Country meets soul on this inspired collection of jukebox
singles featuring Stax and Hi Records originators, producer Scott Bomar,
roots guitarist John Paul Keith, and Al Gamble of St. Paul & the Broken
Bones street date set for April 29.
MEMPHIS,
Tenn. —The
Bo-Keys, a contemporary soul music group that signifies both
tradition and innovation, celebrates the release of a third studio album, Heartaches
by the Number, on Electraphonic
Records
via Omnivore
Recordings on April
29, 2016. Heartaches by the Number is an exploration of the
intersection of country, folk and soul, combining stunning originals with
inspired interpretations of jukebox classics from Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan, Swamp Dogg,
Charlie Rich,
and Ray Price.
Recorded
entirely on analog tape at Electraphonic
Recording
in Memphis, the set perfectly captures the classic country-meets-soul
feeling birthed within the musical triangle of Memphis/Nashville/Muscle
Shoals. The core group comprises legendary Al Green drummer Howard
Grimes,
keyboardist Archie
“Hubbie” Turner, horn players Marc Franklin and Art
Edmaiston
of the Gregg
Allman Band,
bassist/producer Scott
Bomar,
saxophonist Kirk
Smothers,
organist Al Gamble, and guitarist Joe Restivo. On this country-soul journey, special guests including
celebrated Hi Records artist Don Bryant, Hi
Records and American Studios vocal group the Masqueraders, and roots singer-songwriter and guitarist John Paul Keith join the Bo-Keys in
the studio. Front-and-center is Bo-Keys lead vocalist Percy Wiggins, who comes by the groove honestly — in the 1960s, he
cut sides for RCA and ATCO alongside future Band of Gypsies musicians
Billy Cox and Larry Lee at
Bradley’s Barn, Nashville’s eminent recording studio.
Heartaches
by the Numberis a genre-bending release that sounds like the jukebox
roster at a honky-tonk bar or Mississippi juke joint. Merle Haggard’s “The Longer You Wait” is reinterpreted with
propulsive horns and a searing organ riff, while the band inserts grit and
funk into their interpretation of the Swamp Dogg-penned “Don’t Take Her
(She’s All I Got),” first cut as a soul single by Freddie North before country hit-makers such as Johnny Paycheck, George Strait, and George Jones added twang and swagger to the iconic dive-bar lament.
Heartaches
by the Numberbuilds on the
Bo-Keys’
past catalog and adds a new dimension to the group’s potential by
metaphorically traveling beyond the Memphis city limits to explore an
often-overlooked subgenre of music popularized by Arthur Alexander, Swamp Dogg, Solomon Burke, and Bettye LaVette. The release will also bring new audiences to the Bo-Keys — fans of Adele,
St. Paul & the Broken Bones, and the Alabama
Shakes
will find music that speaks to them on this album.
Whether
or not you recognize the name, you’ve seen or heard the Bo-Keys: That’s
the Bo-Keys setting
the mood in TV episodes of Scandal and Scorpion; on the big screen playing the
original score for the Oscar-winning film Hustle & Flow and backing Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie
Mac
in Soul Men; and performing on Cyndi Lauper’s Grammy-nominated Memphis Bluesalbum. Since 1998, the Bo-Keys have kept the spirit of classic Memphis music alive
while simultaneously penning a vital new chapter for the sound and style
that are etched into the very fiber of American consciousness.
“Where
many revivalists pale compared to the originals, the Bo-Keys would have fit right in next to legendary Memphis
musical crews the
Bar-Kays
and Booker T. & the M.G.s,” raves the Associated Press,
while The New Yorker notes that a recent Manhattan
appearance was “one of last year’s tightest, funkiest, happiest shows.”
Although the band hasn’t released a studio album since 2011’s Got to Get Back!, the Bo-Keys have stayed busy, performing on John Németh’s Blues
Music Award-winning Memphis Greasealbum (for Best Soul Blues), and placing music in the film Grudge Match and
on TV.
Heartaches
by the Numberwas produced by Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated
Scott Bomar,
the Bo-Keys’ bassist (who also produced Memphis Grease). His other career highlights
include working as assistant engineer on Al Green’s 2003 Grammy-nominated
comeback I Can’t
Stop
and its follow-up, Everything’s
OK;
producing the Grammy-nominated
Anthony Hamilton track “Soul Music”; and producing and engineering
Lauper’s Memphis
Blues,
which topped the Billboard blues chart for 13 weeks. In
2005, Bomar composed the score for Hustle & Flow, followed by serving as
executive music producer and composer on Black Snake Moan. He won an Emmy for Best Original Music for the documentary I Am a Man: From Memphis, A Lesson in Life and most recently scored the
film Mississippi
Grind, which features Ryan Reynolds and debuted at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
