The Staple Singersの68年ー74年にSTAXで録音された全アルバムを収録した7枚組CDボックス。

各アルバムはTake Out VinylのJeff Powellによってアナログ・マスターからリマスターされ、7枚目のディスクにはレアリティ、アルバム以外のシングル、伝説的な1972年のWattstax音楽祭でのライヴ録音が収録されています。スリップケースに収められた7枚組のコレクションには、アメリカ音楽の専門家でありキュレーターでもあるレヴォン・ウィリアムス(元スタックス・ミュージアムと国立アフリカン・アメリカン音楽博物館のキュレーター)、民俗学者であり民族音楽学者であり作家でもあるラングストン・ウィルキンス博士によるアーカイブ写真とライナー・ノーツを執筆。

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2020/10/15）

The Staple Singers released their first recordings in the mid-50s, and they were highly influential and well-respected in gospel circles a decade later, but the mainstream audience was unaware of them as they began flirting with pop music forms without making a decisive move away from their spiritual roots. In 1968, they signed with Stax Records, one of Americas strongest soul labels (who also had a sideline in gospel), and at Stax they not only enjoyed their greatest commercial success but learned how to make music that pleased the mass audience while maintaining a moral and spiritual authority that quieted any suggestion of compromise. The Staple Singers cut six original albums for Stax, and Come Go with Me: The Stax Collection is a handsome box set that brings them together in refurbished and remastered form, along with a bonus disc of non-LP single sides and live tracks from the soundtrack of the movie Wattstax. Come Go with Me makes it clear the Staple Singers didnt nail their hit formula right off the bat. The title of their first Stax LP, 1968s Soul Folk in Action, affirms no one was sure just where to classify them at first. That album and 1970s Well Get Over were both produced by Steve Cropper, and while he and his Memphis crew gave the albums a polished and soulful sound, it didnt entirely flatter the Staples despite the excellence of their vocals, and the song selection wasnt always the best (there just wasnt room for them to bring anything fresh to Games People Play or [Sittin On] The Dock of the Bay). Despite its singularly awful title, 1971s The Staple Swingers was a major improvement. Stax co-owner Al Bell took over as producer and took them to the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio to cut with their fabled house band, and the leaner, tougher grooves favored Mavis Staples powerful, emphatic lead vocals, as well as the occasional vocals and incisive guitar work from Roebuck Pops Staples, her dad and the groups leader. The album gave the Staple Singers their first significant R&B hit, Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom), and 1972s Be Altitude was even better and produced a pair of stone classics, Respect Yourself and Ill Take You There. 1973s Be What You Are and 1974s City in the Sky werent quite as solid, but having secured their place on the pop and soul charts, the group felt free to return a bit of their churchy side into their vocals and lyrics, and their fusion of the sacred and the soulful was never more powerful, even if the records didnt cohere as well. Listeners looking for a concise introduction to the Staples best work should pick up 1991s single-disc The Best of the Staple Singers, but Come Go with Me demonstrates how consistently rewarding and even moving their lesser work can be, and listened to in full, their Stax catalog is a soul-satisfying revelation. ~ Mark Deming

Rovi