In 1970, bassist Bootsy Collins and his guitar-playing brother Phelps (b.k.a. Catfish) Collins joined James Brown for a brief but revolutionary period of Brown’s career that included recording sessions for groundbreaking hits like “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine” and “Super Bad.” After their stint as The J.B.’s, Bootsy and Catfish returned to Cincinnati and formed a new band, House Guests, with Rufus Allen, Clayton Gunnels, Frankie Waddy, Ronnie Greenaway and Robert McCullough.
House Guests didn’t last too long — Catfish, Bootsy and Waddy (who’d also been with the Collins brothers in their late ’60s band The Pacemakers and was later a member of Bootsy’s Rubber Band) famously joined George Clinton’s Funkadelic/Parliament collective in 1972. But the group did a few recording sessions (also using the name Bootsy Phelps and the Complete Strangers) that resulted in a small handful of singles that are long out of print (and, of course, in-demand collector’s items). But you’ll be able to hear/hold/own them once again without shelling out a fortune when Cincinnati’s Shake It Records releases the House Guests material on a full-length LP that is being released this January.
This Friday (Oct. 26) at 7 p.m., in honor of Bootsy’s 67th birthday, Shake It’s Northside store is hosting a special preview party for the House Guests reissue. The event will include a performance by Indiana University Bloomington’s IU Soul Revue Band, which Bootsy performed with at the Cincinnati Music Festival this past summer.
Bootsy is slated to appear at Shake It for the party, but will not be performing. There will be a bit of a House Guests reunion, though. Bootsy's House Guests bandmates Allen and Waddy (on vocals and drums, respectively) will be sitting in with the IU crew.
Click here for more info on the event.
Here’s one of those early House Guests’ 45s, “My Mind Set Me Free (Part 1).”
