Going out on a limb with a preview of “The Soil and the Sun.”
As many of You know I do a lot of research looking for up and coming artists who are talented enough capture our attention out of an already overloaded wavefront of musical acts coming from all directions and who are also AVAILABLE to play for us here in Chattanooga, TN.
While looking over an upcoming show listing from Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta I saw a band I’d never heard of, “The Soil & the Sun.” a seven piece full-on rock orchestra with male & female members, possibly interbreeding, carrying a toddler along for the tour. So I clicked on them and it was some of the most powerfully captivating new music I’ve seen or heard in quite some time. Immediately I thought “I’ve got to get them here.” So far no show is booked (but they ARE on my invite list so keep an eye out.) And as of November 2014 I have seen them live two nights in a row and they helped restore faith that there are some really special artists out there waiting to re-confirm your faith that live shows can be a truly uplifting experience. This live rooftop concert gives an idea what You may expect onstage.
The studio recordings on the front page of their website give us an idea of the level of songwriting You may expect. www.TheSoilAndTheSun.com
I’ve gone out of my way and paid good money to see Sufjian Stevens, Band of Horses, Grizzly Bear and many others including Pink Floyd who I hear slight echoes of in The Soil and Sun. At this point this band sound and look way more impressive than most of those cats.. (well Grizzly Bear WAS pretty cool and I liked their opener Beach House, almost as well.. and these women are certainly prettier than Pink Floyd and none of these musicians walked offstage and let a tape loop play like Pink Floyd did when I saw them a couple of decades ago : / ) So this band, at least from a distance looks to be in a league with all those higher profile & higher ticket dollar units. For now we have unique opportunities to see this (7 piece?) full band up close and take in an experience that we may well brag about later when they’re only available in much larger venues. Or maybe they’ll just go raise kids and get jobs and fade away like so many other great experiments that we are lucky to have records by.. Sometimes it takes a lot of legwork to get your work noticed. I’m picking up the vibe there may be some internally driven purpose behind The Soil and the Sun that only the band can describe driving them forward to produce all this immersion worthy music. And maybe someone who spends their most valuable working time scouring the newest digital media will write an article and help propel them even deeper into a sustainable creative lifestyle. A sense of community permeates everything I’ve seen from them. That must be how they do it.
~R.
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