The sound known as Memphis Soul seemed to have peaked by the end of 1967 when Otis Redding, the great star of the Stax label, died in an airplane crash. Although Redding's "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" would top both the pop and R&B charts in 1968, the hey day of such Memphis-based Stax, Volt, and Atlantic Records artists as Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Carla Thomas, and Eddie Floyd was on the wane. But a new rhythm and blues variation was simmering in Memphis, Tennessee, ready to come to the subtle boil captured on this indispensable anthology culled from the vaults of the Hi label.

Founded in 1957 by a group of investors, from which Joe Cuoghi would emerge as president and guiding light, Hi Records established its early identity as a home for rockabilly and rock & roll instrumentals. The label didn't score a significant hit until 1959 when former Elvis Presley bassist Bill Black recorded "Smokie Part 2" with his combo. Moreover, a distinctive Hi R&B sound didn't begin to take shape until Willie Mitchell - a trumpeter and arranger who led a popular big band that had featured such jazz players as Phineas Newborn, Jr., Charles Lloyd, Booker Little, and George Coleman - signed to the label in 1963. It was Mitchell who brought together the cohesive Hi rhythm section of bassist Leroy "Flick" Hodges, drummer Howard Grimes, guitarist Teenie Hodges, and organist Charles Hodges, augmenting the resonant "bottom" with sharp but svelte horn charts sweet strings.

Hi Times is a chronological compilation, with Disc 1 revealing the gradually increasing weight of Mitchell's influence, including his own first R&B hit, "Buster Browne" from 1965 and his 1968 success with "Soul Serenade". But Mitchell was producing records outside Hi, as well, with such singers as Otis Clay, Syl Johnson, and O.V. Wright, and when he was given more leeway by Cuoghi in the late '60s, he began recruiting the vocalists who would give Hi its indelible musical personality. The first was Ann Peebles, who combined her soulful gospel roots with the kind of dynamics Mitchell relished - soaring on one line and almost whispering the next. The four Peebles songs on Disc 1 -"Walk Away", "Part Time Love", "I'll Get Along", and "I Pity the Fool" - hint at the impending Hi breakthrough.

While performing in Midland, Texas, riding the success of "Soul Serenade," Mitchell discovered Al Green (then known as Albert Greene), who would become the vehicle for taking Mitchell's vision of soul to its artistic pinnacle -- and to the top of both the R&B and pop charts. Disc 2 captures the epitome of the Hi sound in all its glory, opening with a Green trilogy of "I Can't Get Next to You", "Tired of Being Alone" and "Let's Stay Together". Here are the insistent grooves, the delicately layered arrangements, and above all, a singer who could approach the grittiness of the Stax/Volt giants, Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett, but soften the edges with the lyrical smoothness of Sam Cooke. Mitchell wanted to reach both black and white audiences and, not unlike Sam Phillips' lucky discovery of Elvis Presley, he found his messenger in Green.

When Joe Cuoghi died in 1970, Mitchell virtually took control of Hi, perfecting a sound that was at once earthy and suave, retaining the blues and gospel at the root of Memphis soul but pointing the way to the "smooth grooves" of the '70s. In addition to such Al Green triumphs as "I'm Still In Love with You", "Call Me", and "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)", Disc 2 of Hi Times reveals the way the producer worked his magic with Otis Clay, Syl Johnson, and Ann Peebles, especially on the latter's "I'm Gonna Tear your Playhouse Down" and "I Can't Stand the Rain" , shaping the sound of Memphis Soul for the 1970s. Disc 3 finds him working with the same cast plus several minor characters -such as Darryl Carter and Erma Coffee - and temporarily fending off (and occasionally nodding to) the market-crushing impact of disco. The crossover success diminished (Green's glorious "Love and Happiness" barely cracked the R&B Top 100 and hit only #104 Pop), Hi was sold in 1977, Green veered off into 15 years of pure gospel recordings, and Mitchell left Hi in 1979. But even with the close of that chapter in southern soul, the Hi legacy lives on, exerting a palpable influence on singers as apparently divergent as John Hiatt and Robert Cray, and continuing to serenade us with timeless soul.--Derk Richardson