Gamble Brothers Band – Back to the Bottom

GBB’s sophomore album rings with the sweet soul shimmer of Booker T & the MGs and shuffles with the funky Naw’lins syncopation of The Meters. Back to the Bottom is an infectious set of rump-shaking, roof-raising soul jams that are equally reliant on the band’s jazz and blues chops. Great songwriting talent gives their originals the distinctive air of classics-in-waiting (particularly the legend roll call of “Land of Soul,” the slamming “Tiki Bar”), and their funky reinventions of Gary Wright’s “Love is Alive” and Randy Newman’s “Little Criminals” are transcendent. Without a guitar in sight, the Gamble Brothers Band rocks to a slippery beat that incorporates any number of Southern music traditions.