Looking at the history and the development of a music genre like the Blues, especially throughout the last 6 decades, nobody on earth could deny that the American guitarist, producer and songwriter Steve Cropper has been and still is, at the tender age of 82, one of the greatest innovators of the genre, especially through the monumental body of work that Cropper did with Stax Records and, subsequently, with the cream of the Blues and Rock'N'Roll industry.
Forever considered a forward-thinker artist, somebody that would never sit comfortably on his fame and success, Cropper (and his unmistakable guitar playing style) has been the ultimate Guitar Maestro for any aspiring musician for so many years as he still is now, second perhaps only to the late great Jimi Hendrix, according to some worldwide press.
Nevertheless, though, while Hendrix is and has been perceived by some as the ultimate guitarists of all time, perhaps also due to the iconoclastic element of his early passing, Cropper has on the other end maintained relentlessly a level of quality so high, for such a long length of time, to be still considered to these days the greatest musical wish to work with for anybody, from Bob Dylan to John Lennon or from Otis Redding to Paul Simon, just to mentioned a few.
Back from the 2022 Grammy Awards nomination for his Fire It Up album, a record that contained plenty of excellent Blues gems within, Steve Cropper was more than happy to receive the green light from his current record label to start working on another album. Together with his longtime friend, producer and multi-instrumentalist Jon Tiven, Cropper, for his next project, was looking to add another guitarist to his new musical project when, suddenly, out of the blue and almost by divine coincidence, Tiven bumped one day in one of the best guitarists in the business, ZZ Top's own Billy F. Gibbons, someone who has known Cropper for quite some time but never actually recorded anything before in studio together.
What initially supposed to be just a partial contribution, thanks also to the increasing eenthusiasm that Gibbons showed in the recording studio while trading licks with Cropper, it became, as the days went by, a much longer aand stable collaboration, to the point that Cropper decided, while the songs were taking shape, to put together a collective called (aptly) The Midnight Hour, which would include, together with Cropper, Gibbons and Tiven, also Roger C. Reale on vocals and drummer and percussionist Nioshi Jackson.
This is, in brief, the story behind the making of Friendlytown, the title of Cropper's new album officially released as Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour, a record that encapsules, since the very first bars of the title-track and album's opener, the whole essence of Steve Cropper as a guitarist and as a music-maker.
Where, in our website's opinion, Cropper's 2022 album Fire It Up had some excellent musical ideas and inventive sonic sketches, Friendlytown showcases instead a more structured number of songs that feel more as a cohesive body of work, where the songs, both from a lyrical and as a musical aspect, work very well altogether.
Naturally, many would think of a new Cropper record as something heavily drenched with Blues and R&B, which is partially true but not in its entirety. Whilst songs like the explosive album's title-track, the sunny (in every sense of the word) Hurry Up Sundown, Reality Check and There's Always A Catch are the perfect example of why Cropper is considered an absolute Blues and R&B sonic master, there is so much more to unfold about Friendlytown and its stunning content.
Gibbons and Cropper playing guitars together is like mixing petrol to fire, intended in the most uplifting sense of the word and that comes very clear in some incendiary Blues/Rock moments of the album, like Let's Get Started and You Can't Refuse, among oothers. While Cropper and Gibbons disseminate remarkable moments on guitars here and there on the album, The Midnight Hour provide also such a muscular and powerful Rhythm Section for the whole of Friendlytown, with Roger C. Reale nailing a very close to perfection vocal performance on each and every song but especially, in our website's opinion, on the beautiful and heavily Soul-infused songs Rain On My Parade and the album closer I'll Leave You In Peace.
Of course, having Special Guests playing on the album like Queen's Guitar Maestro Brian May and highly respected and talented singer/songwriter and guitarist Tim Montana on numbers like Too Much Stress and You Can't Refuse, that adds most certainly another extra spice to the record, but to us at Bluebird Reviews, it is that magic created within Cropper, Gibbons, Tiven, Reale and Jackson and their interplay with one another that makes the real key element to the success of an album like Friendlytown.
Maybe Cropper won't be touring this wonderful album, mostly because of his age, which is a pity but also very understandable. Still, Cropper must be so incredibly proud to have released one of his best records of the last two decades, a record that, we don't doubt at all, will survive the test of time for many decades to come.
Friendlytown is out now and it is available to be purchased via Mascot Label Group / Provogue
