When Estelle Axton and Jim Stewart founded Stax Records in 1957, they didn’t have to look far for talent. It was already in the South Memphis neighborhood around 926 East McLemore, the epicenter of Southern soul. That homegrown talent included Booker T. Jones (organ), Steve Cropper (guitar), the late Al Jackson Jr. (drums) and Donald [...]

No other group has influenced rock and roll like The Crickets. Formed by Buddy Holly and Jerry “J.I.” Allison in Lubbock, Texas, in 1956, The Crickets gave us “That’ll Be The Day,” “Peggy Sue,” “Oh Boy,” “Not Fade Away,” “Maybe Baby,” “It’s So Easy” and “I Fought The Law.”  In 1959, Buddy and The Crickets [...]

Duane Eddy’s influence as a guitarist can only be described in superlatives. He has been called “the first rock and roll guitar god” by John Fogerty and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He’s also the most successful rock instrumentalist of all time, who once logged a string of 34 [...]

Best known for the organ riff that kicks off Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone,” session keyboardist Al Kooper has left his stamp on hundreds of recordings from the likes of B. B. King, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and Cream. Starting off as a 14 year old guitarist in The Royal Teens [...]

Trumpeter Wayne Jackson and saxophonist Andrew Love helped define the Stax sound, playing on nearly every record the Memphis label produced.  From their introduction as original members of The Mar-Keys to their prolific recordings on Memphis record labels to their session work as a duo, Love and Jackson have become one of the most recorded [...]

While their soul was in Muscle Shoals this collective lent its musical genius to sessions in New York and Nashville as well. They have appeared on over 500 albums and smash singles such “When A Man Loves a Woman,” “Mustang Sally,” “Respect” and “Respect Yourself.”  But their influence wasn’t limited to R&B. Following in the [...]

Grammy-winning producer, musician, arranger and writer Billy Sherrill came to Nashville to write songs, but ended as up one of the architects – along with Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins – of the “countrypolitan” sound.
Shortly after his arrival, Billy was hired to manage Sun Records’ Nashville studio. One night, music publisher Al Gallico visited Sun [...]