Southern Hospitality has served up a southern fried delicacy with its debut album, East Livin’. Produced by Louisiana blues guitar-slinger Tab Benoit, “SOHO” members J.P. Soars, Damon Fowler and Victor Wainwright, have followed a swampy gumbo recipe reminiscent of classic southern rockers Little Feat (during the Lowell George years) with a selection ranging from soul-inflected blues, to country, to jazz, to straight-ahead rock.
Fowler, who hails from Brandon, Florida, had produced three self-released albums beginning in 1999 before signing with Blind Pig Records, which released Sugar Shack in 2009 and Devil Got His Way in 2011. Fowler is a guitarist with a passion for lap steel and Dobro.
Soars gained attention in 2009 when his band won the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge and he won the Albert King Award as the best guitarist. Originally from Arkansas, Soars moved to Florida during his teens, and spent six years playing in death metal bands.
Wainwright, who adds his swampy, boogie-woogie keyboards to the mixture, grew up in Savannah, Georgia and moved to Daytona Beach, Florida to attend college. He worked as an air-traffic controller for several years in Memphis, continued to play music, and managed to release three albums.
SOHO came about in July 2011 when the three musicians, separately performing at a music festival in Florida, had an impromptu jam session. The trio was joined on Easy Livin’ by Chuck Riley on bass and Chris Peet on drums.
The band’s first offering begins with a funky, swampy “Southern Livin'” penned by the band members and Benoit. Soars’ “Long Way Home” is a beefy blues rocker, which is followed by Fowler’s laid-back soul “Kind Lies & Whiskey,” Soars’ “Mile After Mile” with its Smokey-and-the-Bandit twang, and Wainwright’s cool soul “Certified Lover.” Willie Bobo and Melvin C. Lastie’s classic instrumental “Fried Neckbonds and Home Fries,” made famous with rock audiences by Santana, is one of only two covers in the collection. The musicianship on the release is solid, and the song selection is an appealing variety. Check out Fowler’s “Don’t Feel Like Going There Today” and “Sky is What I Breathe” to see the range of songwriting these guys are putting together.
About the author: Bill Wilcox is a roots music enthusiast recently relocated from the Washington, DC area to Philadelphia, PA and back again.