Send "Steve Cropper " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 Steve Cropper, probably best known for his work at Stax Records, has had a remarkable career lasting about half a century now. With his new release Dedicated, he’s looking back not just at the start of that career, but to the influences leading up to it. Cropper’s regularly cited guitarist Lowman Pauling of the “5” Royales as his primary inspiration in his early years, and this disc is his chance to play tribute to the guitarist and the band that was vital to his own art (and, though short-lived, significant to pop history). As good a guitarist as Cropper is, he’s always known how to blend into his band, and this album’s no exception, as he lets his guest vocalists frequently take the lead role.In a series of stellar vocal performances, Lucinda Williams makes the biggest impression. Her rough voice contrasts with the “5” Royales’ harmonies. The performance carries emotional weight without any overreaching. It doesn’t hurt that she’s joined by Dann Penn and gets background vocals from Dylan Leblanc, Lee Roy Parnell, and Keb’ Mo’. The strong showing on the marquee track makes it appropriate that she returns for the closing number, “When I Get Like This”. Williams’s style stays different from the Royales’, yet it’s a perfect blend with the R&B band backing her. Two of the other vocalists make more sense from the start. Sharon Jones shows up a couple times, and her performance of “Messin’ Up” sounds like something that could fit on one of her own records, particularly given the high energy she and Cropper give to it. Bettye LaVette makes two appearances, on “Don’t Be Ashamed” and “Say It”. Both cuts have steady grooves that she can work with, and she uses restraint to good effect. Plenty of noteworthy singers give good showings here, including B.B. King, Buddy Miller, Dan Penn, and Steve Winwood (who impresses on “Thirty Second Lover”). Even so, it wouldn’t be a proper Steve Cropper album without the band being stellar. Bassist David Hood and keyboardist Spooner Oldham sound like they could be back in Muscle Shoals, and drummers Steve Ferrone and Steve Jordan fit the sound nicely. The group consistently sounds more like the MGs than the Royales, but that makes sense given that it’s Cropper’s salute to his influences, and not a re-creation....full text |
| Guardian |
| As house guitarist with Stax records in the 1960s, Cropper was one of the architects of southern soul, a moving force behind Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and more. Dedicated salutes one source of Cropper's terse but slinky style, the half-forgotten R&B group the 5 Royales, whose guitarist Lowman Pauling wrote standards such as "Dedicated to the One I Love" and "Think". An all-star guest list of vocalists reprises the Royales' catalogue, while Cropper leads an impeccable band. Sharon Jones and Bettye Lavette growl and grunt, Steve Winwood brings melody and Brian May multitracks, Queen-style. Cropper's stinging guitar can't help but showboat, albeit in the classiest of ways....full text |
| Blues |
| Dedicated - A Salute to the 5 Royales succeeds in overcoming any of the aforementioned outcomes by pairing its central attraction – guitarist extraordinaire Steve Cropper, of Booker T & the MG's fame – with different singers (and sometimes guest instrumentalists) on each track. Cropper is one of soul music's seminal guitarists, and to hear him paying tribute to the band that first captured his musical imagination is wonderful. The 5 Royales started as a pre-rock-'n'-roll R&B group centered on the songwriting of guitarist Lowman Pauling. Cropper has cited Pauling's ability to alternate between lead and rhythm playing as essential to his own development as a musician, and when producer Jon Tiven offered Cropper the opportunity to record an album devoted to the group's material, he jumped at the chance. Dedicated is put together exceptionally well. The 15 songs are brief, high-energy and mostly fast-tempo, so the listener's attention seldom has the chance to wander. Cropper's playing packs a wallop that belies the understatedness that characterized his playing with the MG's, though he still knows when to lay back and give the singer the spotlight. There are two instrumentals here where his guitar takes center stage: "Help Me Somebody," which alternates rhythms between a slow shuffle and a fast-paced swing, Cropper's guitar playing the vocal melody with plenty of nuance; and "Think," where Tiven's sax shares space with Cropper's funky, percussive lines. Dedicated To The One I Love The remainder of Dedicated consists of vocal tracks, and Tiven assembled a world-class roster of guests for the project. The high points are the two tracks featuring singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams. On "Dedicated To The One I Love" (a hit in the 1950s for the Shirelles and in the '60s for the Mamas & the Papas), Williams' raspy vocals mesh sublimely with the song's timeless melody. And on the waltz-time "When I Get Like This," her bluesy vibrato hits notes high and low, Cropper's simple, earthy, organic guitar lines echoing the yearning quality of the song's lyrics....full text |
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