2011. Bien, vamos allá con otro de esos lanzamientos de revival soulero que nos alegran el cuerpo cada poco tiempo. El amigo Jeff Hershey y sus Heartbeats debutan con este impecable álbum de soul a la vieja usanza, aunque Jeff ya tenía una larga experiencia previa con otras bandas. Hace unas semanas se dejaron ver por España con bastante buena respuesta de público, a la vez que el disco sigue cosechando excelentes críticas. La voz del amigo Jeff tiene personalidad, aunque no os voy a engañar, no llega ni por asomo al chorro de voz que sacan tipos como Eli 'Paperboy' Reed o Jesse Dee. La banda por su parte lo hace más que bien, ya sabéis, beat enérgico y vientos por aquí y allá. Y poco más os cuento. Si tienes paciencia y suerte encontrarás como yo el vinilo a escasos 10 pavines en Amazon.es. Salud!
Jeff Hershey was born and raised in Oxnard, California and by the time he his was in his teens, he was already a prominent member of the Ventura County music scene. He was a member and founder of the local metal band, Black Opal before joining one of the area’s most popular and successful bands, No Motiv, who released several albums on Vagrant Records and toured nationally opening for several major artists during Hershey’s time in the band including Andrew W.K., Alkaline Trio and Finger Eleven.
When No Motiv went on hiatus in 2005, Hershey turned his attention to his side project, Jeff Hershey and the Heartbeats, a throwback soul band in the vein of Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. Playing periodically in the Ventura County area, Hershey amassed a large regional following based on the band’s live show that despite being classic soul music had a live energy that was based on Hershey’s punk and metal background.
The band’s debut record, Soul Music Vol. 1, was released in May 2011 on Siren and was recorded at the Pow Wow Fun Room in Los Angeles, California, live to analog tape in keeping with the technology of mid twentieth century recording. It was engineered and mixed by Pete Curry of Los Straitjackets and several songs on the record, were co written with Army of Freshmen front man, Chris Jay.
The band is scheduled for several 2011 Southern California festival performances including the Indie West Festival and Spencer Makenzie’s End Of Summer Blast as well as international dates in 2012. (--> link)
