Birmingham, AL · soul · r&b

St. Paul and the Broken Bones

1 upcoming festival

Paul Janeway in a sequined jumpsuit, singing like a preacher over an eight-piece Alabama soul revue — testimony with a horn section.

St. Paul and the Broken Bones are a soul band from Birmingham, Alabama, formed around singer Paul Janeway and bassist Jesse Phillips. Janeway grew up singing in church and briefly considered the ministry, and that background shows in a voice that moves from a conversational low register into full-throated wailing, often within a single line.

The group performs with a horn section and works in a Southern soul idiom indebted to Otis Redding and the Muscle Shoals studios, though later records have brought in psychedelic and orchestral elements. Their reputation rests largely on live performance, with Janeway's stage presence and costuming a central part of it.

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