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It’s probably inevitable that T Bird and the Breaks will be compared with Black Joe Lewis, as both are bringing soul back to Austin with a wild energy, so let’s get those comparisons out of the way right off the bat. Both are gritty and powerful, horn-blaring, high-stepping takes on soul and funk that melds the classic sound with more contemporary flair. Yet whereas Black Joe unleashes his soul-shouting with a more rocking and bluesy bent, T Bird taps into a bit more faithful vein, smoother but without compromising the raw, direct emotion. Ultimately, it feels that if Black Joe, who has been riding the Red River scene, hearkens James Brown, T Bird’s Tim Crane, who has generally come up among the Antone’s scene, croons with the rugged swagger of Joe Cocker.
Now that we’ve gotten that obvious and necessary local equivalency test out of the way, T Bird and the Breaks’ debut LP, Learn About It, is a fantastic burst of Memphis-tuned, white-boy soul. T Birds’ ballads drive with a southern suavity and plenty of strutting grooves and sexed up lyrics that make the album irresistible. Opener “Two Tone Cadillac” is the closest Crane gets to channeling James Brown, yelping out in his gruff vocals, “Gonna shake my stick at something sweet tonight!” atop a punchy, steady rhythm. The horns blaring in the background strike the perfect tone, but it’s the female backing chorus that really lifts T Bird beyond the typical soul revival fare. The trio of Sasha Zoe, Stephanie Hunt, and Jazz Mills serves to both accentuate and counter Crane’s come ons with their own subtle power.
T Bird unloads his best, however, with the slower surge of “Blackberry Brandy” and “All the Blame.” The former recalls Cocker’s version of “Let’s Go Get Stoned,” with the fantastic rallying cry/lament of “I guess I should be looking for a job, but it sounds too much like work to me.” The talked through verses of heartache on “All the Blame” settles the sound down with a resigned disillusion that swells in chorus. Set up with the slow-burning, earnest closer “Sunday On My Own,” these tunes prove that T Bird is thankfully more dimensional than many of his young neo-soul contemporaries garnering national and even international attention.
“Stand Up” drives with a wicked bass line that leads the dancefloor blast, though the innuendos of “Juice” sound a bit less polished in comparison to the rest of the album. “Take Time” provides the anthemic counter-punch to “Blackberry Brandy’s” slacker glaze, declaring, “You gotta take time to get right with yourself, ‘fore everybody gonna get right too,” while the handclapped, stripped down rhythm of “Baby Bottle” is a straightforward shot of funk that allows for a few instrumental breakdowns. There’s little not to love about Learn About It, and hopefully T Bird’s emergence onto the scene harbingers even more soulful resurgences in Austin.
Websites:
www.tbirdandthebreaks.com
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