Southernality, features their first UK single ‘Trailer Trashed’ – a ballsy, southern-rock party anthem with a slick groove, soulful backing vocals and big, big harmonies. It’s currently sitting pretty on the Planet Rock Radio A-list.
The band have been making major waves in their native America, with USA Today naming them one of 2015’s Artists to Watch. Their debut release ‘Smoke’ saw them become the first band to have a debut single reach #1 on the Billboard Country Airplay Chart this decade while its video received a nomination at the CMT Music Awards.
With Michael Hobby leading on vocals, Bill Satcher and Zach Brown on guitar and Graham Deloach on bass, the band create a fresh fusion of classic sounds – a hybrid of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, Black Crowes and Exile on Main Street-era Rolling Stones – wrapped up in a modern-country context.
Hobby and Satcher first met while checking out guitars at the only music store in Newberry, South Carolina. DeLoach, first cousins with Satcher, entered the picture during summer holidays while visiting from Georgia.
The trio then moved to Nashville and soon invited friend of a friend Brown to join. Living together and writing songs they experienced the full ups and downs of broken promises, record label changes and management problems but persevered and ended up recording their debut album Southernality with producer Dave Cobb, (Rival Sons, Chris Cornell, Shooter Jennings) at the Zac Brown Band’s Southern Ground Recording Studio in Nashville.
“They are a true band of brothers,” Cobb says. “They’ve been together through thick and thin. Also, make sure you never give them a key to the minibar.”
While alcohol undoubtedly played a role in shaping the album, their parents’ record collections and older brothers’ listening habits had more to do with their wide-ranging influences. Southernality feels a little like another band of brothers, The Black Crowes. And The Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd in Muscle Shoals. Tom Petty a few weeks after he met The Heartbreakers. And Led Zeppelin in the thrall of Howlin’ Wolf.
Rolling Stone Country hailed the band as the Best Up-and-Comer at 2014’s Austin City Limits and it’s easy to understand why when you see the band hit the road as a nine-piece with three backing singers, a fiddler and a keyboard player.
"Having the fiddle and keys player, and the girls, was something we always wanted to do,"explains Hobby, when speaking to Rolling Stone. "They are such incredible singers and musicians, and everybody feeds off everyone's energy. When I hear them in my ears, it fires me up."
"You write a song, you record a song, you put it out to the public and you hope that they like it too," continues Hobby. "'Smoke' has blown our minds with how well it's done and how fast it went. To see the fans react to it, that's what really connects for us. It's all a whirlwind right now."
