So a couple of weeks ago a spotted a name of a band on the Roots Music Blues Chart that I didn’t recognize, gave their album a quick listen, put it on the iPod for a more thorough listen, and then forgot about it! I think a track or two may have come up on a shuffle, after that, but I didn’t give the album a long listen. Well yesterday I picked up the July/August issue of Blues Review and I saw that the band members of that forgotten band are: Mike Zito, Devon Allman, Cyril Neville, Charlie Wooten and Yonrico Scott! The band is Royal Southern Brotherhood and while the self-titled album is now number 50 on the Roots Music Blues Chart, but it debuted at No 5 on the Billboard Blues Charts!
Needless to say I gave the album a more thorough listen today and came away impressed. When I listened today, I had no problem picking out Mike Zito’s vocal on the opening track “New Horizons” and Cyril Neville and Devon Allman’s vocals shine throughout the album. But while the vocals are good it’s the guitar work of Zito and Allman that I really enjoyed on the album. I’ve probably listened to more Mike Zito over the last couple of years than either of the other two leads in the band. I really liked Zito’s album Pearl River, the follow-up album Greyhound I didn’t like as much. I enjoyed Devon Allman’s Honeytribe album Space Age Blues. But I think the collaborative effort here is better than either of the artist has produced before!
Now I made some notes this morning about the songs that caught my ear, where they are I don’t know so here are the songs the best I can remember: “New Horizon, “Moonlight Over Mississippi”, “Keep On Rockin'” and “Sweet Jelly Donut” and I think I jotted down another track, but hell, just check out the album and see for yourself!
Here’s a video of the birth of the band and the song “Gotta’ Keep Rockin””