Stax - four letters that came to symbolize southern soul in the Sixties. The name came from the combination of names of founder Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton. She put in a financial investment in 1959 while Stewart, a white former country fiddle-player, spotted the opportunity. The label they founded briefly challenged Motown as the leading black-music source of the era. Stax closed its doors in late 1975, but its back catalogue remains untouchable. This collection of the label's early tracks is the bedrock on which its legend was founded.