Artist: The Lee Boys
Album: Live on the East Coast
Label: M.C. Records
Release Date: 4.19.2019
Known as one of the top bands in Sacred Steel, The Lee Boys fuse gospel with soul, funk, blues, and R&B. This is the first Lee Boys recording in seven years, since 2012’s Testify.
This is a festival band and recording them in live setting is long overdue. Happily, with their debut on the M.C. label, Live on the East Coast gives us a generous hour-plus disc of performances from three live 2018 concerts, including some tunes never heard on previous Lee Boys albums. The venues are: Rives Theater, Martinsville, VA, (five) Suwanee Roots Festival in Live Oak FL (four), and All Laws “Thanksgathering” in Winston-Salem NC (two).
The Lee Boys were raised in the “sacred steel” tradition, mostly by their father Elder R. Lee, a House of God pastor, and their uncle, Lorenzo Harrison, who was the steel guitarist at the Church of the Living God. As time passed, Elder Lee became pastor at a church in Perrine, Fl, about 12 miles south of Miami. That church developed a reputation as one of the most musically spirited churches in the House of God denomination.
Originally four brothers, Glenn succumbed to cancer in 2000, just as the band was beginning to tour globally. Alvin wanted to band to move on from the tragedy and now leads the group, playing guitar and on backup vocals. Brothers Keith and Derrick share lead vocals while nephew Alvin “Little Al” Cordy, Jr. provides six string bass as well as lead and back up vocals; nephew Earl “Big Easy’ Walker pounds the skins and Chris Johnson is out front on the pedal steel.
The disc mixes originals with traditional songs and covers, mostly a generous five to six minutes long or longer. The eight minute-plus “Walk With Me” has Johnson soloing liberally, and “Don’t Let the Devil Ride,” rendered as blues, features Johnson’s pedal steel serving as the lead much like a conventional guitar or harmonica. Other standout tracks include these originals: the funky “Come On Help Me Lift Him Up,” the rousing shuffle “Testify” from their previous album and “Lord Help Me Hold Out,” the latter two punctuated by guest Nick Lollar’s lead guitar in a southern rock style. They also take “You’ve Got to Move” at a rarely-heard blistering tempo, fueled by guest Isaac Corbert on blues harp.
It’s easy to see why the Lee Brothers had the most spirited church around. Their energy and passion are contagious, as evidenced by the audiences’ response. Sacred Steel clearly a occupies a niche, but the Lee Boys may be the most energetic and expansive of the groups in the genre. They will undoubtedly move you—it’s impossible to sit still.
—Jim Hynes
Thanks Jim for the right on review!