Southern Avenue is an American five-piece blues and

soul blues Soul blues is a style of blues music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s that combines elements of soul music and urban contemporary music. Origin African American singers and musicians who grew up listening to the electric blues by ar ...

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

from

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, United States. Formed in 2015, they took their name from a street in Memphis running from the easternmost part of the city limits to "Soulsville", which was the original home of

Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. Stax was ...

. Rock 103 described them as "the most talked about band in Memphis." Southern Avenue reached the finals of the

International Blues Challenge The International Blues Challenge (IBC) is a music competition run by the Blues Foundation. Notable blues artists that have competed in the IBC over the years also includes Fiona Boyes, Eden Brent, Michael Burks, Tommy Castro, Sean Costello, Alb ...

in 2016. Their self-titled debut album entered the US ''Billboard'' Top Blues Albums Chart at number 6 in February 2017, and reached number 1 on the iTunes Blues Chart.

Career

The band's eventual leader, Ori Naftaly, grew up in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and relocated to Memphis in 2013 to compete for Israel in the

competition. After advancing to the IBC Semi-Finals (the highest an Israeli artist had placed at that point in time), Naftaly made the move permanent and toured the United States with his own band. However, Naftaly became disenchanted with his own outfit and later met the Memphis native Tierinii Jackson, a vocalist who introduced him to her drumming sister, Tikyra. Other musicians joined the fledgling outfit in 2015 who took the band name Southern Avenue, in recognition of the Memphis street. They toured the United States and in Europe, appearing at several music festivals and competed themselves at the International Blues Challenge in January 2016, representing Memphis. Less than a year after their formation, they signed a recording contract with

. Their self-titled debut album was released in February 2017 via Stax Records, a division of Concord Music Group. It was mixed and produced by Kevin Houston. ''Southern Avenue'' included ten songs, nine of which were penned by Naftaly and Tierinii Jackson, and the track-list also included a cover of

Ann Peebles Ann Lee Peebles (born April 27, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter who gained celebrity for her Memphis soul albums of the 1970s for Hi Records. Two of her most popular songs are " I Can't Stand the Rain", which she wrote with her husband ...

' "Slipped, Tripped and Fell In Love". The collection featured guest appearances from

Luther Dickinson Luther Andrews Dickinson (born January 18, 1973) is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the North Mississippi Allstars and the son of record producer Jim Dickinson. He is also known for being the lead guitarist for The Black Crowes. He hosts ''G ...

of the

North Mississippi Allstars North Mississippi Allstars is an American blues and southern rock band from Hernando, Mississippi, founded in 1996. The band is currently composed of brothers Luther Dickinson (guitar, lowebow, vocals) and Cody Dickinson (drums, keyboards, ele ...

and trumpeter Marc Franklin of

the Bo-Keys The Bo-Keys are a soul jazz band from Memphis, Tennessee, formed as an homage to the city's rich musical tradition. History In 1998, Scott Bomar was asked to assemble a backing band for former Stax artist and songwriter Sir Mack Rice. His co ...

. The album was recorded at Inside Sounds in Memphis and at Zebra Ranch in Coldwater, Mississippi. One journalist described their music as "unique blend of gospel-tinged R&B vocals, roots/blues-based guitar work and soul-inspired songwriting". In June 2017, they performed at an event for Rock and Wrap it Up. The North Mississippi Allstars invited Southern Avenue to support them on their "Prayer for Peace" tour. Southern Avenue's debut album entered the US '' Billboard'' Top Blues Albums Chart at number 6. The band toured across the US until October 2017. Southern Avenue played at Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware on June 15, 2018 and the Waterfront Blues Festival in Portland, Oregon on July 6, 2019.

Band members

*Tierinii Jackson (lead vocals) * Ori Naftaly (guitar) *Jeremy Powell (keyboards) (ex Ghost Town Blues Band) *Tikyra Jackson (drums, vocals) *Evan Sarver (bass guitar) Touring members *Gage Markey (bass guitar) Former members: *Daniel McKee (bass guitar)

Discography

Albums

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official websiteAlbum reviewSouthern Avenue review

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

Ori sits down with Ira Haberman of The Sound Podcast for a feature interview
American blues musical groups American blues rock musical groups Soul-blues musicians Musical groups established in 2015 Musical groups from Memphis, Tennessee 2015 establishments in Tennessee Culture of Memphis, Tennessee