St. Paul & The Broken Bones

St. Paul & the Broken Bones was one of the more successful in the modern wave of '60s-inspired soul bands, and one of the most eye-grabbing as well: audiences did a double-take when they first realized that the gritty, Otis Redding-type voice is coming from the white, bespectacled and rather nerdy-looking guy upfront. Frontman Paul Janeway did in fact study to be an accountant, but dropped out of college in Birmingham when he realized music was more his calling. He and bassist Jesse Phillips played in a couple of unnoticed bands, but things began to click when guitarist Browan Lollar (from Jason Isbell's 400 Unit) and drummer Andrew Lee fell in. Adding a three-man horn section (two of whom were still attending Stamford University) they recorded an EP, Greetings from St. Paul and The Broken Bones in 2013. The band got another boost afterward by adding keyboardist Al Jackson, a bluesman who cut his teeth playing on Beale Street in Memphis. A show the following year at South by Southwest was their critical breakthrough, with Rolling Stone calling them "the best soul revivalists at SXSW 2014," and the UK's Guardian comparing them favorably to Alabama Shakes. That band's occasional keyboardist Ben Tanner produced the Broken Bones' first full-length, 2014's Half the City. In summer 2015 the band caught another big break when they opened two Rolling Stones shows in Atlanta and Orchard Park, NY. Playing an abbreviated set that included Otis Redding's classic "Try a Little Tenderness," they won the crowd and critics over-not always guaranteed when you open for the Stones. For their second album Sea of Noise the band worked with English producer Paul Butler and aimed to branch out musically, moving away from the retro style and into headier sounds, inspired by Janeway's love of Tom Waits and Nick Cave. New touches included a gospel choir and a string quartet, but the band also saluted its roots by working with Lester Snell, an arranger from the fabled Stax Records. The album was released to favorable response in fall 2016.