Bob Mehr, USA TODAY NETWORK – TennesseePublished 2:00 p.m. CT Nov. 21, 2017 | Updated 1:50 p.m.
Bobby Manuel has been in the music business for over 50 years. As a guitarist, songwriter and producer, he’s worked with Isaac Hayes and Al Green, recorded with Elvis Presley, and penned songs with the Staple Singers. But earlier this fall, he finally released his first solo LP, “Soulsauce,” the product of four years of work.

“This is pretty much it, this is pretty much my legacy album,” said Manuel. “That’s why I’ve taken a lot of care and a lot of pride with it.”

Bobby Manuel's key contributions

But Manuel’s legacy is bigger than a single album. He’s been a key, if quiet, contributor to much Memphis music history — crucially, as a linchpin during the second half of Stax Records’ history.

“Bobby came up in the classic Memphis atmosphere, half a generation behind the pioneers at Stax," said Robert Gordon, author of the Stax history "Respect Yourself." "But he shared the same influences, so when new recruits were needed, when the label needed new energy and people who had that bright-eyed open, excited outlook, Bobby was that guy.”

Born in the Bluff City in 1945, Manuel was steeped in a music-rich environment. He was raised in proximity of the great trumpeter, bandleader and eventual Hi Records architect Willie Mitchell.

“I grew up near the Mitchell family and I can remember James Mitchell picking up his horn and barely playing a scale and Willie coming in and teaching him,” said Manuel, who soon became attuned to the R&B sounds emanating from the Mitchell house. “That’s when I heard the music on WDIA and that turned me around. It just rocked my soul, man — something connected. This was 1956, 1957. That was also when Elvis was hitting.”

In fact, Manuel and his friends used to pass by the young Presley’s house to eavesdrop. “We used to sneak down there and get below his bedroom window and listen to him practice.”

Another brush with greatness came in the form of Sun Records star Warren Smith. “When we’d walk home from school we’d hear him and his band rehearsing and they’d let us come in and listen," said Manuel. "As kids back then, hearing people play rock and roll, it was like going to the moon! ‘Cause we’d stuck been hearing Patti Page, ‘How Much Is That Doggie in the Window,’ and all that mess.”

A self-described “hyperactive kid,” Manuel spent years developing his rhythm in dancing school, then decided to try his luck as a singer. He hoped that would be his way into the music business until a buddy told him his voice was “terrible.” “I figured, well, it’s got to be the guitar then,” said Manuel, laughing.

As a young player — he was gigging in local clubs in his mid-teens — Manuel’s influences ranged from blues greats like B.B. King and hot R&B players like Billy Butler, to young lions like George Benson.In 1966, after a brief stint in the Army, and while still in college, Manuel got his start recording at Onyx studio, the East Memphis facility run by former Mar-Keys vocalist Ronnie Stoots. “That was my initial venture into recording. First things I did were with Homer Banks for the Minit label,” said Manuel, who was also playing gigs at the Club Paradise. There he caught the eye of Allen Jones, head of auditions at Stax Records.

Witnessing Stax after Atlantic split

Manuel made his way into the Stax fold as the label found itself at a crucial crossroads — just after the death of Otis Redding and following a split with Atlantic Records which took Stax’s back catalog.

“I got there in December of ’67 and it was crazy. They were getting away from Atlantic, and everybody was in shock about Otis — I didn’t see anybody for about six weeks over there. I didn’t know what was going on.”

“Fortunately, they decided to (relaunch) the label with a mess of releases. So I got to participate, engineer and play on 27 albums my first year at Stax,” said Ma