photo: Carleen Kyle
Vancouver based garage soul octet The Vanrays channel the classic sound of Stax on their new album Put It Out. It is smooth, but it has an edge (and even some righteous anger). Blue-eyed soul - white artists playing a predominantly black form a music - was a big thing in the mid-Sixties and it made all the way into the Eighties when bands like Culture Club and Dexys Midnight Runners gave the genre a much needed shot in the arm. It is an underground genre nowadays - go check out Scottish Red Hearted Vibrations for a prime example.
The Vanrays have been listening carefully to their peers, bringing in a trumpet, a saxophone and last but not lease an organ, but they are not plagiarists. They are obviously very much in love with the genre: good time music that does not pass over the bad things in life. Recorded in fits and starts - they started just before the pandemic hit - the band has succeeded to make an album that sounds like it was recorded in the round during a handful of inspired sessions.
The Vanrays:
Spencer McKinnon: vocals
Phil Addington: bass
Brian Barr: guitar
Andrew Samuel: guitar
Eric Lowe: drums and backing vocals
Gordon Rempel: electric piano and organ
Jose Blanco: trumpet
Melissa Lee: saxophone and backing vocals
Put It Out is a self-released album. Buy it from their website.
Tracks:- Lovin' Man
- Shake My Hand
- Hard Times
- I'd Rather Be Stoned
- If You Got Love
- One More Chance
- Heap of Ruin
- Put It Out
- Made It
- Up In Smoke
