Just about two years ago, I reviewed Nudge It Up A Notch <\/i>by Steve Cropper and Felix Cavaliere. It was a collaborative effort by two Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame members and it produced one of the better \u2013 if underrated \u2013 albums of the year.<\/p>\n
I thought their 2008 album was a one-time union so I was pleasantly surprised when their second album, Midnight Flyer, <\/i>arrived in my mailbox. <\/p>\n
Steve Cropper is one of the legendary musicians of American music. He was the guitarist for Booker T & The MG\u2019s, who were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1992. He was part of the Stax Label house band for years and backed many of the leading rhythm & blues artists of the day. His unique and influential style can be heard on songs by Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Johnny Taylor, and dozens more. He also co-wrote such songs as \u201cIn The Midnight Hour\u201d and \u201c(Sittin\u2019 On) The Dock Of The Bay.\u201d He received a new fan base as the lead guitarist for the Blues Brothers Band, which he continues to front today.<\/p>\n
Felix Cavaliere helped define the term blue-eyed soul as a member of The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame group, The Young Rascals. Hits such as \u201cA Beautiful Morning,\u201d \u201cHow Can I Be Sure,\u201d \u201cGroovin\u2019,\u201d \u201cPeople Got To Be Free,\u201d and \u201cGood Lovin\u2019\u201d were some of the best single releases of the mid to late \u201860s. <\/p>\n
Their talents fit well together. Cropper\u2019s guitar licks and Cavaliere\u2019s vocals and keyboards give the impression that they have been playing together for decades. The other musician of note is drummer Tom Hambridge, who lays down a solid foundation on which they build their sound. <\/p>\n
The music here has a nice ebb and flow. There are ballads such as \u201cWhen You\u2019re With Me\u201d and uptempo numbers like \u201cI Can Stand It\u201d where Cavaliere duets with his daughter Aria. \u201cSexy Lady\u201d is a look back to the early \u201870s. \u201cDo It Like This\u201d is an instrumental that allows Cropper to demonstrate just how good and funky a guitarist he can be. <\/p>\n
Cropper and Cavaliere prove that they fit together well and that there is a lot of life left in their legendary careers. Midnight Flyer <\/i>is one of the better releases of the first six months of 2010. Hopefully sometime in 2012, another album by these two veterans will magically arrive on my doorstep. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":30337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8246],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41997","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-steve-cropper-felix-cavaliere","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41997"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}