Real Street Tad Robinson

• 1 Changes 04:40
• 2 Full Grown Woman 03:11
• 3 Search Your Heart 04:24
• 4 Love in the Neighborhood 05:11
• 5 Wishing Well Blues 03:16
• 6 You Got It 04:58
• 7 You Are My Dream 03:15
• 8 Make It with You 05:22
• 9 Real Street 04:16
• 10 Long Way Home 05:39
• Total Runtime 44:12

Info for Real Street

For the recording of Real Street, singer/harmonica player Tad Robinson traveled to the birthplace of Southern soul: Memphis, Tennessee. There he teamed up with Memphis music legends, organist, Charles Hodges; bassist, Leroy Hodges; and the drummer, Howard Grimes, collectively known as the Hi Rhythm Section at Scott Bomar’s, Electraphonic Recording. The results are ten glorious tracks of blues-infused and passionate soul music.

Throughout six originals and four reimagined covers, Robinson’s singing has never been so focused and fluent in the language of the blues and his subtle harmonica playing adds just the right spice to the mix.

Memphis guitarist, Joe Restivo; trumpeter, Marc Franklin; tenor saxophonist, Kirk Smothers; and current Fabulous Thunderbirds pianist, Kevin Anker round out the band on these exciting new tracks, with background vocals handled by Chicagoan, Devin B. Thompson.

From the ebullient shuffle, opener, Changes, to the poignant immediacy of George Jackson’s ballad, Search Your Heart, each song is a showpiece with the Memphis groove-makers’ interlocking parts evoking a timeless Southern soul-blues landscape made new again.

Robinson, an eight-time Blues Music Award-nominated singer, croons on the wry, self-deprecating account of the departure of his bored lover in Full Grown Woman, gets gritty and gospel-soulful on the wistful and radio-friendly, Love In The Neighborhood, and riffs and weaves his way through his joyful reworking of Roy Orbison’s, You Got It.

The Memphis veterans lay down a beautiful understated backing for Robinson’s story-telling on this collection, plucking just the right riff, chord change and color out of the Memphis air, bearing witness to their rarified status as architects of the Southern soul sound.

Real Street is an earthy, straight-from-the-gut-to-the-heart collection that fans of soul and blues music will cherish.

"There’s good reason that this album and Tad Robinson have been nominated for soul-blues album and of the year in the 2020 Blues Music Awards. It’s sensational. Pick it up. You won’t be disappointed." (bluesblastmagazine.com)

Tad Robinson, vocals, harmonica
Charles Hodges, Hammond organ
Leroy Hodges, bass
Howard Grimes, drums
Joe Restivo, guitar
Kevin Anker, Wurlitzer electric piano
Marc Franklin, trumpet, horn arrangements
Kirk Smothers, saxophone
Devin B. Thompson, background vocals

Tad Robinson
One of the leading voices of modern soul-blues music.

From his Manhattan roots and his Indiana and Chicago musical upbringing, Tad Robinson has caught the attention of the music world with his eight Blues Music Award nominations (the Grammys of blues music) and his many recordings on Severn Records and Delmark Records. He’s a veteran of countless national and international tours, having played in over twenty countries, performing at many of the most important international blues festivals. With harmonica chops influenced by Big Walter Horton, Sonny Boy Williamson, Junior Wells and James Cotton, among many, and vocals thatcompare to Otis Redding, Syl Johnson, Al Green, and Teddy Pendergrass, Robinson, according to Downbeat Magazine, “places near the top of the list of finest living singers of soul blues”.

Tad’s new album, Real Street , (2019) on Severn Records, continues his high-level artistry. On the ten tracks on Real Street, Robinson is backed by the architects of the southern soul sound, the Hi Rhythm Section.

This album contains no booklet.