- Rock Metal Machine
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 12 hours ago
STEVE CROPPER & THE MIDNIGHT HOUR UNITE THREE GUITAR LEGENDS!
One soulful song. Three unforgettable guitar heroes.
Published: 01 Sep 2026 • Author: Rock Metal Machine • Reading Time: 4 mins
Three legendary guitarists unite as Sir Brian May takes lead vocals on ‘My Angels Are Calling’, featuring ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and Steve Cropper. The soulful ballad appears on Cropper’s posthumous album Watching The Tide, released today via Provogue / Artone Label Group.
RELEASE DETAILS
Artist:
Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour
Album:
Watching The Tide
Release Date:
Out Now
Record Label:
Provogue / Artone Label Group Pre Order:
Link Formats:
Various
PR Label:
Steve Cropper & The Midnight Hour has revealed the stirring soulful ballad ‘My Angels Are Calling’ featuring the legendary Queen guitarist Sir Brian May, who takes on lead vocals alongside the six-string prowess of ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons - combining three of the world’s most iconic guitarists in one place. You can listen to the song HERE.
The single is taken from The Colonel’s posthumous release, Watching The Tide, which is out today via Provogue / Artone Label Group.
🔥 FIREWORKS INSIGHT
Steve Cropper’s posthumous Watching The Tide carries real historical significance, connecting a foundational figure of Southern soul with some of rock’s most distinctive guitar voices. As a key architect of the Stax sound and Booker T. & the M.G.’s guitarist, Cropper influenced generations through his economical, deeply melodic playing. ‘My Angels Are Calling’ brings that legacy into focus, with Brian May interpreting Cropper’s imagined final thoughts and Billy Gibbons adding the closing guitar statement. It’s a poignant meeting of Stax, blues and rock traditions.
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 Jon Tiven, the acclaimed songwriter/producer 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, Sir Brian May, Ronnie Wood) – the 83-year-old sounds ageless and energised.
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▶ WATCH THE NEW SINGLE
Want to hear the first taste of Watching The Tide for yourself? Watch the official video below.
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From the opening sounds of waves crashing against the shore, Sir Brian May’s vocals transport you back to the halcyon days of Stax Records at their peak on the valedictory ballad, ‘My Angels Are Calling,’ - for which he wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the music. “Go Billy!” calls May as he brings in ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons who lends his fingers to the end solo. “Brian is singing from Steve's point of view,” says Tiven of the Queen man’s touching lyrics. Looking back over his life and his road. It’s very powerful.”
Reflecting on the sessions, Brian remembers: “We were all incredibly sad at Steve´s passing, and I was already collaborating with Steve and his band on a track for this album. The backing track which Jon Tiven, producer of the album and a very old friend of mine, sent me includes Steve Cropper´s unmistakable riff in a style which has influenced us all massively over the years. As soon as Steve was gone, I could hear something different in my head - a tribute to Cropper himself. The way I saw it, I wanted to try to step into his mind at the moment when he knew it was time to move on. So in the track I´m attempting to speak with his voice, and I felt that spiritually he would find a way of bringing his usual optimism into play. In the song, the angels are calling, and it seems to me that, along with being grateful for his wonderful life, he would imagine heaven to be something like going back to sitting on the dock of the bay, a moment in time that he shared with Otis Redding creating that immortal hit, ‘Dock of the Bay’. Having Billy Gibbons play a spectacular solo for me is the final wonderful bonus to this experience. The whole band did a terrific job, and I´m very proud to be a part of it.”
The whole band did a terrific job, and I´m very proud to be a part of it.
Brian May
The album features further A-List collaborations including ‘Until Now’, which makes stellar use of The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood’s stinging slide, as Tiven recalls the session: “Ronnie Wood got back to me about 10 minutes after I sent off my email: ‘Oh, this looks like a lot of fun. I'll jump in.’
The first song to be released from the album was the tough Southern-smoked blues of ‘Ticket First’, which started with a joke and ended with Cropper and fellow rock royalty Eric Clapton riffing nose-to-nose. “I told Eric, ‘Man, you just turned that song inside-out – I think we’re gonna have to give you a writer’s credit,” recalls Tiven of the legendary British guitarist’s transcendent solo. “And Eric said, ‘Well, anything to get my name next to Steve Cropper’s…’”
To anyone who knows the roots and branches of American music, the passing of Steve Cropper in December 2025 was seismic. As a 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.
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 Watching The Tide indicates that there is much more still to hear from him.
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Tracklisting:
1. Tandoori Chicken
2. Ticket First ft. Eric Clapton
3. My Angels Are Calling ft. Brian May & Billy F. Gibbons
4. Until Now ft. Ronnie Wood
5. Blood From A Stone
6. Here & Gone ft. Ana Grosh
7. It's Gonna Get Worse
8. Down & Out
9. Stand Right Here ft. Billy F. Gibbons & Ana Grosh
10. Tipoff To The Ripoff
11. House of Cards
12. Tandoori Chicken Part 2
Listen/Order HERE
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Images courtesy of Michael Arthur Wilson / Mascot Label Group
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