill Ferris and other pals, an interview for NPR’s The Story (which will be airing shortly), and of course, David’s performance of “I Can’t Believe You’re Gone” and “I’ll Never Get Over Losing You,” accompanied by a cassette deck he brought from Shelby.
Check out this perceptive close listening review of Vision in the new issue of Roctober, courtesy of Mr. Jake Austen. Thank you, good sir.
