New voice comes home to old soul
Leon Bridges found his calling via Sam Cooke
Back when he was in college, Leon Bridges’s musical tastes mirrored those of his school-aged peers. The Fort Worth, Texas, native was into current sounds, like glossy R&B and hip-hop beats, and had only a passing knowledge of soul music luminaries like Sam Cooke.
That is until one day someone told him he sounded like the late singer. His interest piqued, Bridges began to explore Cooke’s back catalogue and, before too long, realized he had found his true voice.
“I think everybody likes classic soul music,” the 26-year-old Texan suggested by phone from his hometown in June.
As for why that is, he continued: “I think what really stuck out for me the first time was how straightforward it was. I come from a background where R&B is overproduced and all about the beats. This felt raw.”
On his debut album, Coming Home, Bridges undeniably pulls from the past. It’s not a ’60s pastiche by design, although he likes that some casual listeners can’t tell which decade his songs originate from. All Bridges knows is four years after deciding to pursue a revivalist path with a keen attention to detail — from the music to the onstage mannerisms and clothes — his would-be timeless classics have struck a chord.
“I think people have been waiting for it,” he concluded. “I think it’s different to see a young man do it with a style that’s different from even the current revival acts. I think people are latching on to that.”
In May, a predominantly youthful crowd was there to witness Bridges and his six-piece band make their Montreal debut on the tiny stage at the St-Denis St. venue Quai des Brumes. And, like the dapper star of the night, many in the audience wore formal vintage attire.
According to Bridges, his friends were on the hunt for nice outfits leading up to his album launch in June at the Scat Jazz Lounge in Fort Worth. The fashion aspect not only looms large — it actually predates the music.
“One of my mom’s oldest friends gave me some of his clothes from when he was a teenager, so I would dip into that stuff,” he said. “As a dancer, sometimes I would wear certain outfits, and it’s where I fell in love with the classic look. When I started writing this soul music, I realized I had an opportunity to be consistent with it.”
On Coming Home, Bridges retraced not only music history, but also his family’s.
“My roots go deep down in New Orleans,” he said, adding that relatives of his came to Texas after Hurricane Katrina, but some ultimately returned.
While Louisiana figures prominently in the album’s lyrics, and he cites one of the American South’s most famous soul men, Ray Charles, as an influence — specifically his country crossover album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music — Coming Home was done entirely in Fort Worth with musicians from the area. The same ones, Bridges notes, who make up his current live band.
Bridges met guitarist Austin Jenkins, who serves as the project’s music director, when he was starting out in the local open-mike scene. Once Jenkins had assembled the right local players, they went about recording the album with that classic rawness in mind.
“We recorded the whole record live, straight to tape,” Bridges said. “We didn’t use any Pro Tools, which speaks to the talent of the band. And we didn’t use any headphones — it was just straight up monitors on the floor and we heard ourselves that way.”
Bridges is still 26, though, and therefore, he’s no technophobe.
“I have records, but I’m a lazy listener and I’ll revert back to Spotify,” he said. “And I’ll also study Arthur Conley or Sam & Dave videos on YouTube for some ideas on dance moves.”