Eric Clapton, Queen's Brian May, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood are among the guest stars lighting up an incoming posthumous album from the late Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour.
Cropper, the legendary guitarist with Booker T. & the MG’s, the Blues Brothers, and many more, passed away on December 3 last year, aged 84. He had been working on Watching The Tide, the follow-up to 2024's Friendlytown, before his death, and had completed 10 of its 11 track with songwriter/producer Jon Tiven, who was overseeing the project.
"Making music was Steve's greatest joy," says Tiven, who first met Cropper in the early’70s. "Steve was so encouraged by Friendlytown. He was adamant he wanted to do another record."
Recorded at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio C, Watching The Tide features contributions from some of the most acclaimed guitarists in rock history. Brian May and Billy Gibbons play together on the poignantly-titled My Angels Are Calling, Eric Clapton guests on Ticket First, and Ronnie Wood lends his talents to Until Now. Billy Gibbons also guests alongside vocalist Ana Grosh on Stand Right Here.
"I finished the mixes about a week-and-a-half before Steve passed and we brought a CD to him at the medical facility," remembers Jon Tiven. "He called me the night before he passed to tell me how much he loved it. He was playing it for everyone who came to visit him, telling them it was the best record he’d ever made."
Known to friends and fans alike as The Colonel, Cropper formed Booker T. & the M.G.'s, the house band at Stax Studios, in 1962, and played on hit singles by Wilson Pickett, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Albert King and more.
He also co-wrote and produced Otis Redding's classic (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay, for which he was awarded the Best Rhythm and Blues Song Grammy in 1968.
Watching The Tide will be released on August 28 via Provogue/Artone Label Group. It can be pre-ordered now.
Watch the lyric video for Ticket First below.
