Jim Horn: Rock N' Roll Recipes

Steve Cropper is one of our great living legends that has his own unique style of playing guitar.You've heard him play on the songs he's written,like Dock Of The Bay, Midnight Hour, Green Onions and countless others. He's one of the nicest men you'll ever meet in the music business,and he and I are like brothers when we get together.

There are some memorable sessions with Steve in Memphis.He would fly me in to work with Sam and Dave,Roy Head and also cut two tracks for one of my albums.The drummer would set the drums up in the center of the studio and we would isolate ourselves around him;what a great sound.Crop, as some of us would call him,would teach us the song without chord charts or music,that way the song was imbedded in your brain.The conversations Steve and I had musically were the low string licks on his guitar and my funky low notes on baritone sax.The following day the Memphis Horns would come in and add the finishing touches.Wayne Jackson,who played trumpet and was the leader of the horn section,was kind enough to let me join them on alto sax.I'll never forget standing in the middle of the Memphis Horns' when we hit a chord or one of those memorable horn lines,what a sound!

    When we got hungry,we would head for the meat and three restaurants, Berkles Bakery or Buntons.Meat and three is your choice of any meat and three vegis'.We also had our share of bar-b-que.I got a true southern cuisine education.Crop even showed me the right way to eat grits: butter and a little pepper.

    When Crop moved to Los Angeles,we worked on two Jose Feliciano albums and many others.I was so glad when Steve brought his sound out to the west coast.People like Rod Stewart added Steves' sound to their records.

    Crop is also a good cook.He would call the day before Super Bowl and say I'm cookin' gumbo tomorrow Jim,come on over.I walked in and there sat Duck Dunn-bass player who recorded on nearly all the Stax records (and also is a member of Booker T. And The M Gs'),Keith Moon(drummer with The Who),and a few other famous faces.You never knew who was going to be at Crops house.Steve has cooked gumbo for me many times.We also exchange recipes.Here's my version of Crops gumbo.The only addition is I make a roux before you add the first ingredients.

Recipe for Roux	Cropper's Seasoning
1 stick of butter 1/2 cup flour for roux 1 large onion-chopped 4 cloves garlic-minced 2 large celery stalks-chopped 1 bell pepper-chopped 1 large can chopped tomatoes 1 lb. sliced okra	1 T. paprika,l t.file powder, I t.black pepper,1 t.white pepper,1 t. cayenne pepper, 1 t. dill weed,1 t.yellow mustard,1 t.curry powder, 1 t.celery salt,1/2 t.ground coriander,1/2t. dried thyme, 1/2 t.ground cloves,1/2 t. nutmeg,1/2 t.terragon,1/2 t. summer savory.Combine all ingredients and mix well.

Steve Cropper's Gumbo

    3 T. chopped parsley
    2 bay leaves
    1 cup white wine
    2 cups chicken stock
    1 large chicken breast
    1 lb. shrimp or crawfish
    1/2 lb. crabmeat-cleaned

Melt butter,add flour and cook roux until light brown.Add onion,garlic,celery,and bell pepper.Cook 5 min.,then add Chopped tomatoes,okra,parsley,bay leaves,white wine,spice mixture and chicken stock.Simmer for 2 hours on low.Add diced chicken breast and cook until tender.Then add peeled shrimp and crabmeat.If your using crawfish meat,you add them last.Add water or more stock if the gumbo gets to thick.Do not boil.Serve over rice with hot sauce on the side.Serves 8.Good Luck!!