Eddie Hinton

Born Jun. 15 1944 Jacksonville, Fl. Hinton is one of the greatest white soul singers of the modern era- dubbed "the white Otis Redding". His guitar playing can be heard on hit records by Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Joe Tex, Solomon Burke, Percy Sledge, Johnny Taylor, Elvis Presley, Bobby Womack, Otis Redding & more with the Muscle Shoals [Alabama] Sound Rhythm Section from 1967 to 1971. Hinton was just 22 when he was invited to the Shoals area by fellow songwriter and producer Martin Greene. The Hinton/Greene songwriting and producing team produced several country/soul hits, including "Cover Me," and "It's All Wrong But It's Alright" for Percy Sledge. It was until 1978 that Hinton had a record under his own name, the Capricorn Records, "Very Extremely Dangerous". In 1982, Jimmy Johnson of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm section took Hinton into the studio to record a half dozen songs for a new album, but that project was never released. Hinton's personal life fell apart soon after. Seemingly always a "hard luck guy" (after all he turned down joining the Allman Brothers before they made it big! Oops), Hinton was living on the streets in Decatur, Alabama when he ran into an old friend, John D. Wyker. Wyker saw to it that Hinton again had housing with the plan to record again. With the help of some friends, Owen Brown and Jeff Simpson, Wyker began recording Hinton at Birdland Recording Studio and the new songs were combined with material recorded by Jimmy Johnson in 1982. The result was "Letters From Mississippi". He began touring on the buzz from this album. He was soon signed by Rounder Records and two albums were released. He was working on a third, he suffered a fatal heart attack. Hinton died far too young at age 51 on July 28, 1995. Since then four compilations of unreleased material have surfaced and further cemented Hinton's reputation as one of the most criminally-ignored soul singers of the modern era.

Album Discography

"Very Extremely Dangerous" (Capricorn 1978)

"Letters From Mississippi" (Zane 1987)

"Cry & Moan" (Bullseye Blues 1991)

"Very Blue Highway" (Bullseye Blues 1993)

"Hard Luck Guy" (Capricorn 1999)

"Dear Y'all: The Songwriting Sessions" (Zane 2004)

"Playin' Around: The Songwriting Sessions Vol. 2" (Zane 2004)

"The Anthology 1969-1993: A Mighty Field Of Vision" (Raven 2005)

"Beautiful Dream: Sessions Volume 3" (Zane 2005)