{"id":10927,"date":"2016-06-09T05:30:31","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T09:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=10927"},"modified":"2016-06-10T08:45:34","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T12:45:34","slug":"the-bo-keys-todays-new-school-of-old-school-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/09\/the-bo-keys-todays-new-school-of-old-school-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bo-Keys: Today&#8217;s New School of Old-school (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most intriguing album releases of this year doesn&#8217;t sound like a new record, not at all. Recorded in Memphis, Tennessee and featuring veteran musicians from the city&#8217;s rich musical history, <b>The Bo-Keys<\/b>&#8216; <i>Heartaches by the Number<\/i> (Omnivore Recordings) builds upon classic songwriting and like-minded original tunes to create a timeless recording. But a success like this didn&#8217;t happen overnight.<\/p>\n<p>Bandleader and producer <b>Scott Bomar<\/b> admits that in 2016, he&#8217;s \u201cnot 100% sure what year it was\u201d that the story of The Bo-Keys began \u2013 Wikipedia suggests 1998, for what that&#8217;s worth \u2013 but he remembers the pertinent details. \u201cSome friends of mine here in Memphis own a record store, Shangri-La Records. They did a holiday party every year, and they asked me if I had any idea of a band to book for the party.\u201d Bomar told them that he had recently seen <b>Sir Mack Rice<\/b> perform at an event put together by <b>Deanie Parker <\/b>of the legendary soul label Stax Records. That show had also included <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/05\/27\/album-review-booker-t-the-mgs-mclemore-avenue\/\"><b>Booker T and the MGs<\/b><\/a>, <b><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/09\/20\/cd-review-rufus-thomas-do-the-funky-chicken\/\">Rufus<\/a> <\/b>and<b> Carla Thomas<\/b>, <b>Eddie Floyd<\/b>, <b>William Bell<\/b>, \u201call the living Stax artists,\u201d says Bomar.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10928 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/bo-keys_heartaches.jpg\" alt=\"bo-keys_heartaches\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/bo-keys_heartaches.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/bo-keys_heartaches-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Bomar had been impressed with Rice&#8217;s performance, and already had designs on working with him, so he suggested Rice to the Shangri-La people. Bomar told them that he would put a band together to back the vocalist, too. \u201cThe Bo-Keys had already been practicing, getting everything together,\u201d he says, \u201cbut we hadn&#8217;t &#8216;played out&#8217; yet. The original concept was for us to be an instrumental band like the <strong>Mar-Keys<\/strong>, The MGs, or <b>Willie Mitchell<\/b>&#8216;s band. We&#8217;d be instrumental on our own, but we could also be a backing band in the studio or for live shows.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: left; padding: 10px; width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=as_ss_li_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=B01C8RA11A&amp;asins=B01C8RA11A&amp;linkId=30d94f50b321098cc3454d2a9e21741b&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Mack Rice show was a success. \u201cThe band&#8217;s lineup changed somewhat between then and the time we made our first record, <i>The Royal Sessions<\/i> [2004],\u201d Bomar says. That record featured Mitchell and <b>Charles \u201cSkip\u201d Pitts<\/b>, \u201chalf of <b>Isaac Hayes<\/b>&#8216; old rhythm section,\u201d Bomar notes. \u201cThose two have a very special sound together, a very 1970s sound.\u201d When drummer <b>Howard \u201cBulldog\u201d Grimes<\/b> joined, Bomar says he brought a more 1960s sound to the band. \u201cHoward was the first African American drummer at Stax; he played on a lot of the early Satellite [Records] r&amp;b sides.\u201d The Bo-Keys would go on to release three EPs, a singles collection, and two more full length albums. Their latest, the country-soul flavored <i>Heartaches by the Number<\/i>, was released in April 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Like nearly all previous Bo-Keys recordings, <i>Heartaches by the Number<\/i> was cut at Bomar&#8217;s Electraphonic Studios. With its old-school aesthetic, that studio seeks to position itself as carrying on in the spirit of Stax and Hi. \u201cI have worked at a lot of studios in Memphis as a musician, producer and engineer,\u201d Bomar says. \u201cThere&#8217;s a great, rich history here.\u201d He mentions Sam Phillips Recording, Sun Studio, Ardent, Royal and several others. \u201cI soaked up as much of all that as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bomar&#8217;s plans didn&#8217;t originally include putting together his own studio. \u201cBut around 2004, I started doing a lot of work on films.\u201d His credits would eventually include <i>Black Snake Moan<\/i>, <i>Hustle &amp; Flow<\/i> and a number of others. \u201cWhen I got busy with the film work, it became necessary for me to have my own place to record,\u201d Bomar says. \u201cIt would be the middle of the night, and I&#8217;d have to turn something in to send off to Hollywood.\u201d The first Electraphonic was in Bomar&#8217;s home; things grew quickly from there.<\/p>\n<p>Electraphonic would eventually move to a downtown Memphis location, the site of a former production studio for a motion picture laboratory. The space already had a sound room, so it was a natural fit. \u201cIn the downtime between my own projects, I would record other people,\u201d Bomar says. \u201cBut I was having a hard time finding a label for some of the good records I was making.\u201d So though it wasn&#8217;t part of Bomar&#8217;s grand design either, the Electraphonic record label developed naturally as an extension of the studio.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: right; padding: 10px; width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ss&amp;ref=as_ss_li_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=musoscribe-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=B01D4QIK12&amp;asins=B01D4QIK12&amp;linkId=2926bdf3337de501d6fd068825afa5f7&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2010\/12\/21\/the-city-champs-representing-their-hometown\/\"><b>The City Champs<\/b><\/a>&#8216; first album (2009&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2010\/01\/28\/album-review-the-city-champs-the-safecracker\/\"><i>The Safecracker<\/i><\/a>) was the first Electraphonic release. \u201cThose guys came in and recorded that record, and I was just blown away by it,\u201d says Bomar. \u201cI think I&#8217;ve probably listened to that record more than anything I&#8217;ve ever worked on.\u201d Two City Champs \u2013 organist <b>Al Gamble<\/b> and in-demand session guitarist <b>Joe Restivo<\/b> \u2013 would eventually become part of Bomar&#8217;s Bo-Keys.<\/p>\n<p>The approach to making <i>Heartaches by the Number<\/i> was similar to the way Bomar recorded previous albums at Electraphonic. The studio is equipped with a vintage 1\u201d eight-track Scully machine. \u201cIt&#8217;s one of the first transistor-era tape machines, from 1967,\u201d Bomar says with pride. \u201cIt has a really signature sound; now that I&#8217;ve had it for a long time, I can hear old records on the radio and know which ones were recorded on a Scully.\u201d The aforementioned old-school approach meant that the entire process was free of things like computers. \u201cWe did some tape editing, but it was never put into ProTools or anything like that,\u201d Bomar says.<\/p>\n<p><i><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/10\/the-bo-keys-todays-new-school-of-old-school-part-2\/\">Click to continue<\/a>&#8230;<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most intriguing album releases of this year doesn&#8217;t sound like a new record, not at all. Recorded in Memphis, Tennessee and featuring veteran musicians from the city&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,40,49,69],"tags":[2719,1622,2720],"class_list":["post-10927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-country","category-instrumental","category-new-release","category-soul","tag-bo-keys","tag-omnivore-recordings","tag-scott-bomar","cat-20-id","cat-40-id","cat-49-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10927"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10938,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10927\/revisions\/10938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}