HEART OF PINE, Southern Soul Revival

Something exciting is happening down South – Athens, GA to be exact – and we can’t say that Steven Bagwell and Travis Richardson, the masterminds behind the fiery, bluesy, down home musical firebrands Heart of Pine didn’t warn us they were itching for a full-on Southern Soul Revival.

Forged in 2016 out of the duo’s fruitful songwriting relationship, they first sparked our ears with their stirring debut Highly Flammable and then gave us a bit of front porchy hope early on in the pandemic with the perfectly titled EP Southadelic, Vol. 1. Well, we’re still waiting for Bagwell’s deep, dark, authentic and just country-twangy enough vocals to blow our collective minds on a Vol. 2. But in the meantime, he and Richardson – who recently expanded to an incendiary five-piece ensemble featuring Jesse Fountain (keys), Boone Hood (bass) and Todd Headley (drums) – bless and buoy us with a full-on explosion of electric, rootsy magic on their second full length album, aptly called Southern Soul Revival.

We can almost feel the kind of exciting religious fervor such a title implies from the start, as the duo uses cool nighttime nature sounds from around a pond to introduce “Gone,” a brooding haunting seduction marked by sparkling electric guitar sizzle. Since Heart of Pine chose to roll out a series of lead singles preceding the drop of the album, it makes sense to offer descriptions of them as entry points into the whole freewheeling, authentically deep fried, frolic and heartache filled experience. The blues/rock fired mid-tempo ballad “Movin’ On” takes an almost lighthearted view of a relationship that just doesn’t have many legs, including a humorous anecdote about a time early in Richardson’s life when the father of a girl he liked threatened him with a shotgun shell.

Over the years, the band has built its rep as a kick ass live band, sharing the stage with the likes of the Turnpike Troubadours, Brent Cobb, Drivin N Cryin, 49 Winchester and Corey Smith. It’s no surprise then that they close with a second lead single, the craftily titled, brass fired “Phetamine & Pearls” that’s become one of the most popular staples of their live show. Lyrically, it’s a romp about the kind of woman that comes into one’s life to shake things up but doesn’t stay for anything too serious (“Them diamond rings don’t mean a thing”).

The most recent infectious and slamming B-3, synth and electric guitar galvanized lead single is not about love, romance, heartbreak or even girls at all. It’s about a “Voodoo Leg Bone” that Richardson found in the woods while camping and hunting on the Flint River in 2022. He and Bagwell started riffing on the idea, giving birth to the most quirky and fascinating tune on the whole set.