As the original guitarist of Stax Records house band Booker T. and the M.G.\’s and voted one of Rolling Stone\’s 100 Greatest Guitarist of All Time, Steve Cropper\’s album \”Dedicated\” is a tribute to his favorite band The 5 Royales.

If Yankee Stadium is \”the house that Babe Ruth built,\” Stax Records is \”the house that Booker T, and the MG\’s built.\” Integral to that potent combination is MG rhythm guitarist extraordinaire Steve Cropper. As a guitarist, A & R man, engineer, producer, songwriting partner of Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd and a dozen others and founding member of both Booker T. and the MG\’s and The Mar-Keys, Cropper was literally involved in virtually every record issued by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970.

Cropper strummed a guitar for the first time at the age of 10 and mail ordered his first guitar at the age of 14 when he began playing with local musicians. His guitar heroes at the time included Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry, Tal Farlow, Jimmy Reed and Lowman Pauling of the \”5 Royales\”.

\”The first time I was exposed to The 5 Royales was through Duck Dunn, who was the bass player in my high school band. His brother worked for King Record Distributors in Memphis, and I heard the song called \”Think\” with these great guitar licks in it and I said, \”Man, that\’s what I want to sound like.\” = Steve Cropper

Steve Cropper co-wrote \”Knock On Wood\” with Eddie Floyd, \”In the Midnight Hour\” with Wilson Pickett and \”(Sittin\’ On) The Dock of the Bay\” with Otis Redding.

Steve Cropper\’s career includes playing with the likes of Rod Stewart, Levon Helm, The Jeff Beck Group, Ringo Starr and John Lennon. He also played guitar on the cover of The Velvet Underground\’s \”Femme Fatale\” which appears on Big Star\’s Third/Sister Lovers. He went on to figure prominently in the Blues Brothers Band with drummer Willie Hall.

Features:
• Vinyl LP
• An array of guest artists including Steve Winwood, Bettye LaVette, Willie Jones, B.B. King, Shemekia Copeland, Lucinda Williams, Dan Penn, John Popper, Delbert McClinton, Dylan Leblanc, Sharon Jones & Buddy Miller.
• Includes Bonus CD of the entire album!

Musicians:
Steve Cropper, electric guitar
David Hood, bass guitar
Spooner Oldham, piano, electric piano, organ
Steve Ferrone, drums, percussion
Steve Jordan, drums
Neal Sugarman, tenor sax
Jon Tiven, tenor sax