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5/4/2004

Roberta Penn

With the accolades recently paid the Motown session group the Funk Brothers and Joss Stone's band of Miami R&B all-stars, America's nearly forgotten generation of soul masters are at last getting their due. The Bo-Keys step up for the southern-fried sound of Memphis on The Royal Sessions. Unlike their Detroit brethren, they're not pushing any famous numbers, and no, bandleader and bass player Scott Bomar is not a gamine blond soul singer. Instead, the Bo-Keys supply rock-solid, greasy instrumental funk, as recorded in the studio of legendary producer Willie Mitchell. Bomar, a young garage-rock fan, assembled this band of heavy hitters, and with Stax veterans Ronnie Williams (the Bar-Kays) on Hammond B-3 organ, drummer Willie Hall (the Bar-Kays, the Blues Brothers), and Charles "Skip" Pitts (Isaac Hayes) on guitar, the rhythm section is a regular Murderer's Row. Horns -- honking bari sax and trumpet -- and percussion are provided by Memphis regulars, making for a mix of veteran chops and young ideas. Hall's heavy beats sound like the samples for hip-hop records (in fact, they probably were), and occasional spoken interludes lend a pseudo-rap feel. "My Country Loves Me" is a random recitation of the Bill of Rights, undercut with smirking wah-wah guitar that perfectly captures the tenor of these times. But "I Remember Stax" is a Hammond-laced soul ballad, and the band's reconfigured version of James Brown's "Doin' It to Death" comes straight off the chitlin' circuit ca. 1973. This vital mix of old and new is what makes the well seasoned grooves of the Bo-Keys extra crispy.