Southern Avenue reconnects Memphis to Stax Records
As the first Memphis act signed to Stax Records in five decades, soul-blues combo Southern Avenue is shouldering a heavy load in terms of expectation and history.
“We’re not trying to put Memphis music on our back,” says guitarist and cofounder Ori Naftaly. “We create in the image of what we see and hear in Memphis, but we are trying to build our own legacy.”
The still-fledgling group, founded less than two years ago, has had a fairly meteoric rise, culminating in the release of their eponymous full-length debut. The record was put out last month by the Concord Music Group’s revived Stax Records label.
For group so tied to the Bluff City, Southern Avenue’s origins are fairly exotic. Back in 2013, Naftaly was a young Israeli guitarist who had traveled more than 10,000 miles to perform at the annual International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Representing his home country, he wowed audiences, becoming the first Israeli act to make it to the event’s semifinals. On the strength of his IBC performance, Naftaly decided to immigrate to the United States to pursue his musical dreams in the Bluff City. After a couple of years fronting his own group, Naftaly abruptly decided to switch gears in 2015, after meeting sisters Tierinii and Tikyra Jackson.
Singer Tierinii and drummer Tikyra had grown up in the bosom of the Greater Bethlehem Temple Holiness Church, where their parents serve as ministers and musicians. “Whenever they had to be at choir practice, they dragged us along,” recalls Tierinii. “I was the only kid in the adult choir singing along; that’s where I found my love for singing.” The Jacksons’ older brother was a drummer, and Tikyra picked up the sticks (as well as piano and other instruments) at age 9. “My whole family grew up in music and the church,” she says. “Any type of musical influence was from them first.”
For years, the only music the Jackson sisters knew was gospel. “To my parents everything else was the devil’s music,” says Tikyra.
“We found out about Michael Jackson and Beyoncé, but we had to sneak those and discover them on our own,” says Tierinii. “I had an aunt who listened to Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, and an uncle who introduced me to Stevie Wonder. When we hung out with them, it was an event because we got to hear the good stuff. We started with those discoveries and began figuring out what we liked.”
By the time they met Naftaly, the Jacksons were each pursuing their own musical paths: Tierinii was singing with several different groups and making some headway in the world of musical theater. Tikyra, meanwhile, was attending the University of Memphis and playing as part of the school’s drum corps.
“To convince them to trust me and start a band with me was tough,” says Naftaly. “But I told them: ‘I’m not from here. I have no family in America. Every day I wake up and go to sleep doing this thing called music. If we do this together, my dedication will be total.’”
“Chemistry-wise it was natural,” says Tierinii. “But I had been writing and recording with other people, and letting all that go and making Southern Avenue my main focus was a scary step to take. But musically we spoke to each other in a way that I couldn’t deny.”
The group eventually added keyboardist Jeremy Powell, a graduate of the Stax Music Academy, and veteran local bassist Daniel McKee to round out the lineup (McKee, who plays on the new album, recently left the group, and they’ve been using a couple of different bassists on tour).
Nafatly’s promises to the Jackson’s didn’t ring hollow. Within a few months of forming, they made it to the 2016 International Blues Challenge finals, and began work on an EP with producer Kevin Houston. “Reaching the finals of the International Blues Challenge brought us a lot of offers and attention,” says Naftaly. “We started talking to small blues labels, just hoping to get someone to fund some recording. We were trying to build it up slowly — nobody thought things would happen the way they did.”
What happened was fate intervening in the form of Stax Records executive John Burk. Over the years, the revived label — now based in Los Angeles — had signed several soul artists, including Lalah Hathaway and Marcus King, but Burk long had wanted to reconnect the label with some contemporary Memphis talent.
Last March, Burk was in town at Royal Studios, working on Melissa Etheridge’s album of Stax covers when he saw Southern Avenue playing live in CooperYoung.
“(Royal producer) Boo Mitchell took him out — we were playing Bar DKDC on St. Patrick’s Day,” recalls Naftaly. “He came, we talked, and he loved the band. Interestingly, (North Mississippi Allstars guitarist) Luther Dickinson and our manager were pitching us to Stax at the same time, but hadn’t reached John yet. Then he turned up in in Memphis and saw us, and that’s how the record deal happened.”
Signing to Stax, Southern Avenue spent several months last summer at the Dickinson family recording studio Zebra Ranch, recording their album again with Houston. “The vibe out there was so creative, so natural,” says Tikyra of Zebra Ranch. “It’s more like a home as opposed to being at the studio.”
The resulting disc is a fresh and energetic re-imagining of classic Memphis R&B and gospel, grounded by Tierinii’s powerful soul voice, with a dashes of world music flavor courtesy of Naftaly. “It’s Memphis music, but there’s so many different sides to the sound of Memphis,” he says. “Also, we wanted to make a record that would explore each of our individual musicality.”
For Southern Avenue, 2017 is already lined up with tours of North America and Europe, big festival dates and plans for more recording. “For us, it’s happened quickly,” says Naftaly. “But we’re working and paying our dues as we go along. Every few months we’ve had to reassess what we’re doing because it’s grown so fast. But we’re ready for whatever comes next.”