At a rock ‘n’ roll cattle call last year in Austin, Texas, one band really caught the ear of Robin Hurley, managing director of Rough Trade, England’s independent record label. Over three days, he heard many of the 100 or so bands that had shown up to perform for company bigwigs, but Souled American, a Chicago group, “really stood out as several leagues above what I’d been seeing there,” he said. “I thought they were one of the most exciting bands I’d seen in a long time. It was their diversity that appealed to me.”
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Souled American has been making the circuit of the Cubby Bear Lounge, Phyllis’ Musical Inn, and the Metro for the past couple of years, working out a wholly original sound. The CMJ New Music Report, the bible for college radio programmers, recently likened it to “the hippie/punk/folk aesthetic” of bands like Violent Femmes, Meat Puppets, and Camper Van Beethoven, but “with equal parts jug/street band, country & western, and Southern Soul” added to make the sound unique.
Joe Adducci, Chris Grigoroff, Scott Tuma, and Jamey Barnard–the three guitarists and a drummer that make up Souled American–steadfastly resist attempts to pigeonhole the band. A writer once identified Souled American’s influences as reggae, country, and Louisiana swamp music. Grigoroff (the band’s lead singer) allowed, “We’re a product of who we are. If you’ve heard those things, they’re probably there.”
The band’s pleasure in the music they play came across in the Fe recording sessions. The album has 12 songs (14 on cassette and compact disc) ranging from the centuries-old antiwar song “Soldier’s Joy” to the sly sarcasm of Adducci’s putdown of know-it-alls, “Feel Better.”
