One of the most important and ground breaking musicians of all time Booker T is set to play a short series of UK dates.
Booker T is simply a living legend. Heading up the house band at Stax Records, the keyboard player wrote and appeared on more hit records than anyone can count. Based in Memphis, Stax became an emblem of civil rights, featuring black and white musicians working in harmony.
Even in Booker T’s own band The MGs this racial harmony was represented. Steve Cropper, the band’s guitar player, is a white southerner who plied his trade alongside black musicians at a time when pitched battles were being fought in America over the colour divide.
Recording a series of seminal albums, Booker T And The MGs earned a reputation as being the finest soul musicians on the planet. When the Stax / Volt revue pulled into London in 1967 the band were greeted as stars, with The Beatles sending a limousine to the airport to pick them up.
However all good things come to an end. When Martin Luther King Jr was shot dead in Memphis many felt the city changed. Stax certainly did – becoming independent it came to represent black America and many white musicians felt sidelined.
Booker T however, continued to embrace all kinds of music. After leaving Stax the keyboard player worked on Bill Withers’ debut album ‘Just As I Am’ and Willie Nelson’s ‘Stardust’ – tow more disparate albums it is hard to imagine.
Still working hard, Booker T has played alongside Neil Young, touring the world in Shakey’s band. However the musician took time out last year to craft a brand new solo album.
Named ‘Potato Hole’ the record is as fine a slice of soul music as you will hear – infectiously funky, it demonstrates that while those fingers may be older Booker T is as sharp as ever. Now set for a British tour, memories are sure to linger of that iconic Stax revue.
In fact Booker T’s new Scottish date is his first under his own name since that musical marathon in 1967, when he played alongside the late, great soul singer Otis Redding.
Booker T has confirmed the following tour dates:
July
30 London Bush Hall
31 Perth Southern Fried Festival
August
1 Cambridge Cambridge Folk Festival
