The Relatives (2018)

One Liner: Gospel

Wikipedia Genre: Gospel
Home: Gospel

Poster Position: 29
Day: Sunday at 11:15 am
Weekend One Only.

Thoughts: These guys came last year as well, but then they were called Pastor Cedric B. West and The Relatives.  No new music since then, so I'm just going to give you the same review from last time.

Thoughts: Back in that gospel zone of the poster (as though the band name didn't tip you off).  Although the name doesn't quite match, I just found that this stuff is available on Spotify - just called The Relatives.  And some of these songs are actually hugely popular! Well, at least for the gospel people who usually play ACL, they have a song with more than 639,000 streams (up to 735k in 2018)!  I mean, that is legit! From their 2009 anthology of tunes, here is "Don't Let Me Fall."

Their Spotify bio shows that they have opened for the Staples Singers.  That is pretty big time.  I usually come to these gospel reviews planning to make some sort of joke, do a quick review, and move on.  But these guys really look like the real deal.  Come on and check this next one out, called "It's Coming Up Again," which has 310k streams (up to 470k in 2018), and sounds as funky as James Brown bringing the damn thunder right up to your door right now.

Interesting thing, that song sounded really familiar, and it looks like it was featured on season 1 of Fargo, the show I literally just finished watching earlier this week.  Serendipity, man.  AND THAT SONG IS DOPE!  If you don't do some Bill Cosby-esque head shakes and groove around in your seat while listening to that track, then don't read anything ever again. Just go crawl into a coffin and go away already.

For my money, that 2013 album, The Electric Word, which was produced by a guy from Spoon, is the top pick for these cats.  They have a 2016 album called Goodbye World that is pretty good too, but not as funky to me.  Then, the 2009 Don't Let Me Fall anthology album is more gospel-centric and less exciting to me.  Surprisingly loving these guys though. That'll teach me to generalize the gospel bands!

Get your buns outta bed and go get funky on Sunday morning!