Various Soulsville U.S.A. - A Celebration of Stax (3-CD)

(2017/Craft Records) 60 tracks -

As legend would have it, STAX Records replaced cotton as the single biggest product to come out of Memphis, Tennessee, during its fabled late-1960s heyday. If you know the STAX story, it's not hard to believe. But if you only know the hits, and not the rags to riches (and back to rags again) story of the label that launched the careers of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam & Dave, the Staple Singers, Booker T. & The MG's and so many more, then it gives you some sense of the enormity of STAX's place in music history.

The label placed more than 167 songs that hit the Top 100 pop charts, and an almost unbelievable 243 to make the Top 100 R&B charts. But, as impressive as those statistics are, they are only part of the STAX story. From its earliest days as a label, and adjacent record store, STAX was an oasis in Memphis, Tennessee, in the heart of the Deep South. At a time when many Southern whites were holding on to small, bitter, racist values - when blacks and whites in Memphis would hardly ever socialize, let alone sit and eat or ride the bus together - STAX was something altogether different.

When you walked inside the old theater on McLemore Avenue that had been converted into a recording studio and offices for the label's founders, former banker Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton, and their growing staff, you became an equal amongst your peers, as STAX's alums all attest. Black or white, you were judged on the quality of your work, and your commitment to your craft, and nothing else....