REVIEW -- BOOKER T: POTATO HOLE

Booker T

Potato Hole

(Anti-)

Booker T. Jones, the man behind “Green Onions” and countless other Stax greats, has played the reliable sideman role for so long, it’s kind of a big deal when he’s given a solo shot. Of course, as bandleader of the venerable MGs, Jones has had extensive training in how to shape records. Potato Hole, the first album under his own name in three decades, finds Jones leading another band, this one made up of Neil Young and members of Drive-By Truckers. And while nothing here approaches the magnificence of the MGs’ ’60s output, it’s a sturdy set of rafter-shaking instrumentals. Leadoff track “Pound It Out” begins with Jones’ fat and meaty Hammond B-3 organ oozing into every open space, before a crunching guitar power chord blasts it all wide open. From there, Young and the Truckers’ Patterson Hood swap leads, the band piles on funky Southern R&B, and Jones pulls up the center with the sort of warm and tuneful organ riffs he’s been laying down for almost 50 years. Best of all, Jones and crew spin covers of OutKast’s “Hey Ya!” and the Truckers’ “Space City” into something entirely new. --Michael Gallucci