| This Is My Country | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 1968 | |||
| Genre | Chicago soul [1] | |||
| Length | 29:13 | |||
| Label | Curtom [2] | |||
| Producer | Curtis Mayfield | |||
| The Impressions chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [4] |
This Is My Country is an album by the soul group the Impressions, released in 1968. [5] [6] It was their first album released on Curtis Mayfield's label, Curtom Records. [4]
"Gone Away" was written by Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, and Leroy Hutson. [7] Hathaway also worked on "You Want Somebody Else".
The A.V. Club called the album inspiring and influential, writing that "even at its most syrupy, Mayfield gives his tunes elbow room, a muscular pulse, and an emotional complexity that's vengeful and redemptive all at once." [8] In a retrospective article, The Independent called it one of the 20 best albums of 1968, writing that "Mayfield gave notice of his own black pride on the stirring title track on which he both celebrates and condemns the country that his people populate." [9]
All tracks composed by Curtis Mayfield; except where indicated
| Year | Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| 1969 | R&B & Soul Albums | 5 |
| Pop Albums | 107 [10] |
Chicago soul is a style of soul music that arose during the 1960s in Chicago. Along with Detroit, the home of Motown, and Memphis, with its hard-edged, gritty performers, Chicago and the Chicago soul style helped spur the album-oriented soul revolution of the early 1970s.
Donny Edward Hathaway was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, and arranger whom Rolling Stone described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include "The Ghetto", "This Christmas", "Someday We'll All Be Free", and "Little Ghetto Boy". Hathaway is also renowned for his renditions of "A Song for You", "For All We Know", and "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know", along with "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of many collaborations with Roberta Flack. He has been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame and won one Grammy Award from four nominations. Hathaway was also posthumously honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Dutch director David Kleijwegt made a documentary called Mister Soul – A Story About Donny Hathaway, which premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 28, 2020.
The Impressions were an American music group originally formed in 1958. Their repertoire includes gospel, doo-wop, R&B, and soul.
Curtom Records was a record label started in 1968 by Curtis Mayfield and Impressions manager Eddie Thomas. The label's name was a combination of Mayfield's first name and Thomas' last name. Mayfield had previously made attempts at a record label with the "Mayfield" and "Windy C" labels.
Philip Upchurch is an American jazz and blues guitarist and bassist.
Roots is Curtis Mayfield’s second studio album, released in October 1971. Having received critical praise from a variety of publications, the album is regarded as not just one of Mayfield's best works but also as a classic release of the '70s soul era, with Allmusic critic Bruce Eder stating that "the album soars on some of the sweetest and most eloquent... soul sounds heard up to that time". The album became a commercial success as well, hitting the #6 slot on Billboard's Top R&B Albums chart.
The Young Mods' Forgotten Story is an album by the American soul music group the Impressions. It was released in 1969 via Curtom Records.
We're a Winner is an album by the American soul music group the Impressions, released in 1968. It was the group's last album for ABC Records; they moved on to Curtis Mayfield's Curtom Records.
The Fabulous Impressions is an album by the American soul music group the Impressions, released in 1967. It includes a cover of the Gene McDaniels song "One Hundred Pounds of Clay".
Ridin' High is an album by the American soul music group the Impressions, released in 1966.
One by One is an album by the American soul music group the Impressions, released in 1965. It consists mostly of cover songs, with only a few originals.
The Never Ending Impressions is an album by the American soul music group The Impressions which was released on January 9, 1964. It is the first album on which Impressions producer Johnny Pate worked with Curtis Mayfield. It pushed the idea of the trio as a supper-club act and included the ballad "I'm So Proud", a Top 20 hit on both the R&B and pop charts.
"Master" Henry Gibson was an American percussionist, appearing on about 1200 albums, spanning a career of four decades.
Leroy Hutson is an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, arranger, producer and instrumentalist, best known as former lead singer of R&B vocal group The Impressions.
"The Ghetto" is a socially conscious, mostly instrumental jazz-flavored anthem, released as the first single off American soul singer Donny Hathaway's debut album, Everything Is Everything, released as a single in 1969 on Atlantic Records.
Everything Is Everything is the first studio album by American soul artist Donny Hathaway, which was released on July 1, 1970 on the Atlantic Records' subsidiary, Atco.
Chapter Two is the second album by the American soul singer Roberta Flack. It was released in 1970 by Atlantic Records.
The Voices of East Harlem was an African-American vocal ensemble of up to 20 singers, aged between 12 and 21. Founded as a community initiative in 1969, the group performed with top soul and R&B musicians and recorded four albums in the early and mid-1970s.
Love Oh Love is the debut solo album by Leroy Hutson, who had been the lead singer of The Impressions after he replaced former lead singer Curtis Mayfield, who left the group to embark on his own solo recording career in 1970. The photography was by Joel Brodsky. The album was the first release by Hutson on Mayfield's Curtom record label.
Joseph "Lucky" Scott was an American bassist, and musical director. He is most recognized for his work with Curtis Mayfield, in particular the Super Fly album. While Lucky was predominantly the bassist and musical director for Curtis Mayfield, his credits also include The Impressions, Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, The Staple Singers, Leroy Hutson, Gladys Knight, and more. He played a Fender Jazz bass with flat wound strings and had an aggressive right-hand plucking technique that was very percussive.
