Bar-Kays - The Definitive Collection (2019)

The only career-spanning collection we've ever seen on The Bar-Kays – and a set that does a mighty nice job of hitting all the right bases! The group first rose to fame as a funk combo on Stax in the late 60s – then shifted a bit after part of the group was killed in the same plane crash that took the life of Otis Redding – a tragedy that soon saw the group rising from the ashes, and sounding even better than before! Their sound was a huge part of the Stax Records funk sound of the early 70s – and the group took that groove over to Mercury once the decade got going – where they found a very welcome home, and the perfect environment to perfect their ultra-sharp talents. Unlike some groups who started out funky, then went smooth and commercial, The Bar-Kays never lost the qualities that made them great – and even when recording for a bigger label, with a bigger budget, they continued to turn out rock-solid rhythms laced with super-tight instrumentation – even at times when some groups were letting more machines do all the work for them.