Bobby Womack – California Dreamin’

Wow! That was another great trip around Europe going to a number of places that I’ve never been to before. Probably the highlight of the whole trip for me was the Daptone Super Soul Revue at the beautiful Vienna State Opera. I know they are near the end of their tour but if they are visiting your town, you have to go see them. Charles Bradley, Sharon Jones, Antibalas, Saun & Starr and The Sugarman 3 all on the same bill!! It was like a modern-day Motown/Stax tour!!

I was also able to indulge in two of my other favourite pastimes when I was away – record diggin’ & clubbing. Both of which I have to thanks Jorg Recordshack for, from his cool record store (Recordshack) where I unfortunately didn’t have enough time to truly hunt for records (though I did pick up a few things – as much as my hand luggage would allow!!!) to his Summer of Soul party, I was treated to some great sounds. If you’re ever in Vienna by sure to drop by and say hello to Jorg.

Unfortunately another gig that I was meant to go to was cancelled at the last-minute – Madness! (literally!) It was to be their first gig in the city in something like 30 years but was postponed an hour or so before the concert was due to start leaving a lot of people very disappointed. My mood had already been on a bit of a downer when I had earlier heard the sad news of the passing of one of the absolute legends of soul music – Bobby Womack. So the gig cancellation was most unwelcome!!

There have been many things written about Bobby Womack over the years and plenty of documentaries made about the man so rather than try to compete with any of them, I think it’s best to just let his music do the talking. This track is one of my favourite Womack songs (well it’s not exactly his song, but you get my drift) as it just has an air of effortless cool about it and is for me, the perfect summer vibe. R.I.P. Bobby, you’ll never be forgotten.