The story of Colorblind - Patriks soul funk special

Colorblind

Colorblnd is a rare seven piece band that released their probably one and only 5 track mini LP in 1984 titled "Crazy". The band that came from Ohio included, Charles Burton (III) (Tre') (drums, lead and background vocals), Marvin McDonald (lead and background vocals), Donny Homer (guitar), Jerry Bowie (lead and background vocals and keyboards), Dwight Carter (bass guitar and background vocals), Ronny Belfour (percussion) and the only white guy in the band, Bob Fisher (keyboards).

The important back-up

Rahni P. Harris Jr. The band had substantial support from the band Dayton (see Dayton's full biography here) and their brilliant multi instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Rahni P. Harris Jr (left). He not only produced and arranged all tracks but was also one of the background singers, played OBX-a, prophet, mini moog, arp omni, horner D6, clavinet, acoustic piano, fender rhodes and the Roland vocoder. In addition he wrote one track, the mediocre ballad "The best in me", as well as lyrics for many of the other four tracks. His excellent writing and producing skills had earlier been shown on Dayton's both albums in 82 and 83 featuring the universal hit "The sound of music" from the latter album and on Melba Moore's album in 82 and 83 as co-producer. For Colorblind to use such a person was of course a huge asset and it showed in the music itself that was well-produced in every part. The reason why the busy Rahni had time for some outside work that year was that Dayton didn't release any album in 84.

The joyful album

The release was strong with really tight harmonies, relaxing and with an easy listening approach with only fast tracks except the decent ballad "The best in me" that rounded up the album. The first track however was the popfunk stylish "Just like in the movies" followed by the more funk influenced and catchy "On my radio" (likely after an original by Noel Davies from 79 with the same name). The third track "Come see the band" was a perfect popfunk track with some really nice rock guitars. Parts of the song was also made in a vocoder with a very cool effect. The track is well worth a closer look and just perfect to play it in a cabriolet in the sunset driving to a beach somewhere in the world. The fourth and maybe most harmonious track was "Crazy" that sounded very much like George Benson's "Turn your love around" from 1981, especially the intro.

All the songs were written by outsiders except Tre's "On my radio". The album was recorded at Counterpart studios in Cincinnati, Ohio, the same place Dayton used in 83. Notable is also that besides Harris both the Dayton members of Shawn Sandridge and Rachel Beavers participated as singers and instrumentalists. The well used additional musicians on several Dayton albums Saxophonist Vincent Andrews and Synthesizer programmer Wes Boatman did also participate. Also Shawn's wife Debbie Sandridge was a part of the project. Debbie's role was to co-ordinater the production and had therefore an important over all business to take care of that was similar to her personal management role in Dayton.

All tracks got that joyful popfunk style mixed with a sometimes electrofunkish attitude. But it never gets hard or unpleasant to listen to and never get too pop minded either. Except the lovely orgy in bass and rhythm guitar play on the first three tracks the set also focused much on the song that got that typical high pitch sound that Cameo, Con Funk Shun and other great funk band had. This album really makes you happy beyond anything else though like the title suggests, something we certainly need more of in this world!

Colorblind from left to right: Charles Burton (III) (Tre'), Marvin McDonald, Donny Homer, Jerry Bowie, Dwight Carter, Ronny Belfour and Bob Fisher.

Summing it up

Colorblind's album "Crazy" is a fairly hard to find and even more more unknown as a band itself that for sure is one of 84's better soulfunk productions although they never played anything new and sensational but what they did they did well and with joy!

(Patrik Andersson)

Discography of Colorblind

Please click on the image below to see a complete list of the songs.