Out of New York, The London Souls are a blues-rock duo composed of guitarist Tash Neal and drummer Chris St. Hilaire, and the two have been enchanting audiences with their explosive live performances for nearly a decade. It seems as though Con Brio functions as an almost perfect inverse of The London Souls. Where the London Souls are reminiscent of the raw musical stylings of the Black Keys, Con Brio, and particularly the group’s charismatic singer and frontman Ziek McCarter, evokes psychedelia-drenched James Brown and Otis Redding. And while The London Souls have a decade of performance under their belt, Con Brio is a relatively new project out of San Francisco, with the band dropping their debut LP Paradise last summer.

Con Brio Covers Stevie Wonder While Cruising Over The Golden Gate Bridge [Watch]

Despite these surface-level differences, both Con Brio and The London Souls have taken the music world by storm as of late. Both acts offer up music that taps straight into the heart, and both have similarly been wowing crowds across the country with their uplifting and fiery performances. At the tail end of the summer, Con Brio and The London Souls teamed up for a joint six-date tour across the East Coast in promotion of a collaborative 7-inch vinyl featuring tracks “All Over Me” and “Certain Appeal”.

This joint project is somewhat of a long time coming considering The London Souls’ drummer St. Hilaire and Con Brio bassist Jonathan Kirchner have been friends since childhood. As told by Kirchner, “Chris and Tash and I go back to high school days in New York. They were always the baddest musicians I knew, so to get to play shows together all these years later—and of course to have them sit in and rip it on a couple songs—was a total dream come true.”

Watch The London Souls Obliterate Their Late Night Jazz Fest Set [Video]

Today, Live For Live Music is proud to premiere a live pro-shot video of the two band’s collaborative tour—a joint rendition of Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home To Me” for a performance at Boston’s Brighton Music Hall on August 23rd. Kirchner gave more context to the performance, “[Con Brio saxophonist Marcus Stephens] gets the nod for suggesting the Sam Cooke cover a couple days before this video was shot. We ran it once in soundcheck and then just went for it. They’re such natural musicians it was a breeze to throw together, and you could tell the crowd really responded to the spontaneity of it.”

You can watch the video for yourself below to get a taste of what these two powerhouse performers can do when they join forces.

You can find out more information about Con Brio on their website and about The London Souls on their website.

Upcoming Con Brio Tour Dates

12/27/2017   Harlows – Sacramento
12/28/2017   Moe’s – Santa Cruz
12/29/2017   Hopmonk – Sebastopol
12/30/2017   Swedish American – San Francisco
12/31/2017   Swedish American – San Francisco
1/13/2018   Crystal Bay Casino – Crystal Bay, NN
1/17-1/22/2018   Jam Cruise

Upcoming The London Souls Tour Dates
3/7/2018 – The Music of Led Zeppelin – Carnegie Hall – NYC

[Photo: Cortney Armitage]