Summer may be over, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t turn up the heat in your listening room with some great new music. Stax Records and Craft Recordings have announced Johnnie Taylor, One Step From the Blues, a new collection featuring a dozen heart-breaking songs of passion and betrayal from the gospel-soul-R&B singer.
Available for pre-order today and arriving October 25th on LP, CD, and digital formats, the album includes selections from “the soul philosopher’s” prolific Stax Records period, such as the woozy, souled-up “Steal Away,” the cheeky, beat commentary “Cheaper to Keep Her,” the sweeping ballad “Stop Doggin’ Me,” and the Isaac Hayes/David Porter-penned hit “I Had a Dream.”
One Step From the Blues captures the bluesier side of Taylor’s output, for which he would go on to be nominated for a trio of GRAMMYs, receive a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, and get inducted into both the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.
He is revered to this day as an icon for his groundbreaking work at Stax Records, which dubbed him The Philosopher of Soul. “When he stepped up to the microphone, he gave it his all,” Texas Monthly once marveled, “and at his best, there was no one better.”
Taylor honed his craft in West Memphis, Arkansas, where he grew up crooning in gospel groups. He ultimately joined the Soul Stirrers in 1957, in which he replaced Sam Cooke who left for a solo career. Cooke would sign Taylor to his label, SAR, four years later. After Cooke’s devastating death, Taylor signed to Stax Records, where his secular career would truly take off. The lovesick lament “I Had a Dream” in 1966 was his debut single there, from first album Wanted: One Soul Singer. The song transcends.
The singer would kick off what can best be described as his golden era. He was also Stax’s saving grace, with the label losing Otis Redding — their marquee act at the time — in a 1967 plane crash. That torch would pass to Taylor who went on to shepherd several hits for the label, among them his funky-brassy breakthrough single in 1968, “Who’s Making Love” and later, the from-the-gut soul of “Steal Away” (1970), the smooth seduction of “Stop Doggin’ Me” (1972), and the clever pitter-pattering “Cheaper to Keep Her,” a 1973 single penned by Mack Rice — the genius behind the Staples Sisters’ “Respect Yourself.”
One year after Stax closed in 1975, Taylor would go on to score another major hit on his album Eargasm with the soul-funked “Disco Lady,” which in addition to hitting No.1 on Billboard’s Hot 100, also became the first single ever to be certified platinum by the RIAA. He’d continue releasing music through 1999, when he dropped his last single, the prescient “Soul Heaven.”
The song imagined an all-star concert in the afterlife featuring legendary talent of yore, name-checking everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Biggie Smalls. Soon after, Taylor passed away at age 66 after suffering a heart attack.
Price & Availability
Johnnie Taylor, One Step From the Blues, will be available in LP, CD, and digital formats on October 25, 2024 for $23.99 at Amazon.
A limited-edition Blue vinyl pressing is exclusively available at Barnes & Noble for $26.99.
Pre-save the digital album and listen to the all-new remaster for “Steal Away” today.
About Stax Records:
Stax Records, now owned by Concord, was founded by Jim Stewart in 1957 in Memphis, Tennessee. It rose from a small, family-operated company to become one of the most influential record labels in the world, helping create “The Memphis Sound” and launching the careers of icons such as Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Booker T. & The M.G.’s the Staple Singers, Sam & Dave, Rufus and Carla Thomas, The Bar-Kays, and dozens of other artists who helped change popular culture forever. In all, Stax placed 167 hit songs in the Top 100 in Pop and 243 hits in the Top 100 in R&B.
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