The spirit of Memphis’ legendary Stax Records continues to live on and inspire young artists. Take Me to the River helps capture and stoke the label’s ongoing impact, serving as the companion album to a must-see documentary about the fabled soul label. The premise of unique, generation-spanning collaborations between older Stax artists and those inspired by Stax in the present day (such as Bobby “Blue” Bland’s performance with rapper Yo Gotti on “Ain’t No Sunshine”) produces a number of magical moments. Cody Dickinson does an impressive job as co-producer and plays on a few of the album’s strongest cuts, including a couple of North Mississippi Allstars collaborations with the great Mavis Staples (most notably on the poignant Pop Staples tune “Wish I Had Answered”). Snoop Dogg helps to capture the Stax ‘60s zeitgeist alongside singer-songwriter great William Bell and the youngsters of the Stax Music Academy, and appearances by Bobby Rush (age 81), Otis Clay (age 72) and Lil P-Nut (age 12) are standouts on a record chock-full of great performances.