Eddie Floyd, "Knock On Wood" Man, Mines R&B Roots on New Album

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Soul man Eddie Floyd's first new album in six years, titled Eddie Loves You So, marks his return to the Stax Records logo. The singer who scored a monster soul classic with "Knock on Wood" in 1967 has returned to his Southern roots for the new CD. Included are 10 original songs written for fellow soul artists in the '50s and '60s. Some date back to Floyd's years with the seminal proto-soul group The Falcons; others are some previously unheard gems. The new CD hits the streets on July 29, 2008 on Stax Records through the Concord Music Group.

Eddie Loves You So was produced by the Boston team of Michael Dinallo (known for his work with the Radio Kings and Barrence Whitfield) and Ducky Carlisle (who's worked with Susan Tedeschi, Buddy Guy and Graham Parker).

The album, while newly recorded, takes the listener back to the R&B origins of the Montgomery, Alabama-born Floyd. He was a member of The Falcons in the late '50s, which also featured Joe Stubbs, later of the Contours and 100 Proof Aged in Soul. From that era, Floyd has re-recorded "You're So Fine, " the group's breakthrough 1959 hit, plus "Never Get Enough of Your Love, " which he recorded on Al Bell's Safice Records between his Falcons and Stax years. There's also a previously unreleased Falcons song, "Since You've Been Gone, " which was demoed but never recorded until now.

The album contains songs that Floyd wrote for other Stax artists but never recorded himself: "'Til My Back Ain't Got No Bone, " a hit for William Bell and later cut by Esther Phillips; "I Will Always Have Faith In You, " a #11 hit for Carla Thomas; and "You Don't Know What You Mean To Me, " a co-write with Steve Cropper that label mates Sam & Dave took to #20 on the R&B chart. All have been recorded by Floyd for the album, as was "I Don't Want to Be With Nobody But You, " a Floyd song that Malaco artist Dorothy Moore recorded on her 1976 Misty Blue album.

The new album also contains "Consider Me, " a classic Stax Eddie Floyd ballad that was an album track but never a single, plus two newer compositions: "Close to You" and "Head to Toe."

"Working with Eddie and getting to know him by making this record has been a complete joy, " says co-producer Dinallo. "Eddie's energy and enthusiasm has been and continues to be incredibly inspiring. Ducky and I were floored when he started singing. The sound of his voice coming back over the speakers gave us chills and made us howl with delight. In choosing the songs for this record, it hit me that I was surveying the history of soul music by digging through Eddie's catalog of the past 50 years. With the current neo-soul movement, it is only appropriate that one of the genre's most important and influential songwriter and performer steps to the front with this record."

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