Events

[INDIE] St. Paul and the Broken Bones almost didn’t happen. In 2012, when vocalist Paul Janeway and bassist Jesse Phillips met at a studio in their Birmingham, Alabama home base, it was to lay down tracks for a new one-off project that would double as a musical swan song; the stability of a career outside music was beckoning to them both. But they soon realized that something special was happening, later buoyed by the near-unanimously positive reception to the ensuing EP, Greetings from St. Paul and The Broken Bones, which dropped in 2013. Along the way, they recruited guitarist Browan Loller, formerly of Jason Isbell’s 400 Unit, as well as drummer Andrew Lee and Allen Bransetter on trumpet. There have been some minor lineup shifts since, and now they usually tour with a dedicated brass duo, but what hasn’t changed is the steady stream of the hype-machine, oozing accolades galore for the band’s pair of full length releases (Half the City, 2014, and Sea of Noise, 2016) and their hardworking soul-revival sound. Perhaps what’s so winning about what Janeway and company (now an eight-piece much of the time) get up to is their shape-shifting ability within their genre: throughout Sea of Noise, they effectively reference Al Green, Sly Stone, Prince, Otis Redding — even the Fab Four’s more soulful edge — all punctuated with brass balls, and they do it without succumbing to sound-alike sentimentality. Either that, or maybe we’re all so spent on dealing with emo and goth whiners that we’re just jazzed to hear such spirited tones. But I’d put my money on them being that good. Last time St. Paul and The Broken Bones were here, they opened for the Stones. This time, they’re in the headlining spot with Nashville’s Aaron Lee Tasjan opening on Saturday, March 4, at Babeville’s Asbury Hall.