Tuesday 17 December 2013

Royal Southern Brotherhood: Songs From The Road

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Songs From The Road


Track list

CD

1 Fired up!
2 Hurts My Heart
3 Gotta Keep Rockin'
4 Moonlight Over The Mississippi
5 Left My Heart In Memphis
6 Fire On The Mountain
7 Band Introductions
8 Ways About You
9 Sweet Jelly Donut
10 New Horizons
11 All Around The World
12 Gimme Shelter

DVD

1 Fired Up!
2 Hurts My Heart
3 Gotta Keep Rockin'
4 Moonlight Over The Mississippi
5 Left My Heart In Memphis
6 Fire On The Mountain
7 Ways About You
8 Sweet Jelly Donut
9 New Horizons
10 All Around The World
11 Sweet Little Angel
12 Gimme Shelter


The Ruf Records Songs From The Road series continues with a collaborative effort from Ruf stablemates Devon Allman, Cyril Neville, Mike Zito, Charlie Wooton and Yonrico Scott. The CD and DVD capture a high-powered performance from the Royal Southern Brotherhood at the Crossroads Festival in Bonn.

With an abundance of big hitters in the band, I was interested to see who, if anyone, would take the lead. It turns out the songs are shared between Devon, Cyril and Mike, with each one bringing a different texture to the lyrics.

The genre is blues/rock, of course. It take until the fifth song - Left My Heart In Memphis - before the pace is allowed to slacken from all-out to power ballad.

There are many highlights. The CD version sounds great, but the DVD is a must-see to gain full appreciation of this live dynamite; one needs to see as well as hear the guitar interaction perpetrated by Devon and Mike on Fire On The Mountain (clocking in at over 13 minutes!). I'd also pick out Gotta Keep Rockin', New Horizons and their cover of Gimme Shelter as the other main highlights.

The DVD has two extras. The first is a 10-minute interview with Cyril, Devon and Mike during which they discuss the genesis of the band before finishing off with an acoustic version of Fired Up! The second extra - again running for 10 minutes - showcases bass and drum solos by Charlie Wooton and Yonrico Scott respectively.

It's not easy to keep collaborative bands - or supergroups - going, but given Royal Southern Brotherhood's announcement that they are heading back into the studio in 2014 to record their next album, it is clear that they are definitely not done yet.

Reviews of other CD/DVDs in the Songs From The Road series can be found here:

Oli Brown

Savoy Brown

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