Soul Men pretty much confirms what many folks have thought all along: Booker T. & the MGs really could play pretty much anything they wanted.

Soul Men unleashes 25 instrumentals (mostly covers of the day’s Pop and R&B hit singles) by keyboardist Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, bassists Lewie Steinberg or “Duck” Dunn, and drummer Al Jackson, Jr., all originally recorded during the MGs’ eight-album Stax run through the ‘60s, each one as downhome good as a plate full of biscuits and gravy, compiled and released as this collection in 2003.

The back cover reveals a set list stuffed full of genuine classics from Motown (“I Was Made to Love Her,” “I Hear a Symphony,” “Ain’t That Peculiar”), the Beatles (“Day Tripper”), blues legend Willie Dixon (“Spoonful” and “Wang Dang Doodle”), and the American popular songbook (“Wade in the Water,” “High Heel Sneakers,” “Georgia on My Mind”). “More covers was better for sales,” says Cropper in the liner notes. “If people saw titles on an album that they’d recognize, they’d go, ‘Oh, I wonder what they did with that.’ We were smart enough to know that.”

Soul Men obviously isn’t a good introduction to the music of Booker T. & the MGs – because none of this is their music – but it IS a great introduction to their sound. On the opening “Baby, Scratch My Back” (Slim Harpo) and ensuing “Harlem Shuffle” (Bob & Earl) that sound is both groovy and gritty. You’re also quickly, and frequently, reminded how deeply this band was steeped in the blues; “Every Beat of My Heart” (Gladys Knight & the Pips), for example, throbs and moans more like heartache than any heart beat. Cropper grinds the gears of “Spoonful” through the jagged edges of his metallic (not quite heavy metal) guitar, and sharply chops the “High Heel Sneakers” (Tommy Tucker) chords in his economic and essential style.

The hits of the day would also include some Stax records. Soul Men also features instrumental takes on three hits that the MGs originally performed, and they seem to render “On a Saturday Night” (Eddie Floyd) and “Soul Man” (Sam & Dave) with even more spirit and soul than their originals.

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