Four superb musicians make magic together playing stripped down songs and telling stories.
If you’re gonna sit around the bonfire or up on the front porch, drinkin’ a couple cold ones with your buddies and playing music, laughing, telling the stories that made the songs, it’s hard to think of four more exceptional players to do that with than (left to right above) Marc Broussard, Anders Osborne, Luther Dickinson and JJ Grey. I mean, all four of these guys have songs that, especially when played stripped down and just with guitar, make your hair stand up on end and then some.
And even though each of these incredibly talented guys has a rabid following with their individual bands — Grey with his band Mofro, Dickinson with the North Mississippi All Stars etc, and Broussard and Osborne leading their own bands — collectively as the Southern Soul Assembly, they have found a truly unique and special bond, one that they might not necessarily get with a bigger band. And mutual respect is in full force when these boys get together.
“It’s awesome,” said Grey, in between mopping up hurricane damage at his Florida home. “We do it every couple years, just get together and do a string of dates, and just have fun. I really enjoy it, I’m blown away by those guys, they’re all such heavy hitters, in what they do. It’s inspiring, to be honest with you, to be able to hang out with ’em, and watch them do what they do.”
The four men knew each other through their various musical endeavors and got together three years ago as the SSA, just to explore the potential. They have let the remarkable vibe they discovered continue to evolve with no real road map, finding a rare, acoustic sanctuary for their often deeply personal music.
“We just figure it out as we go,” said Grey. “We just keep tradin’ out songs, and tellin’ stories about our songs, and just kinda let it go where it goes. That’s how we did it to begin with, we didn’t rehearse or nothin’, we just all showed up the first day and just started playin’. Watch each other’s hands and figure out what the chord changes are for all the songs, and just roll with it. It’s a little bit more like we’re all sitting on a porch drinkin’ beer, and somebody had a guitar laying there, and we’d grab it and play. ”
Dickinson, Grey, Broussard and Osborne have all played solo shows and done solo projects largely sans a band behind them before, but that solo vibe times four has produced some of the most special musical moments any of them has ever had. And for four of the best singer/songwriters music has to offer, the atmosphere created around the Southern Soul Assembly provides unforgettably raw and real experiences for all of them, and their audience.
“It becomes a little bit more about the songs,” Grey said. “It’s just you and a guitar, so it becomes really about the lyrics. No soloing, or that kind of stuff. It’s more about the stories, and the songs. Kind of more like a storytelling like thing. It’s special, man.”
Southern Soul Assembly performs on Saturday March 11th at The Howard Theater, 620 T Street, NW • Washington, DC 20001. For tickets, click here.
