Old Times There

It s been a bit over two years since the release of Home Sweet Home, the South Memphis String Band s debut album. During that interval the members of the band decided to record a new album, Old Times There.., that will be released May 8th from Memphis International Records. Alvin Youngblood Hart declares, We re back from retirement and we think this is an even better record than the first one. For the follow up, Luther Dickinson, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Jimbo Mathus dug deep into a repository of songs that reflect the essential southern-ness of their common background and recruited a fourth member, Justin Showah, to help them delve into that musical heritage. The album was recorded traditionally using four old-fashioned ribbon microphones and as quickly as possible in deference to the organic/natural approach that Jambands called the pure sound of fingers, strings, wood, and throats. The spontaneity heard on the album mirrors the process by which the band members contributed material. While traveling to tour dates after the first album s release in the tight quarters of a small van, they would amuse each other with songs they knew.