Birmingham, AL · soul · r&b

St. Paul and the Broken Bones

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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 formed in Birmingham, Alabama in 2012, when singer Paul Janeway and bassist Jesse Phillips, who had played together years earlier in the group The Secret Dangers, returned to a Birmingham studio meaning to record one last song before moving on to other work. 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.

What came out of that session became the EP Greetings from St. Paul and The Broken Bones, recorded before the band had ever played a show. Guitarist Browan Lollar and horn players including Allen Branstetter joined soon after, and keyboardist Al Gamble came aboard while the band cut its first full album at Nutthouse Recording Studios and at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals.

That album, Half the City, was produced by Ben Tanner of Alabama Shakes and released in 2014 on Single Lock Records, a label run out of Florence, Alabama. It reached the Billboard 200 and brought the band national television spots, along with an opening slot for the Rolling Stones. The group now performs as an eight-piece with a full 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.

Since then the band has released five albums and two EPs. Their reputation rests largely on live performance, with Janeway's stage presence and costuming a central part of it.

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