The late-great Steve Cropper had another ace up his sleeve before his tragic passing in December 2025. To anyone who knows the roots and branches of American music, the loss of The Colonel was seismic. As guitarist, songwriter, producer and engineer – not just for the iconic Stax record label but on a forest of sessions and solo releases – the Tennessee soul man was the DNA that coursed through the post-war era, his fabled right hand setting the pace of rock ‘n’ roll for 60-plus years.
The legendary musician was working on this new record, and with ‘Watching The Tide‘, he has left a beautiful gift to the world, featuring an all-star cast including Eric Clapton, Brian May, Billy Gibbons and Ronnie Wood.
Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour will release ‘Watching The Tide‘ on August 28th via Provogue/Artone Label Group.
Listen to ‘Ticket First’ featuring Eric Clapton – here.
The wider world assumed 2024’s star-dusted, Grammy-nominated ‘Friendlytown‘ was the full stop on this most seminal of careers. Little did we know this towering figure had one last play in his lifetime. “Making music was Steve‘s greatest joy,” explains Jon Tiven, the acclaimed songwriter/producer who first met Cropper in the early-’70s, became a close friend and helped ignite his post-millennial solo career. “Steve was so encouraged by ‘Friendlytown‘. He was adamant he wanted to do another record.”
Appropriately for an album whose title references the guitarist’s most famous co-write – Otis Redding’s 1967 standard ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay’ – ‘Watching The Tide‘ saw Cropper roll back the years. Writing alongside Tiven and Midnight Hour vocalist Roger C. Reale – then tracking at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio C with a crack-squad band including Ana Grosh (vocals), Nioshi Jackson (drums), engineer Eddie Gore (keys/percussion), and a wishlist of guitar heroes (Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Brian May, Ronnie Wood) – the 83-year-old sounds ageless and energised.
Talking about ‘Ticket First’, Tiven says, “Steve had a joke about a woman who rubs a magic lamp. The genie comes out and says, ‘You’ve got one wish’. The woman says, ‘I want to win the lottery’. And the genie says, ‘Sorry, you’ve got to get a ticket first’. When Roger and I heard that, we said, ‘Oh, that’s a song title’. I sent out some emails to guitar players I knew who had a great affinity for Steve and two days later, I got an email back from Eric Clapton‘s manager, saying he’d be in Nashville for a concert and could we do it then. He did, I believe, 11 takes on guitar. At the end, Steve and I looked at each other and said, ‘Man, you just turned the song inside out. I think we’re gonna have to give you a writer’s credit’. Eric looked pretty stunned by that. And he said: ‘Well, anything to get my name next to Steve Cropper’s…’”
The A-list cameos continue with the valedictory ballad, ‘My Angels Are Calling’, featuring Brian May and Billy Gibbons (“Brian is singing from Steve‘s point of view,” says Tiven of the Queen man’s touching lyric, “looking back over his life and his road. It’s very powerful”). ‘Until Now’ makes stellar use of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood’s stinging slide, before Tiven himself takes lead guitar for the brassy strut of ‘Blood From A Stone’ and ‘Here & Gone’. The latter is also one of the showcases for upcoming vocalist Ana Grosh (who features prominently on ‘Stand Right Here’ too). “We met Ana at the Grammys and I heard immediately that this 21-year-old had something,” recalls Tiven.
He might have been indomitable as ever in the studio, but as Tiven and Gore set to work on post-production, nobody could deny that Cropper was running out of time. Yet even as the great man slowly bowed to his medical issues in late 2025, he clung on to hear the mixes of ‘Watching The Tide‘ (10 of the 11 tracks were completed before his death, with only ‘My Angels Are Calling‘ still a work-in-progress).
“I finished the mixes about a week-and-a-half before Steve passed and we brought a CD to him at the medical facility,” remembers Tiven. “He called me the night before he passed to tell me how much he loved it. He was playing it for everyone who came to visit him, telling them it was the best record he’d ever made.”
It’s a huge statement for a musical colossus who towered over the rock ‘n’ roll age. Yet to play this posthumous release is to hear an all-time-great still at the top of his game, blending the burning passion of youth with the wisdom of an old master. Steve Cropper might have left us, but with ‘Watching The Tide‘, the ripples continue to spread. “I know this record provided great joy to Steve in the last year of his life,” says Tiven. “And I’m so glad he was able to have this great creative burst that was so strong…”
Track list:
- Tandoori Chicken
- Ticket First ft. Eric Clapton
- My Angels Are Calling ft. Brian May & Billy F. Gibbons
- Until Now ft. Ronnie Wood
- Blood From A Stone
- Here & Gone ft. Ana Grosh
- It’s Gonna Get Worse
- Down & Out
- Stand Right Here ft. Billy F. Gibbons & Ana Grosh
- Tipoff To The Ripoff
- House of Cards
- Tandoori Chicken Part 2
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