via Clarion Ledger

By Scott Barretta

The instrumental soul supergroup Booker T & the MGs started inauspiciously in 1962 when Stax Records label owner Jim Stewart heard the then-unnamed studio band fooling around between sessions. Stewart turned on the recording machine, resulting in the Memphis group's first hit, Green Onions.

The MGs continued to record their own hits, but spent most of their time in the studio backing Stax artists including Rufus Thomas, the Staple Singers, Albert King, Johnnie Taylor and William Bell. Due to their busy schedule, they rarely played outside of Memphis.

In the spring of 1967, Otis Redding's manager Phil Walden hired the band, together with the Mar-Keys horn section, to support Redding, Arthur Conley and Redding's Stax labelmates Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas and Eddie Floyd on a tour of Europe. Once there the MGs were shocked by the adoring reception they received, and one magic night of that tour is captured on a new DVD, Stax/Volt Revue Live In Norway 1967 (Concord Music Group).

Thomas left the tour before the show was filmed, but the remaining cast is in top form, hardly surprising given that the MGs had backed Redding and the other Stax artists in the studio. The MGs open the show with Green Onions and Red Beans and Rice, and once joined by the horns, take on Mar-Keys instrumentals including Last Night.

Arthur Conley delivers a spirited cover of In the Midnight Hour before diving into his signature Sweet Soul Music, while Eddie Floyd's sole representation, Raise Your Hand, leaves you hungry for more.

The electrifying duo of Sam & Dave deliver four of their best-known songs, including Hold On! I'm Coming, and Redding drives the normally staid Scandinavians into a frenzy with a five-song set climaxing in a whisper-to-a-scream version of Try A Little Tenderness.

Scott Barretta is an Oxford-based writer and music critic. He is host of the Highway 61 blues radio show on MPB on Saturday nights.