Robert Baird

If you want to complain that young rock bands have no sense of the past; no melodies; no hooks; no hope then what do you call a young band with the sense and taste to take a freaky masterpiece like Zep III as a model for their debut? Weak? Lazy? Unworthy of a listen?

After the death of the label’s biggest star Otis Redding in December 1967 (damn those small planes!)...

And so what really were the great Stax/Volt albums after 1968?

It’s the day after the office Christmas party and yet Bloodshot Records founder Rob Miller gamely agreed to have a chat.

“Our party’s been at the same Mexican restaurant for the past 19 years and I have an incredible superstition that if the bar tab is not bigger than the food tab then we’ve had a bad year.”

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

“Jessica,” played by sideman Led Dudek, has launched a thousand air guitar solos.

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