The Last Soul Company: The Malaco Records Story

Written by Rob Bowman — known for 2003’s Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records — the book will chronicle the history of the label, which was started by Tommy Couch Sr. and Mitchell Malouf in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962. The book dives into the careers of label artists that include Mississippi Fred McDowell, Bobby Blue Bland, Z.Z. Hill, Little Milton, Johnnie Taylor, James Cleveland, Little Milton, and others. The 200-page volume contains rare photographs with a forward by early rock expert Peter Guralnick.

Malaco started in the late Sixties as a soul music label cutting such impeccable grooves as Jean Knight’s ‘Mr. Big Stuff,’ King Floyd’s ‘Groove Me,’ and Dorothy Moore’s ‘Misty Blue.’ In the early Eighties, it morphed into the home of Southern soul-blues, cutting classic records by the likes of ZZ Hill (‘Down Home Blues’), Little Milton (‘The Blues Is Alright’), and Bobby Blue Bland (‘Members Only’) before pivoting into the world’s largest and most important black gospel label for the last 35 years, dominating the world of mass choirs and old-school quartets with such iconic names as the Mississippi Mass Choir and the Jackson Southernaires.”

$39.95