The House Guests were a funk collective in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the early Seventies. In hindsight, the group has been called the essential link between James Brown's band and Parliament, especially since a bunch of the players here, including Bootsy Collins, played in both groups. Collected here and available legally for the first time are a ton of songs by these legendary musicians on this excellent new compilation, My Mind Set Me Free: The House Guests Meet The Complete Strangers & Bootsy, Phelps & Gary, out now via Shake It Records.
The House Guests started in the Cincinnati area with Boosty Collins on bass, his brother Phelps "Catfish" Collins on guitar, the James Brown-like Rufus Allen on vocals, Frankie "Kash" Waddy on drums, Clayton "Chicken" Gunnells on trumpet, and Robert "Chopper" McCollough on sax. The band, as has been told elsewhere, stole the spotlight from the bands they opened for, receiving more attention than, say, Gladys Knight & The Pips thanks to Allen's showmanship and the flare of the players. My Mind Set Me Free: The House Guests Meet The Complete Strangers & Bootsy, Phelps & Gary would be an essential collection just for the fact that it documents the musicians in the era, but it is a remarkably fun release, and one which serves as a nice stylistic bridge between what James Brown's cats were doing in 1970 and what George Clinton and Funkadelic were going to do a few years later.
"My Mind Set Me Free", with its interpolation of the "Mission: Impossible" theme song, is scorching, a funk workout that sounds a whole lot like James Brown and The JB's, while "What So Never The Dance", a regional hit, is equal parts what these players would bring to Funkadelic later with flashes of Monk-like instrumental improvisation. The real highlight of My Mind Set Me Free: The House Guests Meet The Complete Strangers & Bootsy, Phelps & Gary, this cut is a lost classic. "Miss Chicken" is southern funk by way of the Midwest, the horn-lines here carrying this one to glory, while the supple "Say Something Good", billed to Bootsy, Phelps & Gary, is an excellent precursor to the kind of thing the Ohio Players would offer up a bit later, and a an excellent furthering of what Sly and The Family Stone had been dropping with some regularity around this time too. "Together in Heaven", also billed to Bootsy, Phelps & Gary, is the best showcase for Catfish Collins' amazing guitar-work you're going to find here. It's the type of tune that seems to have informed later acts like Prince and Outkast, with a rhythmic hook that very nearly feels like something from The Meters.
One of the essential reissues of 2019, My Mind Set Me Free: The House Guests Meet The Complete Strangers & Bootsy, Phelps & Gary is out now via Shake It Records.
[Photo: Shake It / Riot Act Media]