Search - Tony Borders :: Cheaters Never Win

Well-Done Compilation Of An Obscure Southern Soul Artist

07/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First off, this is not Tony Borders the puppeteer/magician. Rather, this is a relatively obscure (at least on a national scale) Southern Soul artist who, nevertheless, recorded rather prolifically in the late 1960s/early 1970s for Muscle Shoals producer Quin Ivy, without ever achieving a national hit, either on the Billboard Pop Hot 100 or the R&B charts.



When he started out, his early material was definitely Country-tinged, and if you can find cuts like Get Yourself Another Man, Counting On You, Stay By My Side, Can't Stand To See You Cry, and Soft Wind, Soft Voice, released by labels such as Delta and Hall, you will hear that he might have made a name for himself in Country Music had he chosen to go that route. But Soul was his first love, and when handed the right material, such as the tracks presented here, he was very good. Unfortunately, the label he worked for was limited in its ability to promote him on a national scale.



The earliest single presented here is What Kind Of Spell? which was released in 1967 on South Land 7009, followed by the title tune, Cheaters Never Win and its flipside, Love And A Friend, which came out in 1968 on Greenlite 101, complete with string accompaniment. In 1969, he had the up-tempo I Met Her In Church, which had been a # 37 Hot 100 for The Box Tops late in 1968, issued on Revue 11040, followed a couple of months later by Polly Wolly b/w a cover of Gentle On My Mind on Revue 11054. That same year, the Country-Soul release You Better Believe It, which used a female chorus in the background, came out on Uni 55180 b/w Lonely Weekend, easily the largest label to ever handle his material, but still to no avail insofar as a hit was concerned.



The mix of slow ballads and up-tempo releases continued in 1970, starting with For My Woman's Love b/w Please Don't Break My Heart on Quinvy 001/002, and Promise To Myself b/w Mix And Mingle on Quinvy 7101. The remainder of the material here (Headman, Don't Let Go, High On The Hog, Cornbread Woman, Until It's Time For Me To Go, and the lovely Country-Soul ballad A Nice Place To Visit) were all unreleased Quinvy cuts.



Most won't even recognize the tunes, let alone the artist (he seems to have just quit the business after Quinvy folded its tent), but if you want an example of how some talented vocalists got lost in the big-label publicity, this is a great one to choose. complete with excellent sound quality and informative notes written by Paul Mooney."

Brilliant R&B; not such great sound

B. Margolis | Minneapolis, MN United States | 05/05/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Most of these sides were previously issued on CD and vinyl by Charly (in the late 1980's) and then on 4 CD comps by Overture (in 1996), many of those were in stereo. The sound here is decent, but it has a second-generation quality and the entire CD is mono.



Tony Borders was one of those supremely talented Southern R&B singers who had lots of singles issued without much or any success.



For those who want to hear first-rate Southern R&B, and you have no access to those older OOP CDs and LPs, I recommend this CD, nonetheless. Bill Brandon is simply one of the forgotten R&B treasures of the 1960's and 1970's."