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
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
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
Craft Recordings has announced the next phase of its campaign to honor one of the great labels of soul - Stax Records. Entitled "Soul Explosion," the campaign began with their Record Store Day releases of Boy Meets Girl: Classic Stax Duets, Stax Does The Beatles and the first-ever mono reissue of Albert King's Born Under A Bad Sign. The next phase begins on May 31 and will see new vinyl and digital reissues of classics from 1969, which proved to be a watershed year for the label, and
There have been several reissues this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of individual projects released in 1968. But Craft Recordings has announced a box set which celebrates an entire year's worth of material with Stax '68: A Memphis Story, due on October 19. This 5-CD set contains the A- and B-sides of every single released under the Stax Records banner in 1968, including the company's sub-labels, for a total of 120 tracks. Some tracks are by soul legends like Isaac Hayes, The Staple
Welcome to Part Two of our Ace Records Round-Up! If you missed Part One's spotlight on releases from Clarence Carter and James Carr, just click here! Abe Tilmon, Iry Tilmon, and James Mitchell, a.k.a. The Emeralds, hailed from Little Rock, Arkansas, but once the vocal trio moved to the Motor City in 1967, they rechristened themselves The Detroit Emeralds and signed to Ed Wingate's waning Ric-Tic label. It proved an auspicious start when their debut single, "Show Time," made No. 22 on the
Having just announced a John Lee Hooker box set, Craft Recordings shows no sign of slowdown, yesterday announcing The Sprit Of Memphis (1962-1976) a 4CD box set devoted to the legendary Isaac Hayes. It's impossible to think about the Stax Records sound--or soul music in the '60s and '70s, really--without considering Isaac Hayes. He helped shape the soul-pop sound of Memphis as a writer and producer, involved with smash hits and immortal cuts like "Hold On! I'm A Comin'," "B-A-B-Y" (a recent
From deep within the heart of Memphis to your stereo, the rich legacy of Stax Records will be honored this year as two label partners join forces to commemorate the label's 60th anniversary. Rolling Stone reported yesterday a massive campaign to celebrate Stax artists and albums across physical and digital formats. Notably, this initiative will be carried out by both owners of the Stax catalogue: Rhino/Warner Music Group, which controls much of the label's Atlantic-distributed output from
With a trio of recent releases from Labelle, Cheryl Lynn and Johnnie Taylor, Cherry Red’s SoulMusic Records imprint turns its attention once again to bona fide R&B royalty. When Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles transformed into Labelle, the change was more than merely cosmetic. The quartet was reduced to a threesome when Cindy Birdsong headed to Hitsville USA to replace Florence Ballard in The Supremes. Moreover, under the direction of British manager, producer and songwriter Vicki