If you dig gritty Southern soul and gospel music tradition, then Memphis, TN’s Southern Avenue should definitely be on your radar. With the powerful sisterly duo of Tierinii and Tikyra Jackson on vocals and drums, respectively, along with Israeli-born blues guitarist Ori Naftaly, bassist Daniel McKee, and keyboardist Jeremy Powell, Southern Avenue just dropped their debut self-titled album on February 24th via Stax Records. The group is set to bring their energetic live show to The Den at New Orleans’ The Howlin Wolf this Saturday, March 11th (purchase tickets here).
The band has only been together for a year, but they have already made their mark on the Beale Street crowd in Memphis and beyond. With appearances on the album from the likes of guitarist Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars) and trumpeter Mark Franklin (The Bo-Keys), Southern Avenue is making a clear case for their ascension in the rock world.
Tierinii recalls meeting Ori (who was touring as a solo artist at the time) and the decision to begin writing music as their own unit, “Ori said, ‘My band is done, this is y’all’s band….We all quit our other gigs and started focusing on this, working and writing and living together in a way that you don’t experience when you’re playing somebody else’s music. Now we’re playing songs that we wrote ourselves and we’re playing them from our hearts. That is when I realized that we had something special.”
Southern Avenue will play NOLA this upcoming weekend. To purchase tickets, click here. The group will make their rounds on the festival circuit this summer, including performances on both weekends of Electric Forest. For full tour dates, check out the group’s Facebook page.