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Roots & Influences - The World of Stax
Comment:
Stax began taste-testing the recipe for its Southern soul stew [i]long[/i] before its first record ever hit store shelves. Because Jim Stewart — whose last name gave "STAX" its "ST" — started out as a Western swing fiddler, and considering that Southern soul is as much about hillbilly as it is R&B, you [i]gotta[/i] hear Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys' corn-liquor jugful of barrelhouse woe, "Brain Cloudy Blues." The "5" Royales blazed the trail through gospel and R&B to rock, and their hard-boogie mash-up of doo-wop and jump blues "Messin' Up" inspired Stax's triple-threat ace Steve Cropper to model his sound on Royale guitarist Lowman Pauling's. Memphis DJ (and future Stax stable star) Rufus Thomas takes a fat-pawed swipe at Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog" with his raw-boned rave-up "Bear Cat." And rockabilly rebels Ray Scott and Don Willis provide the two-stage booster rocket that launched Jim Stewart's pre-Stax imprint Satellite into orbit with "You Drive Me Crazy" and "Boppin' High School Baby," respectively. From B.B. King to Hank Williams, we've got all the threads that weave into the very fabric of Stax.