Canadian professor Rob Bowman, leading authority on the legendary Stax operation out of Memphis, spent 12 years researching Soulsville USA, and his familiarity both with music and the business operations of the iconic label makes this one of the most in-depth studies ever published on a record company. Bowman discusses not only the artists and the music they recorded at Stax, but digs into rise and fall of the company founded by Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, exploring the politics within the organization, its finances, lawsuits, interracial harmony and discord, promotional strategies, distribution, and hirings and firings. The Stax studios gained fame primarily from the music recorded there by soul stars Otis Redding, Sam & the Dave, Wilson Pickett, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers and others, but the label also recorded some important blues, notably by Albert King during his most influential period and Little Milton, who had several blues hits with Stax. Soul icon Johnnie Taylor’s Stax output included some blues, as did that of Rufus Thomas, Booker T. & the MGs and others.
