-New Urban Sounds- What We're Listening to Right Now: Vintage Soul with a Twist by The Suffers
Straight from the coastal shores of Texas, the city of Houston brings us the warm, vintage sound of The Suffers. Reminiscent of Southern Soul of the 1970s, the ten-piece outfit refers to it's modern interpretation of the genre as Gulf Coast Soul, while adding elements of Southern Hip-Hop, Reggae and Ska, with bits of punk rock influences from their former lives as working musicians in Houston's thriving entertainment scene. Fronted by cowboy boot-clad Kam Franklin and her robust, smokey vocals- lyrically the band composes songs that are conversational in tone, while focusing primarily on the ebbs and flows of love and committed relationships. With such a large group of players and a vocalist with chops as powerful as Franklin's, you would almost expect The Suffers to be a steamroller of a band that showboats to just demonstrate their soul cred- or prowess in integrating diverse styles into their foundational sound. However, quite the opposite is true: with every soaring gospel-tinged vocal, reggae horn riff, or punk guitar rhythm, it all flows together seamlessly for easy listening. The Suffers is an outfit that knows how to play well in the sandbox together, always in tandem, never one outshining the other, for a smooth listening journey whether live or on record. The band's self-titled cd is a modern revamping of a classic genre with a lot of new ingredients thrown into the pot, but one that never works too hard to prove itself. Though there is the famous old saying that tells us, "Everything is Bigger In Texas", this band in all of their largesse knows how to use restraint, nuance, and subtlety in its musical choices- all in all making for a trim, yet deeply satisfying soul music listening experience.
The Suffers self-titled cd in hard and MP3 form is available on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Suffers/dp/B019D5OX14
