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Guy Sebastian
 There's little need to reiterate Guy Sebastian's inaugural 'Australian Idol' pathway to multi-platinum success, but his latest album requires a little explanation. Almost entirely an album of covers, it was recorded with several members of the original Stax house band, Booker T & The MGs. When I spoke to him, he explained the extraordinary events that led to this his most recent project, a seemingly impossible dream come true.
"Mate, it was pretty incredible; they were just an amazing band," exclaims Sebastian, making no attempt to understate the fact. "Steve Cropper, he's done it all. I mean, he wrote (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay, In The Midnight Hour, Knock On Wood and heaps of other songs," many of which are covered on this very record. "He's just an incredible guy, and as a songwriter and a producer he's the man, you know? And he was also a part of Booker T and the MGs with Donald [Duck] Dunn," Sebastian gushes.
"I was actually writing for my next original album and then this opportunity came up, so we approached them and they initially said that they were busy but they asked us to send something through. So yeah, we sent them some live recordings and Steve rang us back and said how much he loved my voice. He then said that if I could get over there whilst they were in Memphis for the Stax Music fifty year anniversary he'd do an album with me so we put my next original album on hold and I got there, quickly!" he enthuses.
"Like, this was the stuff that I grew up with and when I look at what came out of Memphis I can't believe that it all came out of the one place" Sebastian continues, with seemingly endless enthusiasm. "I used to listen to Otis Redding and then Al Green, who's probably influenced my voice more than anyone and now I'm so lucky, you know? Like, these guys played on the original recordings. I've been watching their DVDs for years and these guys are there gigging with Otis, and Sam and Dave, and The Staple Sisters and they were the band, you know? And I've never sang like that before in my life," he exclaims.
"It brought something out of me that I didn't even know was there. I was pulling out licks and little trills I didn't even know I had so for me, I'm just literally humbled and blessed to lend my voice to these incredible songs." There were some nervous moments, though, and Sebastian admits that "to actually be in the studio with these guys I thought I'd be intimidated as soon as they started playing. Then the first song that we did was In The Midnight Hour and when I started to sing I turned around and got their nod of approval," the still young star smiles.
"We recorded this old school, all together live on analogue tape. We did fifteen songs in four days and we didn't even rush so we probably could've done them all in one day. It just showed me a lot about the value of having great musicians and the way we did it was we did it together, so there were moments where I'd go, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah', and Steve would just follow that on his guitar and you just don't get that when you disconnect the singer from the instrumental recording sessions. It was an incredible time and they were very efficient because they of course knew the songs. I mean, I did change some arrangements here and there," Sebastian says of his co-producing credit alongside Cropper, "but even with I'd Like To Get To Know You, which is the only song that I wrote, I played it to them just once and that was it. We went in and they started playing and that was it; just one take all the way through. Like, I produced the vocals on the album and Steve obviously oversaw the whole band because he's worked with them for a long time and then I just came in and had different ideas for some of the arrangements and I wrote some [backing vocal] lines." As the opening track so boldly declares, Guy Sebastian is without doubt a true Soul Man.
Steve Jones
'The Memphis Album' is out now on Sony/BMG
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