I’m just trying to explain to you how things really are

I have some factual corrections to Bill DeMain’s stor y about the Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter

Demos box set of unreleased recordings I produced for Stax/Craft Recordings [MOJO 357]. I worked on this project for 17 years, not 14, and Stax’s 50th anniversary was in 2007, not 2009. I started the project in 2005-2006 when I was an employee of Concord Music Group, but haven’t worked for them since 2007. I completed this project as a consultant. These days, while I do consult, much of my work is done for the label I founded with my partners in 2010, Omnivore Recordings.

The “entire Stax tape library, including demos” was not handed over to Warner Music Group, the released assets were in fact, split along the May 1968 dividing line between the Atlantic/Warner Music Group side and the Stax/Fantasy (later Concord) side. Also, the archives in which I researched all the demo recordings was neither Warner’s nor Concord’s. It was the publishing assets at Rondor Music, which held the East/Memphis Music publishing where a lot of the Stax songwriters had publishing deals for their songs. The introductory linernotes I wrote for the set clearly detail the process for those interested. Ms Deanie Parker is so many wonderful things, but she’s not the CEO of the Stax Museum.

Aside from those factual corrections, I appreciate the light being shone on this project and the wonderful Stax label. The cover mount CD is a terrific sampling of what awaits everyone across the seven discs. Turn it up! Cheryl Pawelski, Los Angeles/Portland, Oregon