Al Holliday & The East Side Rhythm Band
"Timeless soul music that lifts the heart and drops a funky hammer."
Al Holliday & The East Side Rhythm Band
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Bio
Their name is Al Holliday & The East Side Rhythm Band. They are a natural, genuine St. Louis Soul band – and that ain’t even half the story.
There is just one ride-or-die band family who does their thing the way they do – a band who can sound as hot and as thick as the breath of the Mississippi River in the St. Louis summertime, and can turn around and lay it down as cool as the breeze. Music lovers draw some comparisons to treasured groups like the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Delaney & Bonnie, and Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen – but AL HOLLIDAY & THE EAST SIDE RHYTHM BAND, with the muddy water in their veins – no doubt, come with their very own game. The young man and the band bring a package only describable as essentially American – a sound distinct to the “Big Muddy” and their river city home where the four winds blow.
Al Holliday’s most recent release, 4963 (Forty-nine-sixty-three), takes its’ name from the old brick house where the band recorded the entire album live to analog tape. The tracks capture living, breathing performances and tell their conscious, funky stories of love and survival. The band’s third full-length finds them seasoned and most at home, in more ways than one – but it also marks the beginning of a prolific recording period of an empowered and endowed creative tribe that has fully seized the musical means of production.
Believe it or not, this year is primed for not one, but TWO releases from Al Holliday & The East Side Rhythm Band – the community-based project: All St. Louis Revue Vol. I, as well as the band’s own natural Christmas album. Al Holliday & The East Side Rhythm Band is also excited to announce that they have begun work on their fourth full-length album due out in 2020.
Look for the band on their second European tour this fall and across the US as well. Stream ‘em on Spotify, and remember: all your favorite bands sound best on vinyl and compact disc.
Video
***East Side Story***
The band was founded in 2011 on St. Louis’ East Side, the Illinois side, in Al’s hometown, the same as all foundation band-members. The band was formed with every intention to bring this thoroughly positive, uplifting, and supremely cathartic kind of soulful music straight to ‘all the good people’ – and to carry on the tradition of this music – to carry on the tradition of this music – to not only carry it on, but to surely be empowered by it, and set free by it.
Al and the band have quickly earned the reputation around St. Louis, the Midwest, and beyond for bringing the heavy Soulful Rhythm & Blues, for bringing it in full, with their very own natural style – whether live or on record.
In 2013, Al Holliday released the undeniable full-length debut album Made It Through The Mill, Again, which had the folks “in the know” all stand up and take notice. The album not only features twelve truly inspired, entirely distinct, original compositions – but it pours out a torrent of sweaty, soulful power from beginning to end!
Since the album’s release, Al has received plenty of solid recognition as well as a few awards including being honored locally as “Best R&B Artist” and “Best Male Vocalist” by the Riverfront Times. Even better than all that, Al Holliday & The East Side Rhythm Band has been receiving a great outpouring of general *love* from all kinds of good people wherever they make the scene!
On the stage, Al Holliday & The East Side Rhythm Band have been featured artists at the region’s favorite music festivals including appearances at KDHX’s Midwest Mayhem, the Whitaker Music Festival, the Round-Barn Blues Festival, Summer Gras, and more! You can still catch them getting down and dirty in some of STL’s finest R&B establishmentslike Beale on Broadway, The Broadway Oyster Bar, and Blues City Deli when they are in town – so don’t miss your chance!
Al Holliday & The East Side Rhythm Band is widely regarded as one of the entire St. Louis and Midwest region’s hottest – most happenin’ – up-and-coming Soul and Rhythm & Blues acts. Nobody does it quite like they do. This is a band that takes is all the way every time – on stage and on record – and with any luck, they’ll be bringin’ it right to you! With a brand new album, and plenty of travelin’ and touring in the works this year, keep your eye out and you might just catch that Rhythm Band risin’!
Discography
