I attended college in Nashville, in large part so that I could be close to the regional metropolises of the Midwest and Southeast. There, I figured I'd have a better chance of striking "black gold" — in the form of rare, regionally released funk 45s — than I would in the Northeast, where I'm from, and where competition was (and is) fierce.
Some of my favorite trips during the years between 1996 and 2000 were those I took east of Nashville, in the fall, over the Smokey Mountains. The ridges crested with gold and amber as we entered North Carolina. The quarry? The legendary songs we'd heard on various bootleg compilations, of course — and any undiscovered gems we might find along the way.
Last year, Jazzman Records released a compilation largely assembled by Carolina funk and soul historian Jason Perlmutter, called Carolina Funk: First in Funk. In the interest of full disclosure, I distributed the title in the U.S. on Now-Again Records. But — and I do write this objectively — it is one of the finest exhumations of funk music yet, despite the fact that it centers on two states best known for bluegrass.
Take this list as an addendum to that album: further study into two states whose output rivals that of New York, California and Texas in terms of the quality and quantity of regionally issued funk masterpieces.
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