BY STEVEN ROSEN

Although the curatorial reissue label Numero Group is based in Chicago, its roots are in Columbus, Ohio. Its first release, in early 2004, and the inaugural title in the acclaimed Eccentric Soul series, was devoted to Capsoul Records, an obscure, suitably eccentric Columbus record label of the late 1960s/early 1970s.

"We launched our label with Capsoul, and we've done four albums from Columbus, more than any city," announced Ken Shipley, one of the archival label's founders, at the start of Numero's Eccentric Soul Revue roadshow stand in Columbus on Nov. 9.

So not only was the city an appropriate stop for this short U.S. tour, but so was the venue - the Egyptian Revival-style Lincoln Theater, which had opened as a vaudeville/jazz house in the city's historic African-American King-Lincoln District back in 1928 and, legend has it, was where a young Sammy Davis Jr. started his career. It had been vacant for decades until this year, when the city spearheaded a $13.5 million renovation to restore it to its old glories, with updated sound and lighting as well as a glisteningly colorful interior

The show was presented in Columbus by the innovative Wexner Center for the Arts, which meant it attracted arts/pop culture devotees as well as middle-aged and older blacks who remembered when Capsoul was a big deal in Ohio's capitol city.

Primarily, the Eccentric Soul Revue was meant to showcase Numero Group's recent reissue of material from Chicago's late-1960s Twinight label, Twinight's Lunar Rotation. Twinight is best known as home to the prescient soul-blues-funk-protest singles of Syl Johnson ("Different Strokes," "Is It Because I'm Black," "Concrete Reservation"). To fans of Windy City soul, he occupies a position something like Otis Rush's Cobra blues releases of the 1950s - great songs somewhat overlooked today because the label just didn't last for long. Next year, Numero is releasing a definitive box set of Johnson's recordings.

The house/backing band was JC Brooks & the six-member Uptown Sound, with the young, talented Brooks doing yeoman's work of singing warm-up between featured acts, emceeing and providing harmony support when needed. His songs, such as "I Used to Hold You, Now I Hold You Back" had punch and grit and were unexpected pleasures.

For Columbus, the revue added one of Capsoul's finest vocal groups, the Four Mints. Wearing bright-red and black outfits straight out of the 1970s, with a lead singer struggling to stay in tune, their two-song set featured their danceable, sweet 1971 local hit "Row My Boat." Afterward, the writer of the song - Dean Francis - took the stage to express his gratitude.

The show's sole disappointment was that Capsoul artist Marion Black - who recorded the sublime "Go On Fool," a complaint about his wife's lack of appreciation for his hard work - didn't sing as billed. He stood from the audience when announced, acknowledging applause, but that was it.

There were three Twinight acts on the bill - Renaldo Domino, the Notations and Johnson himself, still trim, quick-witted and hard-working at 73. Domino, his voice Smokey-like with its high vulnerable falsetto, was just a kid in 1969 when he recorded the memorable ballad "Not Too Cool to Cry," and in Columbus he sang it with its lovely, dreamy sweetness intact.

The Notations, a quartet decked out in stylish white sport coats and light-green slacks, owe plenty to Chicago soul's most important figure, the late Curtis Mayfield. He was a mentor to its lead vocalist, Cliff Curry, whose onstage kindness and sense of gratitude was reminiscent of Mayfield's own personality.

It was fitting the Notations did an a cappella version of the Impressions' "It's Alright," and high tenor Michael Thurman opened the set with Mayfield's mid-1970s nugget, "Super People." But the group also sang its own regional hit, "I'm Still Here," with impressive authority.

Johnson, whether performing blues or soul material, has always been too idiosyncratic to allow himself to become slick and stylized - one reason he's a hero to the Ponderosa Stomp crowd rather than an oldies-circuit lounge act.

As a singer, there's still nothing formulaic about his approach - he was tough and impassioned and brought a commanding sense of relevance to his material. For instance, on his old hit "Is It Because I'm Black," a melancholy, anti-racist drifting-blues number that has the same kind of chillingly ethereal feel as B.B. King's "The Thrill Is Gone," Johnson ended with a defiant shout-out: "But they can't hold me back anymore because I am President!"

For the Numero revue, he didn't play his guitar but did pull out the harmonica on a few songs, even dropping to his knees to draw more volume on set-closer "Take Me to the River." (As Johnson pointed out, he was the first person to recognize that song's potential, releasing the obscure Al Green album track as a single when he and Green were both Hi Records label mates in the 1970s.)

Johnson's Twinight singles held up amazingly well live - his 1967 hit "Come on Sock It To Me" has a James Brown-like polyrhythmic funk that is more rock-steady than what Brown, himself, was doing at the time. On stage, Johnson shook his hips to it with aplomb, a veritable dancing machine.

The show ended with Brooks calling all the performers on stage for a rousing, extended and unexpected version of the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Actually, for devotees of classic soul, you absolutely could get what you want at the Eccentric Soul Revue in Columbus.

[Photo of Syl Johnson: Rebecca Gizicki / courtesy Numero Group]