I discovered the Wolfmoon record
years ago while working in a small record shop in Iowa. As a vinyl-obsessed
collector, I was immediately drawn to the cover art. Who was this purple
cloaked cosmic warrior, palming the planet Earth like a basketball? Prince
before there even was a Prince? Was he some long-lost fuzz-funk disciple of
Funkadelic? Perhaps a forgotten psychedelic soul singer that I could brag about
discovering? I had to know. To my surprise, Wolfmoon was all of these things
and none of these things. The music on the record was a beautiful combination
of gospel and Southern soul with occasional brilliant flourishes of funk, rock
and even country. Upon further research, I discovered that he was associated
with the legendary producer and songwriter, Swamp Dogg, of whom I was a big
fan. I bought it sight unseen and it’s been in heavy rotation at my house ever
since.
The story of how the Wolfmoon
record came about is almost as interesting as the music itself. In the early
1960s, Tyrone Thomas began a successful career as an R&B singer in his
hometown of Richmond, Virginia. A teenager at the time, Thomas, who was calling
himself Lil Tommy (pre-Soundcloud rapper days), quickly established himself as
a talented performer with his various backing groups, including the Teenagers,
the Parakeets and the Out of Sights, and securing opening slots for such
international acts as Fats Domino and Sam Cooke. It was around this time that
Thomas decided that it was time for him to go solo. This decision led him to
his first national tour at age 14. However, it was a hometown gig with fellow
Richmond artist Brooks O’Dell that perhaps changed the trajectory of Thomas’
career for the better.
O’Dell was immediately impressed
with the young Thomas and decided to introduce him to his friend Jerry Williams
Jr., aka Swamp Dogg. If you’re a fan of southern soul music at all, no doubt
you’re familiar with Swamp Dogg, whose first three albums are considered
classics of the genre and solidified Swamp as a cult figure and legendary
performer. But the Swamp Dogg persona would not come to be until a few years
later. Williams began writing and recording songs for Tyrone Thomas starting as
early as 1964. The relationship was tumultuous almost immediately. Williams
invited Thomas to live in his house for a while and, according to Williams, he
wore out his welcome very quickly. The first two songs they recorded together
were “I’m Hurt” and its B-side “Lov’h,” which Thomas immediately took back to
Richmond and submitted to local record producer Mr. Wiggles and, according to
Williams, tried to pass them off as his own. Still, Williams believed in
Thomas’ talents enough to work with him again.
In 1969, Williams, who was just
starting to cultivate the Swamp Dogg sound and image that he would become
notorious for, signed a deal with Canyon Records and was looking to pad his new
label with like-minded artists, of which Thomas was to be the newest. Swamp
Dogg re-dubbed Thomas as Wolfmoon and the pair recorded the ten tracks that
would become the first and only Wolfmoon record; seven original Swamp Dogg
compositions and three cover versions. However, the album would not see the
light of day for another four years, as the Canyon Records deal fell through
and the two were left without a label. Finally, in 1973, the small Fungus
Records imprint released the Wolfmoon record.
Still not much is known about the
actual man, Tyrone Thomas himself, apart from what Swamp Dogg has said in
interviews and in print which generally tends to paint him in an unfavorable
light. In one recent interview, Swamp said of Thomas “this motherfucker has no
integrity… It’s all about him” and citing multiple occasions of feeling taken
advantage of by Thomas. Personal animosity aside, the two managed to put out an
incredible piece of R&B history. The songs range from the spiritual (“God
Bless,” “If He Walked Today”) to the funky (“My Kinda People”) and many other
styles in between. An epic 8+ minute sendup of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get
Ready” showcases the multi-instrumental talents of Swamp Dogg while the piano
ballad “Treasures That I Found” allows Wolfmoon to demonstrate his incredible
vocal range.
Unfortunately, the record went
almost completely unnoticed and it remained an obscure gem among record collectors
for decades. Original copies were being sold for high sums of money for quite
some time. That is, until 2013, when garage pop label Alive Natural Sound out
of Los Angeles gave the album (and a handful of other Swamp Dogg releases) a
proper CD and vinyl reissue, thus reintroducing the world to Wolfmoon. And let
me tell you, this reissue sounds amazing. The only digital copies that I was
able to find prior to the re-release were clearly vinyl rips that sounded kind
of terrible. Alive presents the record with fully cleaned-up audio plus new detailed
liner notes written by Swamp Dogg which alone is well worth the price.
-
Jonathan Eagle
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