The Delta Saints

The Delta Saints bring a whole new perspective to the rock genre. Yeah, they've got the driving guitar, the gritty vocals, the high energy, etc, etc, etc. The basics are covered, no question about it. But what gives the Delta Saints their originality is the mash up of blues, bayou rock, country, and jam-band tones that combine for a sound that's in a category all to itself.

And don't forget the harmonica. Above the heavy drum beats and the bass groove and the screaming guitar licks and the vocal growl... there is the harmonica wailing its own painful melody. Put it all together and you have one of the greatest sounds in Nashville. It's heavy. It's dirty. And it is good.

The quintet from Belmont has certainly broken the more common musical mold of the university. If If you're expecting a more pop or pop-country influence, you won't exactly find it with the Delta Saints. Instead, you'll find an artistic contrast between explosive grooves and airy silence- all driven by fundamental blues riffs and a knack for anthemic rock choruses. Listen to "Momma" or "Train Song" and then try denying the amazing talent of this band.

For anyone concerned about modern artist selling our or pursuing music simply to celebrity, The Delta Saints certainly ease those concerns. Their songs are unarguably passionate, and their shows are infectiously energetic. Simply put, the Delta saints are music for music's sake.

-Mike T - Music City Unsigned (Nashville, TN)

The Delta Saints eye blues/soul revolution
Emily Ramey, Staff writer
The Delta Saints eye blues/soul revolution
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2/25/2009
8:00 pm
By Emily Ramey, Staff writer
[Photo by Melissa Madison Fuller]

Ben Ringel, Greg Hommert, Matt Bray, Dave Supica, and Ben Azzi are starting a revolution, but certainly not of the stereotypical rock ‘n roll variety; no, rock is too trite for these boys.

Theirs is an uprising of the blues. The Delta Saints are taking the South by storm, stealing in and out of venues and hometowns, and letting the echo of their musical explosions rocket them into the proverbial musical realm.

Their sound is an amalgamation of unrefined southern soul and dirty bayou blues. The Delta Saints are as muddy as the Mississippi itself, but they allow their raw intensity to ooze from the music. The band’s dusky vibes radiate heat and an almost painful fervor.

The band evoke a kind of vehement magnetism, a simple, disquieting fury. Blistering harmonica lines whine fiercely over a smoldering dobro. The rumbling bass and drums kindle a weighty dynamism. The band seethes with tension before the vocals erupt into a bellowing confrontation. Thier music seems to beg the question, “Are you with us?” In the numbing silence after a song, one lurches back into reality to realize he has joined their revolt.

We have Belmont partially to thank for The Delta Saints’ insurrection. The five guys behind the instruments gathered here after all transferring separately. Strangely enough, though, their assembly has been several years in the making. Supica, bass, Bray, lead guitar, and Azzi, drums, were in a band together at Kansas University. They broke up, went their separate ways, and all ended up at Belmont last August.

The three began collaborating again, this time with fellow transferee Ringel of Seattle, lead vocals, dobro and guitar. Ringel’s history springs from Louisiana; his fascination with rootsy rock primarily induced the band’s sound, although, that blues influence suited funk- and Motown-inspired Supica and Azzi as well.

Hommert, harmonica, was last on the bill. Born and raised in St. Louis, Hommert grew up on Blues Traveler and bluegrass, but the roots thing was attractive to him too. Hommert accompanied the four-piece band a few times before coming on as an official member. Then, The Delta Saints were complete.

Seven months later, they are working on a seven-track EP, and in the process, they’ve learned a great deal. Supica sums up the band’s mentality.

“We all get such equal input and we all have to work around each other so much that we are capable of this amazing dynamic you can’t get any other way.”

Despite the balance they’ve discovered, though, Supica admits, “It’s still super frustrating, because we’ve been doing this together for seven months, and we still run into issues every time we play.”

At the end of the day, The Delta Saints realize that all they’re trying to do is “figure out how to work with each other and make a sound that [is] pleasing and appealing to everyone else, to get what we want in there without taking away what the person next to us wants.”

And what do The Delta Saints want? According to Hommert, they’re just working to accomplish “something that’s [...] done a little differently.”

The struggle in realizing that goal seems to lie in the distinction they preserve from their predecessors. The band’s true test is incarnating a singular blues spirit in the hearts of five men.

“There’s something to be said for the simplicity that we’ve learned to embrace,” Hommert asserts.
Supica explains that The Delta Saints have begun to grasp that their genre “is a lot more groove-oriented and just feeling it.”

“But that’s where the power of the music comes from,” Ringel said. “The power in it comes from the simplicity and the fact that it’s one driving force.



- The Belmont Vision (Nashville, TN)

The Delta Saints uphold the best traditions of Southern Rock — razor sharp slide guitar riffage, harmonica runs that are alternately as soothing as a baby’s breathing and terrifying as a hellhound’s growl, a slinky yet powerful rhythm section and a soulman at the front who croons with a preacher’s passion and howls with a sinner’s leer. The Nashville quintet shifts from the sweet lull of a siren’s song to the four-alarm uproar of a fire-truck siren in half a heartbeat. The Delta Saints have come for your soul; just put in the plate when it goes around.

You’ll Dig It If You Dig: Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Sonny Landreth and Blackfoot lost in an electric swamp. (Brian Baker) - Midpoint Music Festival (Cincinatti, OH)

During this year’s SXSW music festival here in Austin, a friend and I were kinda killing time, waiting for a catered party so we could score some free food. It was the middle of the week, early in the morning (around 11 AM, I think it was). So we wandered into a random bar on Sixth Street, saw some young guys—pimped out in really nice suits (not in that goofy manner of ska bands)—onstage, preparing to kick off the day’s festivities. They start playing some swampy delta blues—and I mean traditional blues, not Johnny Lang style crapola. And they’re good. Really good. Suddenly, the song took an unexpected turn; the singer started to scream, the drummer started beating the crap out of his kit, the whole band was going through a feedback-laden freakout… and the segue back to the delta was seamless. I’d never heard nor seen anything like it. These kids were showing up Led Zeppelin. Out-Pavementing Pavement. Out-foxing everyone who came before and possibly everyone who is to come in the future. An American band, playing the blues, and nothing even remotely resembling a Stevie Ray Vaughan lick was heard throughout the set… but there was mandolin and keys and huge, funky bass lines that would make Larry Graham proud, and just the most amazing vocals… I can’t even begin to describe the vocals. My friend and I were blown away. Their manager gave me this 3-song EP, and while the home-stereo experience can’t fully live up to the live one, it comes close enough that I still get chills every time I play this. And I play it often. I can’t wait for a full-length, and I would love it if their debut long-player was a straight-up live album, ala MC5, but I’ll take what I can get, and so should you. Don’t take my word for it. Go to their MySpace page. Definitely go see ‘em live if you EVER get the chance. And then you’ll know, like I do. The Delta Saints. The Delta Saints. Yes, The Delta Saints. The Impaler - Mass Music Magazine (UK)

On Tour Now: The Delta Saints
Apr 13.10 by @heymally

If you’re lucky enough to find yourself in the great American southeast this spring, be sure not to miss out on Nashville buzz act The Delta Saints – if you do, you’ll regret it. This band of good ol’ southern boys is making a name for itself with its recently released Pray On EP, a collection of six masterpieces of bass- and harmonica-heavy soulful southern blues rock so engaging and beautifully written you’ll feel like you’ve been transported back to the days of old-school saloons and suspenders. There’s an obvious Joe Cocker comparison, but The Delta Saints have been compared to Kansas and The Band, too – this band plays Americana rock, and they do it oh so well. And while The Delta Saints are making a name for themselves with Pray On, it’s their live show that really sets the band apart. These boys – who look straight out of the Old South with their collared shirts and suspenders – put on a thunderous, raucous, fearless show with just the kind of incredible energy you’d expect from their Louisiana roots. Gravelly vocals and screaming guitars are the hallmark of the Delta Saints, whose raging storm of thunderous bayou-flavored rock becomes an explosion of fierce, frenetic noise onstage that makes a Delta Saints show one you’ll never forget.

The Delta Saints are on tour in the southeast throughout the summer. You can check out their tour dates here, and catch their video for “Momma” above!
- LP 33 (LA, CA)

The Delta Saints blend Delta blues, Memphis soul into a gritty rock sound
By Steve Wildsmith
stevew@thedailytimes.com
Originally published: August 12. 2010 1:22PM
Last modified: August 12. 2010 2:23PM

It's noon on a recent Friday afternoon in the studios of Knox iVi, the Internet media company in downtown Knoxville where a daily program called “Eleven O'Clock Rock” is broadcast.

A handful of people are in the studio — it is, after all, a business day, and save for the show's hosts, the technical support staff, a handful of guests and a lunch counter cashier, the room is empty.

Not that it matters to the members of the Nashville-based blues-rock ensemble The Delta Saints. The guys launch into a ragged, impromptu jam as the show's credits roll, and suddenly there's an eruption of primal, gritty music that has those watching it all clapping their hands, rocking back and forth and feeling that musical fire that's lifted straight out of some creekside shack along a backwater eddy of the Mississippi Delta.

Hard to believe these guys met at Belmont University in Nashville a few years ago.

“It was kind of an interesting start-up,” bass player David Supica told The Daily Times this week. “We all transferred into Belmont from all over the country three years ago, met our first weeks there and just started playing. We all came from such diverse musical backgrounds, and everybody was definitely fighting to have their influences heard at first, but as the sound really progressed, it turned into something nobody was really expecting.

“As time has gone by, we've just become really good friends, and our sound has started progressing even more.”

In August 2008, The Delta Saints started playing out in public, fighting for a place at the table alongside the dozens of other bands in the Nashville area that don't play country music. It wasn't easy, but the solidarity among the band members made things easier — and it made performing together so special for everyone involved that they couldn't imagine calling it quits.

“It sounds really cheesy, but it's awesome to get to play on stage with my best friends,” Supica said. “Even when we're not playing music, we're together all the time. That's a huge thing for me — playing music with people I care about. Nashville is so business-oriented, it's refreshing to have that band and brotherhood mentality with the guys.

“I'm just ecstatic to play music I care about with my best friends. When the energy is bouncing back ad forth, it's a good anger outlet for me, too — but in a good way. I'm a pretty laid-back dude, but the music can get very primal.”

So far, the band has released two EPs — a live CD and “Pray On,” a six-song debut that's about to be upstaged by a new six-song album, Supica said. It'll be released Sept. 10 in Nashville, and it's evidence of a growing diversity of sound for the band, including a move toward songs with a broader appeal.

That may sound like “selling out” to the zealous music fan who views anything with commercial potential as “bad” and obscure, underground bands as “good,” but that's a bit of an oversimplification of how a band is supposed to survive, Supica added.

“I don't think there's anything wrong with relating to people,” he said. “We're entertainers, and everyone in the band really embraces that. We want to reach people with that. I don't think we're going to be busting out teeny-bopper hits anytime soon, but the more people we can reach, the happier we are.

“This new EP, it ventures further than our last one did and embraces more of a rock sound. We teamed up with a new producer who comes from a commercial rock background, and even though it's been a bit of a battle, the end result is a really cool fusion that has a little more commercial twinge to it.”

If anything, he said, a broader appeal will allow the Saints to break into new markets and grows their audience in markets where they already have a foothold — such as East Tennessee, where the group performs this weekend.

“I'm really thankful that when we get in front of people, we get a really great response — the biggest problem is just getting in front of people,” Supica said. “We're finding that when we try booking out of town, everyone's tight on bringing in new bands, and if you don't have pull in a city, it's really hard to get your foot in the door.

“We played Knoxville for the first time at Preservation Pub, and it's only been recently that we've started to focus on that area as a market. One of our biggest, we've found, is in Johnson City, where people really like to come out and drink and have a good time. In Knoxville, we haven't been able to get really regular six- to eight-week runs through there.

“The couple of times we have played, though, we've had a couple of repeat customers come out, so hopefully that will keep snowballing,” he add - The Daily Times (Knoxville, TN)