VA - Back To The Basics: The Chips Moman Songbook (2021)

He’s not perhaps the best known or most prolific of those who have featured in Ace’s Songwriter series, but few fans of American popular music from the 60s to the 90s would dispute that Lincoln Wayne “Chips” Moman is one of the most important. Chips wore many professional hats during his almost 50-year career. Musician, label-owner, producer and studio owner are other areas at which he excelled.

Here in Back To The Basics there are many notable examples of him wearing several of those hats simultaneously. However, it’s his songs that this compilation highlights. If Chips had only co-authored ‘Dark End Of The Street’, it would be enough to guarantee him songwriter immortality. But as you will hear in a collection that includes tracks by some of the most famous names in soul, pop and country music, it’s far from being the only classic song in his catalogue.

The CD comprises two-dozen choice cuts – many of them chart-topping and million-selling records and songs – by high-calibre talents ranging from William Bell and Carla Thomas, to Gram Parsons and Cher, to Waylon Jennings, Kenny Rogers and Johnny Cash. Truly an all-star aggregation to honour a genuine all-round talent.