The Staple Singers Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection 180g 7LP Set (Vinyl)

Craft Recordings is thrilled to announce the release of a vinyl box set celebrating one of music's greatest gospel and soul groups, The Staple Singers.

Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection presents all of the group's studio albums released on the iconic Memphis label, spanning 1968-1974, and features the Staples' biggest hits, including "I'll Take You There", "Respect Yourself" and "If You're Ready (Come Go with Me)". The six studio albums were cut from the original analog masters by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl. The final, seventh disc offers rarities, non-album singles and several live recordings from the legendary 1972 Wattstax music festival. The seven discs come in heavyweight 180-gram vinyl pressed at Memphis Record Pressing. Housed in a slipcase, the collection also includes a deluxe booklet with archival photos and new liner notes from American music specialist and curator Levon Williams (formerly of the Stax Museum and the National Museum of African American Music), and folklorist, ethnomusicologist and writer Dr. Langston Wilkins.

By the time that the Staple Singers signed to Stax in 1968, the family quartet - helmed by patriarch Roebuck "Pops" Staples, with daughters Cleotha and Mavis, and son Pervis (later replaced by his sister Yvonne) - had long graduated from the gospel circuit. The Chicago group had become well known in the counterculture and folk scenes and were performing alongside major rock acts like Big Brother and the Holding Company and the Grateful Dead. The Staples had also become formidable voices in the Civil Rights movement, and many of their songs preached a message of empowerment and racial equality.

In the fall of '68, the group went into the studio to record their first album for Stax, Soul Folk in Action, working with producer Steve Cropper and songwriter Homer Banks. The sessions were set against a backdrop of social and political turmoil, which climaxed with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis. The Staple Singers were known for writing politically charged "message songs," and the year's events certainly inspired many of the tracks on this album, including "Long Walk To D.C." and "The Ghetto". Also notable to this album are stunning covers of The Band's "The Weight" and Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", recorded in tribute to the fallen Stax star, who died tragically just a year earlier in a plane crash. The Staple Singers returned to the studio with Cropper the following year to record We'll Get Over (1970). Highlights include the standout message song "When Will We Be Paid", as well as covers of tracks like Sly & the Family Stone's "Everyday People" and Gladys Knight & the Pips' "The End of the Road".

Though both Soul Folk in Action and We'll Get Over carried powerful messages and tight-knit harmonies, neither had commercial success. And so, for the band's third album, Stax co-president Al Bell (who signed the band) took the helm as producer. With support from the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (also known as "The Swampers"), the Staple Singers found a winning team with Bell, and the resulting album, 1971's The Staple Swingers, would be their first charting record, peaking at No. 9 on Billboard's top R&B albums. The LP offered a funkier sound from the group, with high-energy singles like "Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom)" and the Smokey Robinson cover "You've Got To Earn It".

The group reunited with the Swampers and Bell for 1972's Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, an album that transformed the Staple Singers into mainstream stars. Peaking at No. 19 on the Billboard 200, the groove-filled album featured the Staples' first No. 1 hit - the infectious "I'll Take You There", and "Respect Yourself". The powerful message song not only resonated with African Americans but also with many women across the country as they, too, fought for equal opportunity.

The group's 1973 follow-up, Be What You Are, featured the Top Ten hit "If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)", popular single "Touch A Hand, Make A Friend" and the sweetly harmonized "Love Comes In All Colors", while the Staple Singers' final album with Stax - 1974's City In The Sky - includes such highlights as the politically charged "Washington We're Watching You", "Back Road Into Town" and "Who Made The Man", which marked a return to the group's gospel roots.

The final disc in Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection offers a selection of live tracks from the Staple Singers' energetic performance at Wattstax, as well as B-sides like "Stay With Us", non-album singles like "Oh La De Da" and rarities that include "Walking In Water Over Our Head" and "Trippin' On Your Love".

Following their time at Stax, the Staple Singers continued to tour and record throughout the '70s and early '80s. They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and received a GRAMMY® Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005. In recent years, Mavis Staples has been back in the spotlight - headlining tours and reaching a new generation of fans with her solo records. In 2016, she was the subject of a documentary (Mavis!) and ended the year as a Kennedy Center Honoree.

This marvelous run of records sound brand new in these new all-analog pressings, with the earthy tang of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and the Bar-Kays horn section ripping out of the speakers with hip-shaking fervor. It's all capped off by a collection of stray singles and, most vitally, a recording of the band's set at Wattstax, the day-long concert that brought the best of the label to celebrate the Black art and the Black community of Los Angeles. The Staple Singers' performance is all fire and sweat, with Pops urging the Black Power movement to keep up the good fight and, on 'I'll Take You There,' Mavis testifying like the Holy Spirit had a hold of her body and soul. This is a milestone of American musical history, treated with the appropriate levels of respect and reverence.

The vinyl sounds airy and spacious, and I prefer the LPs to Craft's own hi-res downloads because the vinyl sounds warmer and more natural.