Stax Solo Recordings

Liner Note Author: Tony Rounce.
Unknown Contributor Role: Peter Gibbon.
Like the 1993 CD compilation Private Numbers, this disc is divided between tracks cut (separately, not together) for the Stax label by Veda Brown and Judy Clay. This British 2008 release is notably different from the 1993 anthology, including 16 cuts by Brown (where the previous CD had just eight), and nine by Clay that are a little different from the ten found on Private Numbers. First, the ten on Private Numbers included four duets with William Bell and a song from the Uptight soundtrack ("Children, Don't Get Weary") that are not on The Stax Solo Recordings. Similarly, The Stax Solo Recordings has four tracks (three of them previously unissued) not on Private Numbers. And neither of these anthologies has a 1967 Clay single that came out on Stax but was unavailable for licensing. It takes a good deal of scanning the fine print in the liner notes to get the story straight, the upshot being that you need both of these discs if you're to hear as much Clay/Stax material on CD as possible, and that taken together, they still don't cover the entirety of her slim Stax output. Getting past the discographical details to the music, it's fairly strong secondary Stax stuff with a rich, stirring vocal delivery that's certainly superior to the Veda Brown material on the same CD, though not up there with the best of what Stax was cutting at the time. It should also be noted that Clay did a lot of recording (on her own and with duet partners Billy Vera and William Bell) aside from her solo sides for Stax, which represented a relatively small slice of her career as a whole. Still, in combination with the 16 Stax solo tracks by Brown (some also previously unreleased) that are also included, the CD makes a good addition to the collection of Stax specialists, with as comprehensive liner notes as are ever likely to be written about the output of these two singers for the label. ~ Richie Unterberger