Lonnie Duvall

Lonnie Duvall was a native of Greenville, Mississippi. He is thought to have first recorded with The Lancers on the Brit-inflected 'Somebody Help Me', released in November 1965. By 1966, he had aligned with Natalie Rosenberg, wife of Stax counsel Seymour Rosenberg, who was active managing groups, some of whom were pitched to the venerable soul label, as it sought to diversify. Duvall would release the moody 'Cigarettes' on Stax subsidiary Hip in April 1967, but the unreleased track included here likely dates from earlier and probably features the band he sang with at the time, The Candy Shoestring. Recorded at Pepper-Tanner Studios, 'Attention' is a compelling piece of teen-macho chest puffery complete with a marvelous Dave Davies-style guitar break. Enigmatic to a fault, Duvall's other unhead Stax recordings reveal an artist of some promise, but unfortunately he was to depart the label in reputedly acrimonious circumstances.