Mighty Souls Brass Band's Lift Up! Album Is Out Today
Mighty Souls Brass Band's Lift Up! Album Is Out Today
Even though they've been playing at venues, events, and parties for years, Memphis' own Mighty Souls Brass Band is finally releasing their first album today. To celebrate, I'm giving away three copies of the CD. Read on to find out how to win. (giveaway ended)
If you went to the I Love Memphis 5th Birthday Party back in August (many thanks to band leader Sean Murphy for working with me to make that happen) you got a chance to hear the Mighty Souls Brass Band in action.
If you haven't heard them, imagine a NOLA-influenced, jazzy, brassy sound coming from a free form group of musicians (anywhere from five to 14 folks) who have spent their lives playing in the blues, soul, funk, and R&B-drenched gigs and studios of Memphis. In other words, it's wonderful.
Part of the band at last August's birthday party at Wiseacre. They just marched right into the photo booth and kept on playing.
Murphy explains more in this quote from an article about the band by Eric Waggoner: “We’re not interested in just being a bunch of Memphis musicians playing New Orleans-style brass band music. We love that music, and we honor it. But we love Memphis music too, and world music, and we want to pay tribute to that history. And it’s a deep one.”
Another fun thing about Lift Up! is that it's the first album released on the new Blue Barrel Records. BBR is a non-profit label that plans to work with unique artists and release two albums a year.
My favorite tracks so far are:
#2 "Lift Up Your Mighty Soul" is a happy, anthemic march.
#4 "Love Attack" makes me wanna dance.
#6 "Last Call of the Wild might be my favorite; it's frenetic and percussive and fun.
#8 "Saints" makes me wanna slow dance.
#9 "Squir-re-ly" is just how it sounds.
#12 "I'll Fly Away" is soulful Southern gospel meets NOLA brass band, just irresistible.
If you want to buy Lift Up! you can download it today on iTunes for $10.99 or pick it up at Shangri-La Records or Spin Street. It should be at Goner Records soon. Or if you want to take a chance, you can enter my two contests to win a copy of the CD. U.S. residents only.
How To Win (Contest Over)
1. Enter the Blog Contest.
I'm giving away two copies via this blog. To win one of those, leave me a comment on this post telling me why you want to win it. I'll pick the best two answers tomorrow (1/28) at noon.
Congrats to Rebecca and Adam! It was hard to pick but I loved both of y'all's reasons for wanting the new album.
2. Enter the Instagram Contest.
Go to this Instagram post and leave me a comment. In the comment, tag a friend who you'll listen to the album with. If you don't tag someone, it doesn't count. Also, if you want to regram, you'll be entered again, but you have to tag me in the regram (I'm @ilovememphisblog). I'll pick a winner at random from the comments and regrams tomorrow (1/28) at noon.
Congrats to @ELM_Made for winning the random Instagram contest.
Good luck! You can enter both if you want. This is kind of a test to see how well Instagram contests go. We might start doing more like that if there's good response and y'all like it.
rebecca
Holly Whitfield
Rebecca, that's awesome that that youngest Memphians are getting in on the music action! Thanks for your comment.
Holly Whitfield
Nate - I feel ya! I was so happy to start listening to them. Thanks for the entry.
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