McKinley Mitchell
b. 25 December 1934, Jackson, Mississippi, USA, d. 1986, USA. A formative soul singer with George Leaner's early '60s Chicago-based One-derful label, Mitchell came from the Chicago blues-club scene to launch that label with his fine self-penned The Town I Live In, later re-cut during an even more productive soul period in the '70s with the Malaco subsidiary Chimneyville. After leading the Hearts Of Harmony gospel group at the age of 16, Mitchell tried secular music with a quintet in Springfield, Massachusetts, before moving to Philadelphia to front his own gospel group, the Mitchellairs. Subsequently, he travelled to Chicago, where he sang at several blues clubs, and worked with Muddy Waters at Pepper's Lounge. Ironically, his first recording, Rock Everybody Rock, was in a rock ‘n’ roll style, cut with members of Howlin' Wolf's band for the Boxer label in 1959. In the local clubs, Mitchell had actually become known as McKinley Soul Mitchell by the time he brought The Town I Live In to Leaner in 1962. Despite this number 8 R&B hit, Mitchell's subsequent records for One-derful, although good examples of early ‘tough’ soul, sold poorly, and Mitchell embarked on a Chicago label-hopping exercise with the likes of St Lawrence, Chess, Spoonful, Sandman, Black Beauty and Big 3, often being produced by Chicago bluesman Willie Dixon. In 1976, Mitchell's Big 3 cut, Trouble Blues, received good southern coverage from Jackson's Malaco label, and it was followed by other superior soul sides for the same company's Chimneyville label, including the beautiful The End Of The Rainbow and The Same Old Dream, as well as the fine re-make of The Town I Live In. A good Chimneyville album, MCKINLEY MITCHELL, was also released in 1978. In the '80s, Mitchell worked for James Bennett's Rettas label where he cut three singles and an album. Earlier material was reissued on both US and Japanese labels. Mitchell died prematurely from a heart attack in 1986, and was buried in his native Jackson.