Well..... I have 8 days off and then I hit the road for about 3 months with the Royal Southern Brotherhood.
I have plenty to do at home with my family and a lot of packing and getting ready but wanted to get this blog started before I leave town. Just for the record: this blog will have spelling errors, grammatical errors, and possibly some indecent exposure- I'm not a fantastic writer, but I think I have a unique experience ahead of me and I wanted to share it with my family and friends. For those of you who know the band or one of our illustrious members but not much about me- I'm Mike. I have 5 kids, a school teacher wife and I live in South East Texas.
If you know me, but don't know the group: Royal Southern Broterhood - Cyril Neville, Devon Allman, Charlie Wooton, Yonrico Scott and myself.
I'll give you a Lil history lesson on this band of gypsy's.......
I've known Devon Allman for about 20 years. I grew up in Saint Louis, Mo. I worked a music store and played in cover bands around town by the time I was 19 or so. Devon had a group called the Dark Horses. They were pretty popular and I saw them play several times. Jump ahead 10 years and we both took jobs at the new Guitar Center.
Devon was the Guitar Dept manager, I was the Accessory Dept manager. Devon had his new group, HoneyTribe, I was playing original blues rock with my own group. We both had albums out now and were trying to make something happen with a music career. We became good friends, with a healthy dose of rivalry along the way. I always thought to myself...why is Devon ALLMAN working at GC. His dad is Gregg Allman! One day I jus finally asked him and he told me he needed a job. He said he wasn't going to be come famous just because his dad was famous, he knew he needed to build his own audience and create his own sound if he was going to have a lasting career. I respected his outlook and always hoped for the best for him. Fast forward again, I'm now living in SE Texas with several albums under my belt, a record deal, and a great manager out of New Orleans - Rueben Williams.
Rueben Williams manages Tab Benoit, Cyril Neville, Voice of the Wetlands, worked with Anders Osborne, Johnny Sansone.....the list goes on and on. I began opening for Tab Benoit in 1997 in Saint Louis at the Broadway Oyster Bar. We played his CDs at the music store I worked at and he was the first guy I ever met that was playing his own music, making records, touring, and wasn't "Famous". He was famous in the blues and roots world and actually had quite a bit of success early on with songs on the radio, but he wasn't on a major record label and playing in stadiums..... I was just a dumb kid and thought you were either nobody or Van Halen.
I learned from Tab that there were "Blues" record labels out there, you could tour and play your own music and have a successful music career and not be on MTV. I asked Tab the first time I opened for him "how do you do this? How do you get to playing your own music and touring and get started?". He said "You just did it. Do it again....do it for the next 20 years and it should work out". I played with Tab every time he came to town. When I moved down south in 2003, I opened for Tab again, but this time at Antones in Beaumont, Tx. He asked me what I was doing down here and did I want to come and play at his club in Houma,La. I started playing regularly at Tabs "Lagniappe Music Cafe". He told me about his manager, Rueben Williams and sent Rueben out to see me one night. I met with Rueben in New Orleans one afternoon, brought him all my albums and we began a friendship. He's a busy busy guy, with a mind that's working a million miles a minute, a heart of gold and passion that runs deep for what he believes in.
If Rueben Williams says he's going to manage you- you better be ready to work harder than you have ever worked to just to keep up with him. We worked on many projects over the years, he's sent me on tours with Tab, Anders and the Voice of the Wetlands and found ways for me to move forward and get in from of people. We set up recording for my album "Pearl River" at Piety Street Studios. The idea was to work with other Nola artists and tell the story of my familys beginnings in New Orleans. Johnny Sansone played accordion on the creepy "Dead of Night". Susan Cowsill sang a blues duet with me on "Shoes Blues". Anders Osborne wrote a song for me titled "One Step at a Time". We recorded it as a duet as well. That song has an altogether other story that changed my life. We needed one more good song and Rueben hooked me up with Cyril Neville to write a song together. At the age of 38 I had never written a song with anyone in my life. I only wrote my own songs. This would be a huge opportunity and undertaking. Cyril sent me lyrics to a few tunes, one entitled "Pearl River". These were different lyrics, not tongue and cheek and not fun. This song was deep and had a story to tell. It was about slavery and murder.
This song scared the shit out of me! I called Cyril and asked him if he was sure he really wanted me to work on this song.....it was just so deep. I also wondered if this was my story to tell? He said yes, see what I could come up with. I picked up the guitar and began strumming the chords and singing the words and in minutes "Pearl River" was complete. It was just so easy - it flowed. It was as if I wasn't doing it, it was just coming out of me. I sent the song back to Cyril and he loved it! We recorded the song that would be the title to my second Eclecto Groove release "Pearl River". The album was nominated for Rock Blues Album of the Year and Song of the Year in 2010 at the Blues Music Awards. I was in Denmark at the time on my first European tour, Cyril performed without me at the awards and we won the Song of Year!!! It was 7am in Denmark when I got a call from Rueben and Cyril about the exciting news. Cyril was in tears on the phone- full of joy. I knew then that this man and I had some sort of connection. It just came easy for us to work together. We never thought about it or really talked about it - we just did it. We knew we needed to find a way to work together even more.
I continued to see Devon on the road or his posters in the clubs I was playing. He was doing really well, he had built up quite a following over the years with his band Honeytribe. We talked every now and then online or texting- finally one day he asked who my manager was. He was looking for new representation. I told him all about the New Orleans scene with Rueben Williams. I told Rueben about Devon and the two met up at Devon's gig at the Howling Wolf in Nola. They hit it off as well and began working together. All this time, Rueben and I would (and still do) spend hours on the phone talking about music. Music we loved, bands we thought were great and what could we do next.
We LOVED the Arc Angels! They were so cool and had such a great sound with the two guitars and double lead vocals. They were rock n roll but still blues based. We thought it would be so cool to start a Louisiana style Arc Angels. We talked about it a lot. One thing lead to another and the question was posed as to why the Neville Bros had never really worked with the Allman Bros......
That was it - Rueben said that Devon and I and Cyril needed to get together and write some songs.
Talking about something is one thing....doing it is WAY different! We all had our own bands and careers going. I loved these guys both, but didn't want to be anybody's backing guitarist or backround singer. How would this work? who would sing what? who's going to play lead? ......
He said to just get together and see what happens.
The three of us met in Nola during Jazzfest 2011 at a small studio by City Park. We just jammed.
Cyril played some drums, we made shit up, recorded a lot of ideas and walked away with a pretty good feeling that this could work. No one got hurt and it was fun. Most of all- it sounded good...different.
We went out on our own all summer but stayed in touch with song ideas and such. Rueben asked me what would we name this band... I said "The Brotherhood". But Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes already had this name. Rueben said we were inviting Royalty to join us ~ Royal Southern Brotherhood.
We set up a few gigs in Sept of 2011 and decided to take it a step further. Could we do this on stage?
We rehearsed with bassist Charlie Wooton and Mean Willie Green on drums. We worked up a 2 hour set and took to the Rock n Bowl in New Orleans, La. for the first ever Royal Southern Brotherhood show. It was electric!!! Exciting, adventurous, really different sounding, yet familiar. We knew then that this was something we HAD to do, no matter what. I was sold. Willie Green had his own group though and really couldn't commit to the project. We needed a record deal, agency, more songs.
Now the real work was beginning.
I learned about Ruf Records and Thomas Ruf through Walter Trout in the 90's.
Walter was another guy I got very close with and played a lot of shows together. He set me straight on my drug addiction and told me I was being irresponsible with my God given abilities.
He sent Thomas Ruf my independent albums to help me get a recording contract with Ruf Records in the late 1990's. The timing just wasn't right. It had always been my dream to be on Ruf Records with Walter Trout, Omar Dykes, Jimmie Vaughan, Jeff Healey, Robin Trower and my most favorite Luther Allison. Thomas and I became close again at the 2008 BMA's. We began emailing each other to stay in touch. I told him I still hoped we would work together one day.
When the idea of looking for a record label to work with RSB, I immediately suggested Ruf Records.
I had just finished producing two albums for Ruf, Girls with Guitars and Samantha Fish. He was great to work with and very passionate about his artists. I told Thomas about this great new band and how we needed to get our camps together and form a huge alliance. We sent him demo's and he agreed!
We needed a drummer and Charlie Wooton suggested we call Yonrico Scott. IT was a long shot, but what the hell. Devon called Yonrico and he was very interested.
Thomas Ruf told us we should have Jim Gaines produce our album. Jim loved the idea of this band and we all got together at Dockside Studios in Maurice, La. December 2011 and formed a Royal Southern Brotherhood. We recorded the entire album in 5 days. Most tracks were live with very few overdubs.
As Cyril says, we recorded performances, not tracks.
The album was the easiest any of us had ever been involved with. The group just flowed.
Singing and lead guitar duties just came easy, writing tunes together did as well.
We finished the album and began touring in early 2012.
Our official release was just 21 days ago on May 8th on Ruf Records.
The album opened at #1 on the US Itunes charts and #5 on Billboard Blues Charts.
The Piedmont Agency took on the task of booking this group and we have a full international summer tour to promote our group and album!
Our individual careers and bands will continue along side RSB, if all goes well, we'll do both successfully. But for now, it's all RSB!!!
That was as short as I could tell the story- the next blogs won't be as long.
I'll let you know where we are, what we're doing and whats new on the horizon....all from a backseat perspective - cause in this band I don't have to drive the bus, I'm just along for the ride :)
Peace, Love, Zito
