By: Andrea Myers
The Cabooze was transformed as soon as the Lee Boys took the stage, as the stage lights came on like a rainbow explosion and the music followed suit with an immediate dive into soulful, sunny funk. I was unfamiliar with the genre “sacred steel,”and even after listening to their latest album I had a hard time imagining what they would sound like live. Looking around the room, I felt bad that the Florida group had made the trek up to Minnesota to play for a small room of only about 50 people, but the Boys didn't seem to mind; within minutes a small crowd had gravitated toward the front of the stage and the whole room swelled with an infectious positive energy that made the members of the band grin at each other in satisfaction.
It is impossible to describe the Lee Boys without mentioning their key player – and for a refreshing change of pace the group doesn't evolve around the lead singer. Instead, pedal steel player Roosevelt Collier sat in the center of the stage and led the band with a mixture of sounds from his guitar that seemed to stretch beyond the normal capabilities of the instrument. It occurred to me that I had never experience a band that featured the pedal steel so prominently, and it created a sound that was captivating; the steel wails acted as another voice, dancing with the vocal stylings of brothers Keith and Derrick Lee. At times, the Collier's instrument was organ-like and groaning, while at others he would step on a distortion pedal to play up the cold, hard-edged sound of the steel strings.
The members of the Lee Boys are all related, and most are either brothers or cousins. So it was no surprise the the Boys played off of each other so eloquently, using their instruments to fight against each other and reach new resolves in ways that only family members could. Their songs stretched to 10 to 15 minutes a piece; but rather than giving way to unfocused jams, the Boys took turns singing and soloing, changing the feel of the music several times during each “song.” The lyrics remained simple and powerful throughout the set, favoring simple repetitive phrases like “Let's celebrate” and “Walk with me Lord” to more elaborate, meandering verses. The basic lyrics allowed the focus to remain on the music, playing off the uplifting energy of the music with spiritually soothing (yet never blatantly religious) vocal sprinklings.
About three or four songs into the set (it was hard to keep track, as each movement of sound seemed to flow into the next), the Boys broke out a jam that was so intense, so funky, and so dark that it made many of the people in the crowd scream in praise. The rhythmic song provided the backing for an extremely technical and proficient solo by Collier, and despite the fact that his face remained somber and his eyes seemed to drift off into the distance, he delivered a lengthy solo that caused the members of the audience to look at each other in awe with jaws half open. Right when things were about to get too serious, however, the singers came back in and the band pulled it back up for another delightful song of praise about letting your love flow free.
Photo by Andrea Myers.
Location Info:
Cabooze
Artist Info: The Lee Boys
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