One of the nicest things about re-starting Stax Records is how it has occasioned new releases from some of the label’s most familiar voices.

Eddie Loves You So is the first new album in six years from one of Stax Records’ trademark vocalists and composers, Eddie Floyd. Eddie co-wrote with Stax guitarist Steve Cropper his signature tune “Knock on Wood,” which not only scaled the charts up to  #1 R&B single (#28 Pop) but became a landmark for the label’s bumpin’ and grindin’ Southern soul music.

On Eddie Loves You So, he doesn’t stomp out R&B like he used to. (At age 70, who does?) Still, this comeback journeys through the roots of his R&B sound and many other different flavors of southern R&B, rolling warmly and comfortably, like an afternoon meander through a soft, sunny countryside.

Several tracks were originally performed by or written for The Falcons, the vocal group in which Floyd sang before stepping out as a solo artist:

“Since You Been Gone” tries on the Latin-tinged roots rock feel of the Drifters’ “Spanish Harlem” and refines it into a timeless sound, while the Falcons’ ‘59 hit “You’re So Fine” burns with hot rhythm guitar riffs from the Chuck Berry school. So does the chugging roadhouse blues “Head to Toe,” the set’s most nasty blues throwdown in words and music: “‘Cause when it comes down to a good meal/ I don’t like to stop ’till I get my fill.” Now THAT’s how you write a blues lyric about…eating!