DESCRIPTION:
Memphis musician and producer Sid Selvidge sadly passed on about a month before I managed to upload this incredible track.

Born in Greenville, Miss., in 1943, Selvidge began his professional career on radio, spinning records on Greenville's WDDT and later on West Memphis' KWAM. In the 1960s, he would become one of the great champions of the old forgotten bluesmen, helping midwife the comeback of Memphis great Furry Lewis. Selvidge helped promote and record Lewis during those years, becoming a kind of surrogate son to the singer.

Selvidge graduated from Southwestern at Memphis in 1965, and did his masters studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He later taught anthropology at Southwestern, now Rhodes College.

A man of multiple talents — he was a gifted photographer as well — Selvidge was part of a rich artistic demimonde, the wild Midtown Memphis scene of the '70s, which would pass into legend, due in part to the 1995 publication of Robert Gordon's vivid underground history, "It Came From Memphis." Along with his friends and fellow musicians Jim Dickinson, Lee Baker and Jimmy Crosthwait, Selvidge would form the deconstructionist blues band Mud Boy and the Neutrons; the band became a quasi-mythic outfit for its rare and memorable live performances throughout the city.

Then in 1976, Selvidge founded his own independent record label, Peabody. He was instrumental in the recording and release of Box Tops/Big Star leader Alex Chilton's first official solo album, 1979's "Like Flies on Sherbert"

Back in 1969, though, when still basically a slightly baroque-tinged singer songwriter, Selvidge somehow wound up on Stax Records, who put out his first LP, PORTRAIT.

This track is taken from there: a dark aching country ballad with a pulsing backbeat and a vocal that's a dead ringer for Gene Clark.

Stellar stuff.