''Memphis'' is the seventeenth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by American singer-songwriter

Boz Scaggs William Royce "Boz" Scaggs (born June 8, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. An early bandmate of Steve Miller in The Ardells and the Steve Miller Band, he began his solo career in 1969, though he lacked a major hit until h ...

. It was Scaggs's first solo release since 2008's ''Speak Low''. The album was released on March 5, 2013, by

429 Records 429 Records was an American record label. It was a subsidiary label of Savoy Label Group/Nippon Columbia focusing on indie rock and adult album alternative performers. In addition to releasing new material from musicians such as Dr. John, Little F ...

. The album has debuted on ''Billboard'' 200 at No. 17, and has sold 90,000 copies in the US as of March 2015.

Critical reception

Thom Jurek of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave the album a positive review with 4 of 5 stars, describing the record as "a stunner. Scaggs is in full possession of that iconic voice; he delivers songs with an endemic empathy and intimacy that make them sound like living, breathing stories."

Track listing

Most of the songs on the album were previously released by other singers. A two-disc version of the album was released for exclusive distribution by

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

in the United States. The second disc contains six

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

, three of which were recorded as fully produced versions for the final release of the album and three of which were not.

Personnel

* Boz Scaggs – lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar (1-8, 10, 12), electric guitar (1-8, 10, 12), guitar (11) *

Ray Parker Jr. Ray Erskine Parker Jr. (born May 1, 1954) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. As a solo performer, he wrote and performed the theme song to the 1984 film '' Ghostbusters''. Previously, Parker achieved a US top-10 h ...

– acoustic guitar (1-8, 10, 12), electric guitar (1-8, 10, 12) *

Eddie Willis Eddie "Chank" Willis (June 3, 1936 – August 20, 2018) was an American soul musician. Willis played electric guitar and occasional electric sitar for Motown's in-house studio band, The Funk Brothers, during the 1960s and early 1970s. Career Bo ...

– guitar (9) *

Keb' Mo' Kevin Roosevelt Moore (born October 3, 1951), known as Keb' Mo', is an American blues musician and five-time Grammy Award winner. He is a singer, guitarist, and songwriter, living in Nashville, Tennessee. He has been described as "a living link ...

– slide dobro (10) *

Rick Vito Richard Francis (Rick) Vito (born October 13, 1949, in Darby, Pennsylvania, United States) is an American guitarist and singer. He was part of Fleetwood Mac between 1987 and 1991. Vito took over as lead guitarist after Lindsey Buckingham left t ...

– guitar (11) * Jim Cox –

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

(1, 5), acoustic piano (3, 5, 6, 7, 12),

Wurlitzer electric piano The Wurlitzer electronic piano is an electric piano manufactured and marketed by Wurlitzer from the mid-1950s to mid-1980s. Sound is generated by striking a metal reed with a hammer, which induces an electric current in a pickup. It is conceptua ...

(6),

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

(12) *

Charles Hodges Charles Edward Hodges (born June 29, 1947 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American organist and songwriter. He is known for his high tone on the Hammond B3 organ, that appeared on records by Al Green, and other musicians signed to Hi Records. Hodge ...

– organ (2, 5, 6, 9), Wurlitzer electric piano (4) * Lester Snell – Wurlitzer electric piano (2, 9), string arrangements (2, 6), horn arrangements (6) *

Spooner Oldham Dewey Lindon "Spooner" Oldham (born June 14, 1943) is an American songwriter and session musician. An organist, he recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, at FAME Studios as part of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section on such hit R&B songs as Percy ...

– Wurlitzer electric piano (3, 5, 8, 10), acoustic piano (4), organ (4) *

Charlie Musselwhite Charles Douglas Musselwhite (born January 31, 1944) is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the white bluesmen who came to prominence, along with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop, as a pivotal f ...

– harmonica (10, 11) *

Willie Weeks Willie Weeks (born August 5, 1947) is an American bass guitarist. He has gained fame performing with famous musicians in a wide variety of genres. He has been one of the most in-demand session musicians throughout his career. Weeks has also ga ...

– bass guitar (1-10, 12, upright bass (2, 4, 6) *

David Hungate William David Hungate (born August 5, 1948) is an American bass guitarist noted as a member of the Los Angeles pop-rock band Toto from 1976 to 1982 and again from 2014 to 2015, and the son of judge William L. Hungate. Along with most of his T ...

– bass guitar (11) * Steve Jordan – drums (1-10, 12), percussion (1-10, 12), horn arrangements (2), string arrangements (4), backing vocals *

Shannon Forrest Shannon Forrest (born August 22, 1973 in Easley, South Carolina) is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session work. As a session drummer, he has contributed to the work of many well-known artists, and he is also a pr ...

– drums (11) *

Jack Ashford Jack Ashford (born May 18, 1934), known to his friends as Jashford, is an American musician widely known as the percussionist for Motown Records' in-house Funk Brothers band during the 1960s and early 1970s. Ashford is most famous for playing the ...

–

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

(5) *

Jim Horn James Ronald Horn (born November 20, 1940) is an American saxophonist, woodwind player, and session musician. Biography Horn was born in Los Angeles, and after replacing saxophonist Steve Douglas in 1959, he toured with member Duane Eddy for f ...

– baritone saxophone (2, 6) * Lannie McMillan – tenor saxophone (2, 6) * Jack Hale – trombone (2, 6) * Ben Cauley – trumpet (2, 6) * Willie Mitchell – string arrangements (2) * Jonathan Kirkscey – cello (2, 4, 6) * Mark Wallace – cello (2, 4, 6) * Beth Luscome – viola (2, 4, 6) * Jennifer Puckett – viola (2, 4, 6) * Barrie Cooper – violin (2, 4, 6) * Jessie Munson – violin (2, 4, 6) * Wen-Yih Yu – violin (2, 4, 6) * Monét Owens – backing vocals, lead vocals (9) *

Claytoven Richardson Claytoven Richardson (born 1956, in Berkeley, California) is an American singer, instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and author. Biography Born Clayton D. Richardson on May 23, 1956. Larry Batiste, a childhood friend (and later business pa ...

– backing vocals

Production

* Steve Jordan – producer, engineer, mixing *

Niko Bolas Niko Bolas is an American music producer, sound engineer, and consultant and business developer in the fields of virtual reality and Internet radio. In 1989, Bolas founded Fakespace Music with Mark Bolas, Ian McDowall and Christian Greuel, which, i ...

– engineer, mixing * Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell – additional recording * Michael Rodriguez – additional recording * Chris Taberez – additional recording, Pro Tools engineer * Artie Smith – technician *

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bisho ...

– mastering * Steve Fallone – additional mastering * David Alan Kogut – art direction * Deborah Feingold – photography * Matt McGinley – photography assistant * Joel Hoffner – management * Ken Levitan – management * Jack Rovner – management ; Studios * Recorded at Royal Recording Studios (Memphis, Tennessee) and The Barn (Napa Valley, California). * Mastered at Sterling Sound (New York City, New York).

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums Boz Scaggs albums 429 Records albums