Calvin Leavy - The Best Of Calvin Leavy (2000)

Blues/Soul/Funk singer/guitarist Calvin Leavy (born in Scott, Arkansas on April 20, 1940) was a 1970s throwback to the classic Blues artists like Mississippi Fred McDowell, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Big Bill Broonzy) whose limited recording sessions resulted in just one nationally-charting single. Like many blacks in his early years he began singing in the local church choir, and when he turned 14 in 1954 he and brother Hosea formed The Leavy Brothers Band (Calvin was the youngest of 15 and also accomplished on piano, bass and drums), and soon they proved to be very popular in the Little Rock area. Sometime in the1960s they toured the West Coast, making Fresno their base, before heading back to Little Rock towards the end of 1968. One of the songs they worked into their repertoire was the old Patti Page hit Tennessee Waltz, but Calvin sung it more in the style of the 1964 Sam Cooke hit cover, and it was his performance of this tune in particular that a local club owner’s wife liked so much that she arranged for him to cut a demo version at Little Rock’s E&M Recording Studios.

In the meantime, the band was contacted by Bill Cole about the possibility of recording a song he had composed about Cummins Prison Farm. After working in some revised lyrics drawn from the experiences of another brother who served time at the facility, the recorded result, 4:20 in length, came out in 1968 on the local Soul Beat label b/w Brought You To The City as Soul Beat 100. With limited resources, the single could receive neither a wide distribution or any kind of proper promotion, but Cummins Prison Farm remained popular enough on a local/regional bases thanks mainly to its regular play over Memphis Radio Station WDIA (it reached # 1 on their private charts) that it was eventually picked up by the larger Blue Fox Records and, in May 1970, made it to # 40 R&B b/w Brought You To The City (2:23) as Blue Fox 100.

That would be the only time he’d make any national listings, however, although he would continue recording with Soul Beat as well as Acquarian/Downtown into the late 1970s (see some of his known sides in the Comments below). Then, in 1991, he ran afoul of the law and was the first to be indicted under the 1988 Drug Kingpin Law for multiple drug offences. In July 1992 he was convicted and sentenced to “life plus 25 years” - a bit of overkill to say the least - ironically starting his sentence at Cummins. A 1995 petition for a writ of habeas corpus was denied, and in 2004 the Governor commuted his sentence to 75 years. He applied under Arkansas law for clemency in 2007, something that earned the recommendation of the state parole board, but in 2008, then Governor Mike Beebe turned that down. On June 6, 2010 he passed away at age 70 at the Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff after learning that he was eligible for parole in late 2011.

This meagre 10-track 2000 release from the obscure Red Clay Records clearly has been compiled from the best vinyl sources available, and offers nothing in the way of liner notes, so on that basis it hardly warrants 5 stars. But it is about the only place you are apt to find both sides of his one national hit in that format. ~George O'Leary