New Stax Albums

Nudge It Up A Notch

The soul summit between Steve Cropper (Booker T & The MG's), Felix Cavaliere (The Rascals) and producer-songwriter Jon Tiven found its genesis in Nashville at Tiven's Hormone Studios a couple years back. Drummer Chester Thompson (Frank Zappa, Genesis), signed on and suggested bass player Shake Anderson, who was Curtis Mayfield's protege. The assemblage grew to include two backup singers, Mark Williams and N'nandi Bryant. And that was it. No special guest stars. Tiven says, “This isn't one of those albums where you have to guess who's doing what every guitar lick is Steve, every keyboard is Felix, and all the songs are originals."

“Steve Cropper is a guitar player's guitarist but also a songwriter's songwriter. If the only thing he did in life was to play producer/co-writer/guitarist for Otis Redding, that would be enough. But he also helmed enough albums that made their mark on American pop culture by artists like Booker T & the MGs, The Blues Brothers, Jeff Beck and John Mellencamp to qualify him as a bona fide national treasure," says Tiven. “And Cavaliere, if you were alive in the alive in the mid-to-late '60s, you couldn't go anywhere without hearing his voice and songs are part of his group The Young Rascals (later The Rascals). Their blue-eyed soul dominated the airwaves and gave this country the kind of soul music most folks wouldn't think to associate with a bunch of Long Island Peppermint Lounge expatriates."

Soul man Eddie Floyd's Eddie Loves You So, marks his return to the Stax Records logo. The singer who scored a monster soul classic with “Knock on Wood" in 1967 has returned to his Southern roots for the new CD. Included are 10 original songs written for fellow soul artists in the 50s and 60s. Some date back to Floyd's years with the seminal proto-soul group The Falcons; others are some previously unheard gems.

“Working with Eddie and getting to know him by making this record has been a complete joy," says co-producer Michael Dinallo. “Eddie's energy and enthusiasm has been and continues to be incredibly inspiring. Ducky and I were floored when he started singing. The sound of his voice coming back over the speakers gave us chills and made us howl with delight. In choosing the songs for this record, it hit me that I was surveying the history of soul music by digging through Eddie's catalog of the past 50 years. With current neo-soul movement, it is only appropriate that one of the genre's most important and influential songwriter and performer steps to the front with this record."