Southern Avenue

One Liner: Belt-y, soulful rockin' gospel-adjacent tunes

Wikipedia Genre: Blues, soul blues, gospel
Home: Memphis

Poster Position: 20
Weekend Two Only.  Saturday.

Thoughts: I know that the Beyhive will come for my soul for saying this, but the comp my brain keeps making here to the voice of the lead singer is Beyonce.  Her name is actually Tierinii Jackson (and no, I don't know how to say that first name) and she's in the band with her sister on drums.  The band is a five-piece outfit out of Memphis - the band name is after a street in Memphis that runs from the eastern city limits to the area of town where Stax Records was located.

The tunes are rock-ish blues and soul music, that sometimes veer towards gospel and sometimes towards southern rock.  It's pretty good music, and when combined with Tierinii's great voice, the whole thing really works.  Three albums, 2017's eponymous one, 2019's Keep On, and 2021's Be the Love You Want.  None of them really have a different feel or groove, they all pretty well run together after a long day of listening.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, they found a lane and they are crushing it.  Reminds me of Lake Street Dive, but with a better singer.

Top track is from the debut - "Don't Give Up" has 2.8 million spins on Spotify.

Hear that gospel vibe in there?  The opening with the guitarwork and hand-claps feels like you're in a southern Baptist church waiting for the word.  And then the drums and electric guitar kick in and you've got a slow-burner rock song.  Good stuff.  Off of the new album, the title track is the top streamer - "Be The Love You Want" - with 219k streams.

That one is a little more aggressive - bongos driving it forward and the horns popping up here and there to give it a little crescendo.  Again, her voice is the difference maker.  The band is solid, but imagining it along with some generic singer and it would be significantly less interesting.  I hope they can convince McConnoaghayscghey to get on stage naked with them and play the bongos for this track.  Would be guaranteed to get them noticed and make the first weekend crowd angry about the lack of McConaPeen.