The histories of country and soul music have always run parallel. Both emerged from the lower-class environs of the Deep South in the early 20th century, blending varying amounts of blues, jazz, gospel, and Appalachian folk music to achieve two discrete concoctions whose surface distinctions — mainly bound to race — only served to mask identical hearts. Over the years, more musicians than can be named here have recognized these crucial similarities; from the “Cosmic American Music” of Gram Parsons and the Flying …

Stax Records Week could not go on without Otis Redding. Granted, too many people have made the mistake of using Redding as a catch-all symbol for all of the great moments in Soul music; but at the same time, whenever that aching, smoky-sweet voice pours out of a set of speakers, anyone can understand why this mistake is so often made. Otis Redding sang with a resonant loneliness that can still capture any listener and both soothe and plummet them to emotional depths few …

If it’s been said once, it’s been said a thousand times (and that’s just by us in the last week): the soul music of the 1960s and early ’70s, and the raw Memphis soul of prime Stax/Volt in particular, is the bridge which connects the African American blues and gospel traditions with the all-consuming force of heavy funk. But to read that statement as some kind of dry, academic fact is one thing; to actually hear it in action is decidedly another. Listening to …

You’ve been reading about Stax all week. You’ve learned about Booker T. & The MGs, and a bunch of monolithic icons you’ve probably never heard of. It’s fascinating stuff, but admittedly a lot of information to absorb. Rance Allen is yet another monolith. He’s important! He shattered boundaries! Why should you maintain interest?
Because Rance Allen sings disco gospel. Music does not come any more awesome than that.
Allen’s backing groups play that wonderful ’70s soul sound, halfway between disco and Motown. They attack most variations …

Whenever the average music listener thinks of a man named King associated with the blues, it’s always B.B. gracefully brandishing his Lucille. And there’s not really a problem with that, B.B. King is the living king of modern blues, after all, but if ever there was a blues King who deserved to be noticed, it’s another man named Albert.
Albert King’s unique guitar style makes him perhaps the most distinctive guitarist of the blues pantheon; he was a left-handed guitar player who never restrung his …

Johnnie Taylor may be largely unknown now, but his influence is far-reaching, helping to form the sound of artists such as Otis Redding, Al Green, and Sam & Dave. For Taylor’s Stax Profiles collection, former News frontman Huey Lewis has compiled some of the best selections from the singer’s nearly six-decade career, covering a wide range of the genres in which Taylor experimented: R&B, blues, soul, and disco, among others.
Taylor was discovered by Sam Cooke in the early 1950s, and would later replace …

As our Stax tribute week plows on, it becomes even more conspicuous that Stax was a label full of legends, soul masters and trend setters. The most cursory trip through the Stax catalogue yields the usual characters: Otis Redding, Albert King, Wilson Pickett… you can probably fill in the rest. And the thing that bound these artists together, bundled them up into an identity and place in history under the banner of Stax, was the sound of the recordings themselves. Yeah, …

I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but here it is: I, like many music listeners, spent far too many years believing Eddie Floyd’s classic, “Knock on Wood,” was recorded by Wilson Pickett. Now hold on for a second; before you accuse me of a lack of R&B credibility and storm away, the fact is, my embarrassingly long-lived mistake wasn’t too far off the mark.
Anchored by a hard-driving horn refrain and that chunky, funky Steve Cropper guitar, “Knock on Wood” is a dead ringer for …

I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but here it is: I, like many music listeners, spent far too many years believing Eddie Floyd’s classic, “Knock on Wood,” was recorded by Wilson Pickett. Now hold on for a second; before you accuse me of a lack of R&B credibility and storm away, the fact is, my embarrassingly long-lived mistake wasn’t too far off the mark.
Anchored by a hard-driving horn refrain and that chunky, funky Steve Cropper guitar, “Knock on Wood” is a dead ringer for …

“Songs We’re Thankful For”:
The Modern Pea Pod’s 2006 Mixtape
Do you mind if we get a little personal? This time of year, as you’re surely aware, is about giving thanks for the things in life you appreciate. So why should the Modern Pea Pod’s music page be any different? We don’t write about music for our health, or because we like the sound of our own voices (although, to be fair, the latter is true as well). We write about music because we’re passionate about it; because somewhere along the line, …