Excerpt from Cooler Than Ice: Arctic Records and the Rise of Philly Soul:
Mary Deloach sang early ‘50s gospel platters with a mighty voice and blazing electric guitar. She also recorded jumping R&B such as “Beer Bottle Boogie,” masquerading as Marylyn Scott. Apart from Sister Rosetta Tharpe, this wasn’t a common career path, the two genres generally steering as clear of one another as possible.
Born in Seabord, North Carolina, Marylyn Scott Deloatch had already had a dual gospel-R&B career when she cut a romping jump blues single with Johnny Otis coupling what’s now her best-known number, “Beer Bottle Boogie” (complete with a wild guitar solo), with “Uneasy Blues.” The results were issued on Regent as by Marylyn Scott, sub-billed “The Carolina Blues Girl.” She laid down the gospel themes “I Want To Die Easy” and “I Really Believe” the same day with Otis on drums and pianist Devonia Williams--all that was needed to support her stirring voice and guitar. Regent pressed those two sides up under Deloach’s name.
A decade-and-a-half later, in March 1967, Louise Williams and Arctic resurrected Mary De Loach (as she was now billed) with a sanctified vengeance. The two-part “Move This Thing” is a blistering extended sanctified raveup, Mary De Loach ripping into her one-chord creation like she was trying to punch her ticket through the Pearly Gates on the strength of this performance alone. The rhythm section keeps up with her thundering guitar, and her vocal attack hadn’t lost a thing. Arctic’s intermittent gospel series didn’t get any more inspirational than this.
