Since 2005 Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) has used the Secret History of Chicago Music to shine a light on worthy artists with Chicago ties who’ve been forgotten, underrated, or never noticed in the first place.

In April, the Numero Group released Soul Music of Illinois , a 732-page, two-volume book by soul and funk authority Dante Carfagna . The first volume contains lists of Illinois labels and artists and their discographies, with a huge gallery of record covers. The second is full of photos and other ephemera—flyers, business cards, newspaper ads, letters. My copy is already paying for itself as a research resource: For instance, it includes the cover of the 1984 Billy Hinton album Hard and Soft . One look, and I knew they’d broken the mold when they made this larger-than-

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