Consumer Guide Album

Howard Tate: Howard Tate's Reaction [Turntable, 1970]
Born in Macon and resident in Philadelphia, Tate is a truly underground soul singer whose few small late-'60s hits (collected on one superb Verve LP) have earned him a rep among cognoscenti as diverse as Mike Bloomfield and Mark Farner. This album, produced by underground schlock-soul singers Lloyd Price and Johnny Nash in Jamaica, is based on even smaller hits. One of them, "These Are the Things That Make Me Know You're Gone" ("refrigerator left ajar," like that), dishonors his rep. But "My Soul's Got a Hole in It" doesn't, and Tate's voice is potent enough to activate more inert material. Cognoscenti will dig. B