Ruf Records artist: Royal Southern Brotherhood - Selftitled - New Release Review

Checking out the new Royal Southern Brotherhood cd that was released on May 8, 2012. If you don't already know, RSB is comprised of vocalist/guitarist Mike Zito (solo artist), Vocalist and percussionist Cyril Neville (ex neville Brothers, Meters, tribe 13, Galactic), Vocalist and guitarist Devon Allman (Gregg's son and leader of Honeytribe, bassist Charlie Wooten (Wood Brothers) and drummer Yonrico Scott (Derek Trucks Band, Allman Brothers Band, Gregg Allman Band). The recording opens with New Horizons, swampy rocker with a great mix of vocals and a rippin' guitar sound which has a combination of clean soloing over a very thick, laid out rhythm set and wah track. Very cool. Fired Up has a sound of Louisiana Latin. Guitar riffs are Santana influenced but the basic song is a mixture of Latin and Louisiana. Another cool mix. Moonlight Over the Mississippi is a funky track with cool percussion under layment. The vocals are soulful and seductive and the rhythm is tightly woven. Allman takes a very cool guitar solo in this track showing another facet of his influence. RSB then takes a swat at the Dead's Fire On The Mountain. In this case they take it southern style and many people may not even recognize it as a Dead track. Allman plays some cool slide riffs on this track but the great vocals on this track are really the ticket. Ways About You is a real strong soul ballad of course giving the players a chance to rip and it could be one of the best tunes on the recording. Nowhere To Hide has a quieter feel to it and again set up more like a ballad but the quality slide work on this track is really pretty strong. Sweet Jelly Donut is set to a Louisiana beat and should do excellent on the airwaves with the beat, hook and excellent instrumentation. An Instrumental, Brotherhood, closes the set. It's fairly difficult to describe but it has all of the traces of an Allman Brothers jam but with a Louisiana beat. I'm certain that this cd will be widely successful.

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