The Southern soul of Stax Records truly knew no boundaries. This summer, a classic instance of its staying power, recorded live in concert, will be revisited on a new 2CD/2LP set. Stax Revue: Live in ’65! expands a pivotal pair of concerts undertaken at the 5-4 Ballroom in Los Angeles 60 summers ago when the Memphis label – newly bolstered by a distribution deal with Atlantic Records – took several of its marquee acts to the West Coast (many for the first time) for a spirited club set packed with favorites by…
The Living Word: New Box Sets Chronicle Wattstax in Full, 50 Years On
One of the greatest music festivals of the ’70s is getting celebrated with an exhaustive array of reissues in 2023: Wattstax, the multi-dimensional Los Angeles celebration of soul, funk, blues and gospel courtesy of Stax Records. A half-century after the premiere of a Golden Globe-nominated documentary on the star-studded 1972 event, Craft Recordings, custodian of the Stax catalogue, will release the most definitive looks at Wattstax, most recently addressed in a 3CD box set in 2003 that took the highlights of both double albums from 1973 and added even more material. Soul’d…
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Weather Any Storm: Stax Legend David Porter Returns with New Solo Album
“Soul Man.” “Hold On! I’m Comin’!” “B-A-B-Y.” “Your Good Thing Is About to End.” “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby.” The music of David Porter defined the sound of Stax Records, and by extension, soul music itself. Porter wrote those classic R&B tunes in collaboration with Isaac Hayes, but whereas his musical partner embraced the spotlight, Porter largely stayed out of it. Much as Hayes did, Porter launched a solo career, but his four Stax LPs recorded between 1970 and 1973 became cult classics rather than full-blown commercial successes. Now, this…
I’ve Been Loving You: Vinyl Me, Please Spotlights Stax Classics in New VMP Anthology Box
Vinyl Me Please is at it again! Following their celebrations of Blue Note, Motown, and Ghostly International, the subscription service is set to release a new volume of their acclaimed VMP Anthology Series. This time, they’re shining a light on the history of Stax Records. As with previous volumes, The Story of Stax Records will be told in four chapters. The eight albums included in the box will be wrapped in “secrecy sleeves” that can be unveiled at specific points in the journey. Though titles have not been revealed, VMP has announced…
Gotta Groove: Craft’s “Soul Explosion” Stax Celebration Continues With 5 New Reissues
This fall, Craft Recordings will continue its celebration of the rich and varied sounds of Stax Records with a further batch of reissues in the Soul Explosion series. The year-long campaign puts a spotlight on Stax’s years as an independent label following their split from Atlantic fifty years ago. During that period, the label released a staggering 27 albums and 30 singles in just a handful of months. With a host of hits and best-selling albums from evergreen acts and new signers-on alike, Stax proved its strength as one of the top…
Stax of Wax: Ace Mines Stax Records For New Anthology, Isaac Hayes and David Porter Reissues
Ace Records has recently celebrated the enduring legacy of Stax Records with a trio of exciting releases from some of the label’s leading lights. The Isaac Hayes Movement’s 1975 Disco Connection makes its first ever CD appearance, joined by Hayes’ songwriting partner David Porter’s equally rare 1970 …Into a Real Thing in a newly-expanded edition. Ace tops it all off with Ian Levine’s Solid Stax Sensations, a revelatory collection showcasing the varied sides of the Stax label family. It’s likely that songwriters Bert Berns and Wes Farrell never imagined “Hang On, Sloopy”…
