The New Mastersounds

In the late 1990’s, guitarist and producer Eddie Roberts was promoting a club night in Leeds called “The Cooker.” When The Cooker moved into a new venue with a second floor in 1999, there was space and the opportunity to put a live band together to complement the DJ sets. Simon Allen and Eddie had previously played together as The Mastersounds, though with a different bassist and no organ. Through friends and the intimate nature of the Leeds music scene, Pete Shand and Bob Birch were added on bass and Hammond respectively, and The New Mastersounds were born. Though it was raw, and more of a boogaloo sound at first, it was powerful from the start. Their first rehearsal was hot enough for Blow it Hard Records to release on two limited-edition 7” singles in 2000.

Fast-forward 19 years, and the band’s recorded catalogue boasts 24 more 7” singles, 13 studio albums, 3 live albums, 1 remix album and 3 compilation albums, released variously in UK, Japan, and USA – where they continue to tour extensively. Joe Tatton, another veteran of the Leeds scene, joined back in 2007, replacing Bob Birch on organ and piano.

As a band, and as individuals, they have collaborated with an impressive array of musicians, DJs and producers, including: Lou Donaldson, Corinne Bailey Rae, Quantic, Carleen Anderson, Keb Darge, Kenny Dope, Mr Scruff, LSK, Lack of Afro, Page McConnell, Grace Potter, Karl Denson, Melvin Sparks, Idris Muhammad, Fred Wesley, Pee-Wee Ellis, Maceo Parker, Bernard Purdie, George Porter Jr, Zigaboo Modeliste, Art Neville, Ernest Ranglin.

During a 2018 US tour, a sit-in by Atlanta-based vocalist Lamar Williams Jrturned heads, and the fit with NMS was so right that they pledged to make a record together. The resulting album was written and recorded in Denver, CO in December of that year and will be released in Fall 2019 on Eddie Roberts’ own Color Red label.

As an example of the respect this band commands, Peter Wermelinger – DJ, collector, and author of the crate-diggers’ bible The Funky & Groovy Music Lexicon – places the 2001 NMS track ‘Turn This Thing Around’ in his all-time top-ten tunes, along with the likes of Eddie Harris, Funkadelic, and Herbie Hancock. The New Mastersounds are at the very top of an elite selection of acts that bring the true soul out of funk.

Opening the show is Eddie Roberts & The Lucky Strokes. If luck is what happens when hard work meets opportunity, the union of Eddie Roberts & The Lucky Strokes epitomizes that adage. The New Mastersounds’ guitarist and bandleader has a knack for leaning into individual strengths and that sensibility is evidenced through his recruitment of Mississippi-based guitarist and vocalist, Shelby Kemp, who brings a Southern rock grit and candid, nimble songwriting to team up with the Tampa Bay-based Galbraith sisters who possess a simpatico rhythm section chemistry only found within a family bloodline. Powered by the urbane guitar playing and production of Roberts and you have a new tour de force ensemble that makes listeners stop in their tracks the same way Roberts did upon hearing the talents of Kemp and the Galbraith Sisters. The quartet first teamed up to perform Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom’s 20th Anniversary party in Denver, CO, and recorded a full-length record at Color Red Studios the next day to further solidify the newly forged musical connection. The sound is an amalgamation of celebrated country lyricists such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and George Jones mixed with the rhythmically driven aesthetics of James Brown and rounded out by honest rock ‘n’ roll—a combination slated to make its own luck and take the scene by storm.