After years of being a team player,
Steve Cropper
got to make a solo album for the label he helped put on the map,
Stax Records
(actually their
Volt
subsidiary). As you might figure, it turned out as an
instrumental
soul
album, and a darn good one, too. It's a bona fide Telecaster-soaked
dance
workout, with
Cropper
turning in signature versions of
"Land of a Thousand Dances,"
"99 1/2,"
(which features a particularly nasty period fuzz guitar),
"Funky Broadway,"
"Boo-Ga-Loo Down Broadway,"
"In the Midnight Hour,"
and original
instrumentals
like
"Crop Dustin'"
and the closer
"Rattlesnake."
A solid and soulful little side project that holds up quite well years later. ~ Cub Koda