If your musical tastes are less indie or alternative and run a little more “old school,” there's plenty of great soul and R&B music being made these days. It’s a style and sound that hasn’t changed much, but still sounds as fresh as ever. Think Leon Bridges, St. Paul and The Broken Bones and basically everyone who’s ever recorded for the Daptone label. Now we can add Brother Wallace to the list.
It’s surprisingly difficult to find much information about Brother Wallace. I even had to do some digging to learn his legal first name (according to our friends at WXPN, it’s Chris). Wallace is a K-12 music teacher from Georgia who, while he was getting his start, also did some performing alongside artists like gospel singer Kirk Franklin and the English band The Heavy (of “How You Like Me Now?” fame). While performing with The Heavy, Wallace befriended the band’s guitarist, Dan Taylor, and the two of them exchanged song ideas over the years.
Eventually, Taylor recruited the other members of The Heavy to record the songs he and Wallace wrote. The result is Electric Love, Wallace’s debut album, which was released shortly after the album’s newest single, “You’re The Man.”
It’s kind of a dark and spooky sounding song, with some fairly dark lyrics. In a statement, Wallace said “(that) song comes from someone I know personally getting caught up in a treacherous life and thinking they could somehow escape the consequences — but then of course they ended up in trouble.” The song provides quite a contrast with the previous single, the much bouncier and sunnier-sounding “Who’s That.”
Electric Love is available on Bandcamp and streaming services. Brother Wallace has a few shows coming up this summer, including a date opening for the legendary Mavis Staples. Oh, and he's still teaching, which just makes all of this that much cooler.
