Laura Smith

Four CD set. The definitive post-Motown collection from the legendary songwriting trio Holland-Dozier-Holland. 68 tracks taken from the period 1969-1977 when the trio had started their group of labels; Hot Wax, Invictus and Music Merchant. Holland, Dozier and Holland are arguably the greatest songwriters ever. More prolific than Lennon and McCartney, they shaped "the Sound of Young America" and propelled the Motown sound in the mid-1960s into a creative stratosphere unmatched by any other independent music label. Although synonymous with Berry Gordy's Motown, it was their departure from Motown after a stand-off strike in 1967 and a brutal legal battle that led them to run their own group of labels, Invictus, Hot Wax and Music Merchant. This compilation is a definitive look at this period in history, exploring how H-D-H, under a new guise 'The Creative Corporation', drove the next generation of soul music in a myriad of different ways, towards funk, underground disco and jazz. Featuring 68 tracks, this collection documents HDH's creativity and growth over this seminal 8 year period. During this time the trio developed new artists to rival Motown's success such as Chairman Of The Board, Freda Payne, Honey Cone, Glass House, Flaming Ember, 8th Day, Laura Lee & Eloise Laws.

Karrin Allyson (pronounced KAH-rin; born Karrin Allyson Schoonover on July 27, 1963 in Great Bend, Kansas) is an American jazz vocalist. She has been nominated for five Grammy Awards, and has received positive reviews from several prominent sources, including the New York Times, which has called her a "singer with a feline touch and impeccable intonation." Karrin Allyson was born in Great Bend, Kansas; her father was a Lutheran minister and her mother was a psychotherapist, teacher and classical pianist. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and spent her last year of high school in San Francisco. In her youth she studied classical piano, sang at her local church and in musical theatre, and also began songwriting.

Simple, everyday ways to lifelong health for your body, mind, and spirit. These days we are living longer than ever, yet we're more run down, anxious, overweight, exhausted, stressed out, depressed, and all-around more unwell than ever before. The quantity of the days we live is up, but the quality of those days is down. Way down.

It's sure hard to call Castle's 2006 triple-disc box a "deluxe" release – it has the drab title of Invictus Soul Box Set and it's just slapped together in a CD-sized cardboard box, containing good liner notes by Peter Doggett but little else in the way of packaging (there are no photos from the label, either of the artists or the singles, anywhere to be found). This stands in contrast to Castle's previous treatment of the Invictus catalog, when they released a bunch of stellar single-artist retrospectives in the early 2000s, but ultimately it doesn't matter: on a sheer musical level, Invictus Soul Box Set is superb. It follows no strict chronological order, jumping from year to year within each disc, but it roughly breaks down to having the biggest hits on the first disc, follow-ups and neglected treasures on the second, with the funkiest stuff reserved for third. This gives the box a flow, but the truth is, this music could be played in random order and it would still be satisfying because each cut was designed to stand on its own merits as a single. Ironically, several of the versions showcased here are album versions – such as Flaming Ember's dynamic "Westbound Number Nine" – instead of singles, but these are subtle differences that do not change the overall effect of this box's addictive onslaught of soul. Holland-Dozier-Holland's skills as writers, producers, and overall talent scouts and shepherds were not diminished at all.

It's sure hard to call Castle's 2006 triple-disc box a "deluxe" release – it has the drab title of Invictus Soul Box Set and it's just slapped together in a CD-sized cardboard box, containing good liner notes by Peter Doggett but little else in the way of packaging (there are no photos from the label, either of the artists or the singles, anywhere to be found). This stands in contrast to Castle's previous treatment of the Invictus catalog, when they released a bunch of stellar single-artist retrospectives in the early 2000s, but ultimately it doesn't matter: on a sheer musical level, Invictus Soul Box Set is superb. It follows no strict chronological order, jumping from year to year within each disc, but it roughly breaks down to having the biggest hits on the first disc, follow-ups and neglected treasures on the second, with the funkiest stuff reserved for third. This gives the box a flow, but the truth is, this music could be played in random order and it would still be satisfying because each cut was designed to stand on its own merits as a single. Ironically, several of the versions showcased here are album versions – such as Flaming Ember's dynamic "Westbound Number Nine" – instead of singles, but these are subtle differences that do not change the overall effect of this box's addictive onslaught of soul. Holland-Dozier-Holland's skills as writers, producers, and overall talent scouts and shepherds were not diminished at all.

Four CD set. The definitive post-Motown collection from the legendary songwriting trio Holland-Dozier-Holland. 68 tracks taken from the period 1969-1977 when the trio had started their group of labels; Hot Wax, Invictus and Music Merchant. Holland, Dozier and Holland are arguably the greatest songwriters ever. More prolific than Lennon and McCartney, they shaped "the Sound of Young America" and propelled the Motown sound in the mid-1960s into a creative stratosphere unmatched by any other independent music label. Although synonymous with Berry Gordy's Motown, it was their departure from Motown after a stand-off strike in 1967 and a brutal legal battle that led them to run their own group of labels, Invictus, Hot Wax and Music Merchant. This compilation is a definitive look at this period in history, exploring how H-D-H, under a new guise 'The Creative Corporation', drove the next generation of soul music in a myriad of different ways, towards funk, underground disco and jazz. Featuring 68 tracks, this collection documents HDH's creativity and growth over this seminal 8 year period. During this time the trio developed new artists to rival Motown's success such as Chairman Of The Board, Freda Payne, Honey Cone, Glass House, Flaming Ember, 8th Day, Laura Lee & Eloise Laws.