Dynamite

I love finding great regional bands.  Bands that are not (yet) on the national radar, but make great music nonetheless (mostly playing in and around their "hometown").  One such band is Nashville's The Dynamites featuring Charles Walker.  They sort of look like a wedding band with a James Brown impersonator....and they actually do sound like that, if the wedding band was a Caucasian version of the JB's.  Their music is classic r&b, soul and funk that could've been made 35 years ago.  These guys are right in the same niche as Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, who are probably the most well-known of the classic soul acts.  They don't break any new ground, but they continue to make great music of a kind that's very hard to find now.  And they smoke live.  Charles Walker has been performing since the 50's in places such as Nashville (where he actually started), New York, England and Spain.  He's opened for Wilson Pickett, James Brown and Etta James, and recorded for Chess and Decca records.  I got a chance to see The Dynamites in NYC a few years ago at a small club (Sullivan Hall) and they were excellent. 

It's great to hear new soul music that's not auto-tuned or smoothed out so much that to define it as "soul" is a long stretch.  I also like the fact that I don't always have to pull out the old Stax and Hi (and many more labels) songs from the 60's and 70's to listen to this type of music.  Below is a clip of a really good song off their most recent disc.