The Musical Box

How fitting that the Nashville-bred, traditionally flavored funk, soul and R&B of The Dynamites would be compacted onto an album called Kaboom!

Sure, it’s easy to assume by the title that the big, brassy sound The Dynamites are packing is explosive. What isn’t nearly as obvious is the road it took for the band’s singer, Charles Walker to gain appreciation by an American audience,

Walker began singing in Nashville clubs over a half-century ago and spent ensuing decades cutting roots-savvy R&B for Chess, Decca and various independent labels in New York. Among them: No Fool No More, which appeared on the extraordinary Night Train to Nashville, Vol. 2 compilation in 2005 .

But Walker’s audience remained modest in size until a soul revival in Europe provided him with steady performance work. After living in England and Spain, he returned to Nashville in the 1990s.

Enter the eight-member Dynamites led by guitarist Leo Black. Sporting a three-man horn section and a tireless rhythmic drive, the band’s high retro sound steers closer to the James Brown school of funk and the early 70s albums of Tower of Power than the recent works of such torchy soul revivalists as Sharon Jones and Bettye LaVette.

On Kaboom!, the sound is thick, pervasive funk with a wicked backbeat. Horns pepper the grooves while Walker recalls The Temptations’ David Ruffin strutting against the furious Brown-savvy groove of Killin’ It, the swampy voodoo refrain of Way Down South (the closest thing on the album to a slow tune) and the sly twist of Slinky.

There are no plans for Black and Walker to bring their soul caravan through Lexington this summer. So if you’re in the mood to spend some time in the Kaboom! room, a short Saturday road trip to the Southgate House in Newport is in order.

(above photo of The Dynamites by Eric Adkins)

The Dynamites performs at 10 p.m. May 10 at The Southgate House, 24 East Third St. in Newport. Tickers are $10. Call (859) 431-2201.