Parlor Greens

Parlor Greens is an instrumental organ trio built around players with long résumés in contemporary soul and blues: organist Adam Scone, guitarist Jimmy James and drummer Tim Carman, formerly of GA-20. The group records for Colemine Records, the Loveland, Ohio label known for its analogue-minded approach to funk and soul reissues and new recordings.

The music runs on the classic Hammond-guitar-drums format, weighted toward groove and tone rather than extended soloing. Tracks stay compact and mid-tempo, pulling from New Orleans funk and 1960s soul-jazz, cut with the warm, slightly compressed sound Colemine favors.

The trio's debut, In Green We Dream, introduced them to an audience already receptive to instrumental funk. Its follow-up, Emeralds, arrived two years later, opening with 'Eat Your Greens,' a Charles Earland-style four-on-the-floor cut, and moving through the crunchy R&B of 'Red Dog' and the Dr. Lonnie Smith-indebted 'Lion's Mane.'

The Emeralds sessions were recorded at Colemine's Portage Lounge studio in Loveland, this time with each member working through personal loss. That weight surfaces most directly on the closing track, 'Queen Of My Heart,' which James wrote for his mother after her death.