Archive Review: Various Artists - Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years (1995)

This nifty little box came to me courtesy of old friend Cary Baker, who had great taste in music as a critic, and even better taste as a publicist. If not for him, I might have completely overlooked Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years as, unfortunately, a lot of music lovers may do as well. It’s a shame, too, because this is a wonderful collection, on par with anything that Atlantic, Rhino, or Capricorn have done these past few years.

Hi Records was founded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1957 by a trio of Sun Records session musicians. They found financial backers for the project, and began to kick out a series of jazzy, almost big band instrumental hits and R&B vocal tunes. The label’s discovery and signing of the talented Willie Mitchell proved to be a fortunate stroke of fate as well as a wise business decision. As an artist, Mitchell was to pull Hi from the brink of bankruptcy with a string of R&B hits that stretched throughout the 1960s; as a songwriter and producer, he became the cornerstone of Hi’s entire operation. The first disc of Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years showcases a number of Mitchell’s hits, including “20-75,” “The Crawl,” and “Everything Is Going To Be All Right” with the Four Kings.

It was during the early ‘60s that Hi Records was to make its greatest impact on the pop and rock music worlds, scoring hit after hit from a pair of Mitchell-produced artists, Al Green and Ann Peebles. Green began his career with a series of solid covers, songs like the Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” the Box Tops’ “The Letter,” or the Motown classic “I Can’t Get Next To You.” When he began working out his own material, he struck literal gold, and his hits topped the pop charts for the better part of the decade: “Let’s Stay Together,” “Tired of Being Alone,” “I’m Still In Love With You,” and others.

Although Peebles didn’t experience nearly the success that Green did on the pop charts, she held her own, singing her heart out in a series of soulful, sultry R&B hits like “(I Feel Like) Breaking Up Somebody’s Home,” “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down,” and the classic “I Can’t Stand The Rain.” Hi Records was about more than just Green and Peebles, however, with artists like Ace Cannon, Otis Clay, Syl Johnson and O.V. Wright contributing to the label’s legacy.

Each benefited from Willie Mitchell’s enormous production skills, spurred on to give their greatest vocal performances by Mitchell’s quiet genius. The Hi house band, led by Teenie Hodges, cranked out a steady groove and a trademark sound that matched that of Stax, their cross-town rivals. All the above artists and more are included among the 68 songs collected on Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years, with other highlights including Johnson’s “Take Me To the River,” Clay’s “Trying To Live My Life Without You,” and Cannon’s “Drunk.”

Hi Records was sold in 1977 and, in the midst of the dreaded disco years, never regained the success and prestige that it had enjoyed for twenty years. When Mitchell left his post two years later, the label lost its greatest asset and with him, any chance of recapturing its past glory. Along with Stax Records, however, Hi Records helped to define what would become known as the “Memphis sound,” as influential a force on the future of rock and pop music as there has ever been. Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years showcases the reason behind this influence, a valuable collection of vital music, songs that sound as fresh and electric today as they did at the time of their release. Highly recommended... (Hi Records/The Right Stuff, released 1995)

Review originally published by R Squared zine

Archive Review: Isaac Hayes' Black Moses (1971/2009)

By the time of his death last year, more people were familiar with Isaac Hayes’ portrayal of the lusty school chef on Comedy Central’s South Park TV show than were with his enormous body of music. It’s a shame, of course, one only partially redeemed by the current drive by the revived Stax Records and the Concord Music Group to revamp the soul giant’s back catalog for the new millennia.

Isaac Hayes, for those that need smartened up, was more than “Chef,” more than the dusky-voiced badass that sang the theme song from the movie Shaft. Hired as the keyboardist of the Stax Records’ house band in 1964, Hayes performed behind folks like Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and blues great Albert King. Hayes would later form a songwriting partnership with David Porter. Together, the two wrote over 200 songs, including hits for artists like Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, and Johnny Taylor, among many others.

Hayes launched his own solo career in 1967 with Presenting Isaac Hayes, but it would be the release, two years later, of Hot Buttered Soul that would provide his commercial breakthrough. Comprised of four lengthy songs, three of them inspired, reinvented cover tunes, the album defined the progressive soul movement. Hayes would take another great commercial and creative step forward in 1971 with the release of his score for the hit movie Shaft, with its ubiquitous theme song, as well as with the ambitious, groundbreaking Black Moses double-album.

One cannot underestimate the influence of Black Moses on the direction of soul music during the ‘70s. With fourteen songs sprawled across two discs, Black Moses provided four sides of effervescent funk, passionate soul, and old-school rhythm & blues. Hayes created Superfly cool a year before Curtis Mayfield; his lusty spoken-word interludes would inform hip-hop/rap music a decade later; and his lush, rhythmic orchestration would foreshadow disco’s rise in popularity during the late ‘70s (*shudder*).    

It was Hayes’ reinvention of soul music, his penchant for virtuoso instrumentation, his songwriting skills, and his ability to take another writer’s song by the throat and make that sucker his bitch that made Black Moses such an important effort. Forget about Barry White or Al Green, Hayes’ cover of “Never Can Say Goodbye” is sheer breathless seduction. Displaying the full breadth of Hayes’ vocal abilities, and backed with on-point harmony vocals and a lush soundtrack, the song’s romantic overtures take on an entirely different vibe here.

Hayes takes Mayfield’s “Man’s Temptation” and turns it inside-out, his desperate vocals often accompanied by a lone drumbeat or shots of keyboard before soaring into passionate washes of backing harmonies and subdued instrumentation. With “Going In Circles,” Hayes layers sensuous harmony vocals, shocks of blasting horns, and jagged washes of funky guitar, his own soulful vocals darting in-and-out of the mix for max effect.

The original “Good Love” comes out of the gate with some irreverent laughter and a tongue-in-cheek spoken intro before jumping into a funky romp with squalls of wiry guitarwork and fleet-footed rhythms. Tackling accomplished country songwriter Kris Kristofferson, Haye’s builds upon other versions of “For the Good Times” with a wonderfully sublime vocal performance, sparse instrumentation, and understated moxie.

Black Moses would prove to be an enormous success, hitting #1 on the R&B chart, #2 on the jazz chart, and rising to #10 on the pop chart while yielding a Top Thirty hit single with “Never Can Say Goodbye.” The album would win Hayes a Grammy™ Award and capped a dominating year for the veteran soul man – Hayes’ soundtrack for Shaft would top all three album charts, win three Grammy™ Awards, and earn Hayes the first Oscar won by an African-American composer. More importantly, Black Moses would provide a creative and evolutionary shift that would have a profound effect on soul and jazz music for a generation to follow.

By the way, the über-cool fold-out cover showing Hayes in full soul-savior glory that worked so well as a 12” LP is mostly just a bother on a 5” cardboard CD cover; with the two discs crammed into tight pockets you have to be careful not to tear when you take ‘em out. Sure, it’s groovy and all that, but couldn’t we have had form and functionality? Jus’ sayin’... (Stax Records, reissued 2009)

Review originally published by Blurt magazine

Stax ’68: A Memphis Story box set

We’ve written about the legendary Stax Records label on That Devil Music.com before. At a time when the music industry was centered on the coasts, the Stax label put Memphis soul on the map in the mid-to-late ‘60s with influential and innovative records by giants like Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla, Otis Redding, and Booker T & the M.G.’s. As they approached the decade of the 1970s, the label branched out into blues music with essential recordings by guitarist Albert King and they pioneered ‘70s soul and funk with groundbreaking releases by the great Isaac Hayes. In our house, there’s no such thing as too much music from Stax Records.

Stax Records, now owned by the Concord Music Group, celebrated its 60th anniversary last year with a slew of archival releases including vinyl reissues of vintage LPs by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas; a four-disc Isaac Hayes box set; and individual “best of” CDs by some of the label’s biggest stars. The celebration has continued into 2018 and on October 19th, Craft Recordings, Concord’s archival imprint, will release Stax ’68: A Memphis Story, a five-disc box set that offers the A- and B-sides of every single released by the label during that tumultuous year. The set also includes a 56-page book with in-depth liner notes by writers Robert Gordon, Andrea Lisle, and Steve Greenberg as well as rare and previously-unpublished photos.

More important is the music – more than 120 songs spread across the five CDs – featuring both some of Stax’s marquee stars like Redding, Hayes, William Bell, Johnnie Taylor, Eddie Floyd, and the Staple Singers but also from underrated talents like Mable John, Linda Lyndell, the Soul Children, and the Mad Lads. The year was a tough one for Stax, which had lost its distribution deal with (and control of the label’s back catalog to) Atlantic Records. The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis had a profound effect on the label’s multi-racial roster of musicians, and Stax was already reeling from the December 1967 death of the great Otis Redding.

Considering the enormous track listing for the Stax ’68: A Memphis Story box, I’m amazed at the sheer amount of great music Stax released over the course of the year. While not all of the singles were huge hits, they were all of uniformly high quality. Of course, there are the ‘heavy hitters’ – songs like Otis Redding’s posthumous hit “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” Sam & Dave’s classic “I Thank You,” Johnnie Taylor’s smooth-as-silk hit “Who’s Makin’ Love,” and Albert King’s fiery “Blues Power” – but there are also faintly-remembered tunes like Booker T & the M.G.’s “Soul Limbo” and Carla Thomas’s “A Dime A Dozen.” The box set also includes long-lost material by folks like the Memphis Nomads, the Bar-Kays, Shirley Walton, Judy Clay, Billy Lee Riley, and the Epsilons as well as rock ‘n’ roll by cult band Southwest F.O.B. and the first recordings by Delaney & Bonnie and Bobby Whitlock (Derek & the Dominoes).

The Stax ’68: A Memphis Story box retails for roughly $70 (less for a downloadable digital version) but is also available in various “deluxe bundles” from the Stax Records online store. Ranging in prices up to $120, you can get bundles with a cool letter-pressed vintage poster, Stax hat and t-shirt, or all of the swag in the “Superb Bundle.” The release of Stax ’68: A Memphis Story coincides with two exhibits opening at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, Tennessee – “The Sound of ’68” and “Give A Damn! Music + Activism at Stax Records.” Details on both exhibits are available from the museum website.

Buy the box set from Amazon.com: Stax ’68: A Memphis Story

Also on That Devil Music.com:
Otis Redding - Live at the Whiskey A Go Go CD review
Sam & Dave - Stax Classics CD review
Carla Thomas - Stax Classics CD review
Isaac Hayes - Stax Classics CD review

Short Rounds: Catfish, Jimmie Vaughan Trio, King Crimson & Memphis Rent Party (2018)

New album releases in 150 words or less…

Catfish – Get Down/Live Catfish (BGO Records)
Bob “Catfish” Hodge grew up in Detroit, birthplace of most of the country’s high-octane blues, R&B, and rock ‘n’ roll (sorry Memphis). A leather-lunged blues-belter and a mighty fine guitarist, Hodge formed Catfish in the late ‘60s, opening for the likes of Bob Seger, Mountain, and Santana. Catfish only released a pair of 1970 albums – Get Down and Live Catfish – but it’s been enough to earn them a cult following that spans decades. This two-disc BGO reissue includes both LPs, remastered and with new liner notes but no bonus tracks. Get Down offers nine powerful jams, including the blues-on-roids “The Hawk” while Live Catfish, recorded in Hodge’s hometown, is electrifying with the tongue-in-cheek “Letter To Nixon” and a ramshackle cover of the Motown gem “Nowhere To Run.” Hodge is still kicking around to this day, with a dozen or so solo albums on tap. RIYL Johnny Winter or Walter Trout. Grade: B+   BUY IT!

Jimmie Vaughan Trio – Live at C-Boy’s (Proper Records)
Guitarist Jimmie Vaughan strips his sound down to the raw blues bones, fronting a trio that includes keyboardist Mike Flanigin and the late drummer Barry “Frosty” Smith (who played with Lee Michaels in the ‘70s). Recorded at C-Boy’s Heart and Soul club in Austin, Texas back in March 2016, Live at C-Boy’s is a no-frills, mostly-instrumental collection of well-chosen blues, rock, and jazz cover tunes that perfectly capture the smoky ambiance and late-night vibe of the performance. The jazzy instrumental arrangement of the Lennon/McCartney gem “Can’t Buy Me Love” showcases Vaughan’s immense chops and range of talent while the classic “Saint James Infirmary” features Flanigin’s emotional keys. The bluesy “Dirty Work At the Crossroads” offers Vaughan’s underrated vocals alongside his expressive fretwork while Slide Hampton’s “Frame For the Blues” explores the jazzy side of blues street. The performances are fine but missing the spark that would have made them great. Grade: B-   BUY IT!

King Crimson – Live In Vienna (Discipline Global Mobile)
Prog-rock pioneers King Crimson have discovered gold in beating the bootleggers by releasing frequent live discs for their loyal following. Live In Vienna is a career-spanning three-disc set at a reasonable price, packaged in a slipcase with 16pp booklet, offering everything the hardcore fan could want. Disc one features a majestic reading of “In the Court of the Crimson King” and the cybernetic funk of “Vroom” while disc two includes the darkly chaotic “Red” and the grand story-telling of “Cirkus.” The pulse-quickening electricity of “21st Century Schizoid Man” anchors disc three, which includes a reverent and imaginative cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes.” There’s plenty more, including the first-ever live performance of “Fracture,” making Live In Vienna a comprehensive set by any standards. Offering 30 performances by one of the best Crimson line-ups, Live In Vienna delivers an incredible mix of old favorites and new gems in Crimson’s unique, indomitable style. Grade: A   BUY IT!

Various Artists – Memphis Rent Party (Fat Possum Records)
The ‘soundtrack’ to writer Robert Gordon’s excellent Memphis Rent Party, this vinyl-only compilation adds punctuation to Gordon’s vivid storytelling. The buffet begins with real-life outlaw Jerry McGill’s incredible reading of Guy Clark’s classic “Desperadoes Waiting For A Train” before seguing into Luther Dickinson and Sharde Thomas (daughter of Otha) kicking up dust with the bluesy, hypnotic “Chevrolet.” Half the LP comprises previously-unreleased material like Alex Chilton’s shambolic romp on reggae legend Jimmy Cliff’s “Johnny Too Bad” or Memphis legend Jim Dickinson’s tongue-in-cheek “I’d Love To Be A Hippie (But My Hair Won’t Grow That Long).” There are lo-fi recordings of Hill Country blues great Junior Kimbrough and fiery band the Fieldstones as well as Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Feathers, Furry Lewis, and the Panther Burns, a glorious platter of blues, jazz, R&B, and rockabilly. Pressed on black vinyl, this is the sound and fury of Memphis music in its glory. Grade: A+   BUY IT!

Previously on That Devil Music:
Robert Gordon’s Memphis Rent Party book review

Short Rounds, March 2018: 6 String Drag, The Doors, the Nick Moss Band & Jack White
Short Rounds, February 2018: 6 String Drag, Tinsley Ellis, Mabel Greer's Toyshop & Wishbone Ash
Short Rounds, January 2018: Ethiopian & His All Stars, Gladiators, Moloch & Phil Seymour

It’s A Memphis Rent Party in March!

Grammy™ Award-winning writer and music historian Robert Gordon (no relation) is the author of some of my favorite books on music, including It Came From Memphis, Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion, and Can’t Be Satisfied, the best Muddy Waters bio, bar none. Gordon has a new tome that will be published on March 6th, 2018 titled Memphis Rent Party: The Blues, Rock & Soul in Music’s Hometown, an exploration of the great music made by legends like bluesman Furry Lewis, rocker Alex Chilton, and many others.

On March 9th, a few days after the publication of what promises to be another great book by Gordon, Fat Possum Records will release a soundtrack LP on glorious vinyl to accompany the book. Featuring a veritable “who’s who” of unsung Memphis musical idols, the album covers the genres and artists that make the Bluff City special, from the aforementioned Lewis and Chilton to Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, early rockers Charlie Feathers and Jerry Lee Lewis, and bona fide Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson.

Better than half of the Memphis Rent Party album is comprised of previously-unreleased material like Chilton’s reckless performance of reggae legend Jimmy Cliff’s classic “The Harder They Come”; a collaboration between the North Mississippi Allstars’ Luther Dickinson and Sharde Thomas, granddaughter of bluesman Otha Turner; and Big Daddy Jim Dickinson’s tongue-in-cheek track “I’d Love to Be A Hippie (But My Hair Won’t Grow That Long).”

Memphis Rent Party also includes two lo-fi recordings that Gordon made on location with a cassette recorder – Junior Kimbrough’s “All Night Long,” recorded in 1986 in the Hill Country Blues legend’s living room, and the Fieldstones’ “Little Bluebird,” caught live at the notorious Green’s Lounge in Memphis. The album also features music by local talents like jazz legend Calvin Newborn, pianist Mose Vinson, and country singer Jerry McGill’s reading of the Guy Clark classic “Desperados Waiting For A Train,” the singer backed by Dickinson’s Mud Boy and the Neutrons, the song recorded while McGill was on the run from the law.

No matter your taste in music, there’s something among the dozen tracks on Memphis Rent Party to tickle your fancy, the album’s creative diversity making it the perfect soundtrack to listen to while reading Gordon’s latest book!

Memphis Rent Party LP tracklist:

Side A
1. Jerry McGill – “Desperados Waiting For A Train”
2. Luther Dickinson and Sharde Thomas – “Chevrolet”
3. Junior Kimbrough – “All Night Long”
4. Furry Lewis – “Why Don’t You Come Home Blues”
5. Calvin Newborn – “Frame for the Blues”

Side B
1. Alex Chilton with the Randy Band – “Johnny Too Bad”
2. Jerry Lee Lewis – “Harbor Lights”
3. The Fieldstones – “Little Bluebird”
4. The Panther Burns – “Drop Your Mask”
5. Mose Vinson – “Same Thing on My Mind”
6. Charlie Feathers – “Defrost Your Heart”
7. Jim Dickinson – “I’d Love to Be A Hippie”

Buy the book from Amazon.com: Robert Gordon’s Memphis Rent Party

By the LP from Amazon.com: Fat Possum’s Memphis Rent Party

Isaac Hayes Classic LPs Back On Vinyl

It’s no secret that the Reverend is an Isaac Hayes fan. The Memphis soul legend wrote and performed a large part of the soundtrack of my teen years, and Hayes’ classic albums like Hot Buttered Soul, Black Moses, and the soundtrack to the film Shaft were trailblazing, influential releases that vaulted Hayes to superstar status and re-defined soul music for a generation to follow. On February 23rd, 2018 Craft Recording will be releasing newly-remastered editions of all three of these iconic albums on glorious 180-gram black vinyl.

Hot Buttered Soul, Black Moses, and Shaft were all remastered by sound engineer Dave Cooley from the original analog tapes and are packaged in reproductions of the original sleeves, complete with old-school style tip-on jackets and, for Black Moses, a replica of the outrageous (at the time) four-foot cross-shaped fold-out image of Hayes. These issues follow the critically-acclaimed four-disc box 2017 set Isaac Hayes: The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976), which celebrated the groundbreaking artist’s talents as a songwriter, performer, and producer which was released as part of the year-long party honoring the 60th anniversary of the legendary Stax Records label.

Released in 1969, Hot Buttered Soul was Hayes’ sophomore effort; the album topped the Billboard R&B chart and hit a respectable #8 on the trade magazine’s Hot 100 pop chart, yielding a Top 30 single with “Walk On By” b/w “By The Time I Get To Phoenix.” The soundtrack to the 1971 film of the same title, the double-album Shaft would top all the charts on the strength its #1 hit single “Theme From Shaft,” which earned Hayes an Academy Award. Shaft would go on to become Stax’s best-selling LP of all time (even charting in the U.K.).

A few months later, Hayes shocked the world with Black Moses, his fifth studio album, another two-disc set, and a monster creative effort that would hit #1 on the R&B chart and #10 on the pop chart, the album’s cover of the Jackson 5 song “Never Can Say Goodbye” rising to #22 on the singles chart. All three albums are truly revolutionary works, and it will be good to hear them on vinyl once again!

Related Content:
Isaac Hayes - Stax Classics CD review

CD Review: Sam & Dave's Stax Classics (2017)

The duo of Sam & Dave stood out even amidst a stable of talent as diverse and legendary as that blessed upon Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee. The legendary R&B duo of Sam Moore and Dave Prater performed together for two decades, from 1961 to 1981, delivering a string of hits that were influential far beyond their chart success. The pair struggled through their early days, and couldn’t buy a hit until they were signed to Atlantic Records by producer and A&R man Jerry Wexler. Sensing their potential, Wexler sent them to Memphis to record for the Stax label, which was distributed by Atlantic at the time.

Wexler’s largesse was pure genius. While at Stax Records, Sam & Dave largely performed material penned by the in-house songwriting team of Dave Porter and Isaac Hayes. This partnership would result in ten consecutive Top 20 R&B chart singles and three Top 10 albums for Sam & Dave, as well as lucrative “crossover” success as the duo made thirteen straight appearances on the pop chart as well as two Top 10 singles. They also helped popularize soul music with white audiences and, in doing so, created an indelible musical legacy that persists to this day. Sam & Dave songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as ZZ Top, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, and the Temptations, among many others.

Sam & Dave’s Stax Classics

As part of Stax Records’ 60th anniversary celebration, the label is revisiting its legendary hitmakers with new CD/LP/digital collections under the Stax Classics banner. Sam & Dave’s Stax Classics opens, appropriately, with the pair’s first Top 20 pop hit, 1966’s “Hold On! I’m Comin’,” which was also their first R&B chart-topper for the Memphis label. With deliciously rowdy vocals soaring above deep rhythms, it’s the ‘go to’ song for many Sam & Dave fans. Better known, perhaps, is their enduring signature song, 1967’s “Soul Man,” also written by Hayes and Porter and featuring an infectious, sing-a-long chorus, brassy horns, and some funky pickin’ by Col. Steve Cropper. Their second chart-topping R&B hit, “Soul Man” narrowly missed dominating the pop world as well, peaking at a respectable #2 on the pop chart. The last of the duo’s trio of larger-than-life hits, 1968’s “I Thank You” evinces a sly funky groove that would subsequently inspire everybody from George Clinton to Sly Stone in the years to follow. “I Thank You” was also a Top 10 pop hit would peak at #4 on the R&B chart.

There’s more to Sam & Dave than those three hits, however, some of the best of which is showcased on Stax Classics. Their cover of Sam Cooke’s “Soothe Me” breathes new life into an obscure track with an enchanting performance that succeeded artistically if not commercially (it was only a modest hit). Sandwiched in between their big hits, 1965’s “You Don’t Know Like I Know” offers a uniquely Sam & Dave spin on what could have been a Motown hit while the soul classic “I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down” is provided a bluesy, almost gospel fervor that would later inspire Elvis Costello to cover the song. With a loping groove, piano tinkling, and a heavy bass line, “You Got Me Hummin’” juxtaposes the two singer’s voices against each other to great effect as the horns punctuate the song’s mesmerizing rhythm. The album-closing “I Take What I Want” mimics the Ray Charles’ hit “I Don’t Need No Doctor” with its strident rhythms but Sam & Dave take it up a notch with a subtle albeit strong vocal performance dancing atop a surging guitar riff.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

There have been a lot of variations on a Sam & Dave “greatest hits” compilation released through the years, including 2009’s sixteen-track The Very Best of Sam & Dave album and the one that the Reverend originally bought back in the day, 1981’s twenty-one track The Best of Sam & Dave, both of which are still available if you look hard enough. The budget-priced Stax Classics does a fine job of distilling the duo’s immense legacy to a lean ‘n’ mean twelve tracks, however, offering crystalline remastered sound and fresh, informative liner notes for both the newcomer and longtime fan. This is soul music at its very best, excellently performed by the legendary duo of Sam & Dave. Grade: A (Stax Records/Rhino Records, released May 19, 2017)

Stax Records celebrates 60 great years!

Here at That Devil Music, we got a whole lotta love in our hearts for the legendary Memphis soul label Stax Records. Stax is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and they’re planning one hell of a party! On May 19th, 2017 Concord Music Group and Rhino Entertainment, as part of a joint marketing collaboration, will release specially-curated, budget-friendly collections of some of the best and soul and blues music that ever walked the planet as the Stax Classics series.

The new Stax Classics releases celebrates some of the iconic record label’s greatest stars, each package offering new liner notes, label discographies, and a dozen red-hot tracks from the individual artist’s Stax album releases, both the hits and rare tracks as well. The first slate of Stax Classics releases feature the immense talents of Albert King, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, William Bell, Sam & Dave, and Booker T & the M.G.’s.

There will be plenty to celebrate throughout the year as both Concord and Rhino plan on reissuing a number of classic Stax albums on CD and vinyl. On the schedule is a 50th anniversary vinyl pressing of the great Otis Redding/Carla Thomas album King & Queen (Rhino Records),  Melvin Van Peebles’ best-selling soundtrack to the blaxploitation classic Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song (Concord Music), and Otis Redding’s 1965 gem The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads (Rhino Record).

There will also be some very cool CD box sets coming from Stax in 2017, including the August release of the four-disc anthology Isaac Hayes: The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976) in honor of the late Isaac Hayes’ 75th birthday, a three-CD Stax 60th anniversary box set, and the fourth volume of The Complete Stax Singles series which includes singles released not only by Stax and Volt Records, but also by Enterprise, Hip, Chalice, and other labels. Both Rhino and Concord Music will also be raiding their respective vaults for high-resolution digital reissues of classic Stax Records albums.

One of the most important and influential American record labels of the 20th century, during an impressive 15-year run Stax Records released more than 800 singles and nearly 300 albums, winning eight Grammy® Awards and an Academy Award, placing 167 hits on the Top 100 pop charts and 243 hit songs on the R&B chart. The roster of legendary blues and R&B artists that Stax Records worked with is truly impressive, including the talents mentioned above as well as folks like the Bar-Kays, Eddie Floyd, O.B. McClinton, Little Milton, the Emotions, Rufus Thomas, Mable John, and too many others to list. Stayed tuned to That Devil Music for more news throughout the year as Stax celebrates the big 6-0!

Buy the CDs from Amazon.com:
Albert King's Stax Classics 
Otis Redding's Stax Classics 
Isaac Hayes's Stax Classics 
The Staple Singers's Stax Classics
Carla Thomas's Stax Classics 
Johnnie Taylor's Stax Classics
William Bell's Stax Classics 
Sam & Dave's Stax Classics 
The Dramatics's Stax Classics 
Booker T & the M.G.’s Stax Classics

Soul Giant Isaac Hayes goes digital!

There’s no denying the importance and influence of Memphis soul giant Isaac Hayes on a generation of blues, rock, and R&B artists. Critically-acclaimed Hayes albums like 1969’s Hot Buttered Soul and 1971’s Black Moses and the soundtrack to the movie Shaft broke through genre barriers with their imaginative blend of soul, jazz, and even classical music. As a skilled songwriter, Hayes wrote or co-wrote (with partner David Porter) hits for artists like Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, and Johnnie Taylor, among others. Hayes also dabbled successfully in acting, starring in films like Truck Turner and Escape From New York as well as on TV shows like Miami Vice and The Rockford Files. He is probably best known for his decade-long tenure as “Chef” on the animated TV series South Park. 

Stax Records, a division of Concord Bicycle Music, has announced the digital release of a dozen of Hayes’ albums from the period 1969 to 1976, many of them long out-of-print in both vinyl and CD formats. Eleven of the LPs have been re-mastered in 192/24 and 96/24 high resolution audio formats and available from HDTracks, while all twelve albums have been Mastered For iTunes and can be downloaded from Hayes’ new iTunes artist page. The albums have been digitally re-mastered by award-winning engineer Dave Cooley at his Elysian Masters studio in Los Angeles. In a press release about the project, Cooley states “for the first time, you can plainly hear details as small as the subtle coloration variations between the original studio setups and tape formulations from album to album. There’s renewed resolution around instruments.  But you can also dive into the zoned-out atmospherics, and listen comfortably for hours as an entire body of work.”

Those titles recently made available include the aforementioned Hot Buttered Soul, Black Moses, and the Shaft OST (the latter two of which earned Hayes an Academy Award and three well-deserved Grammy® Awards). The slate also includes underrated Hayes albums like 1970’s …To Be Continued, 1973’s Joy, and 1975’s Chocolate Chip; the 1973 concert documentary Live At The Sahara Tahoe; and Hayes’ inspired soundtracks for the films Truck Turner and Tough Guys. Check out the entire list on Hayes’ iTunes page. In addition to these digital versions, a year-long schedule of releases is planned by Stax for 2017, including 180-gram vinyl reissues and a retrospective box set.