Roxy Roca
Austin, TX-based ROXY ROCA is a powerhouse of southern soul, stirring up your spirit with a gritty and infectious sound influenced as much by soul and funk legends of the late 60s like James Brown, Joe Tex, and Al Green as by early rock ‘n’ roll pioneers like Chubby Checker and Little Richard and early 70s psychedelic funk rockers like War and Sly and the Family Stone. Formed in late 2010, the band quickly developed a reputation for getting a room on its feet and in motion with a sound that has been described as Dynamite Texas Soul — driving, horn-powered southern soul with a certain explosiveness and swagger that is distinctly Texas.
Now three albums deep, and over 600 hundred shows later, ROXY ROCA has continued to hone their razor-sharp show while having the good fortune to share the stage with some incredible acts ranging from outright classics such as B.B. King, Tom Jones, and Lee Fields to more modern acts like Fitz and The Tantrums, Mayer Hawthorne, Trombone Shorty, and Vintage Trouble.
ROXY ROCA is Taye Cannon (lead vocals), Errol Siegel(guitar, vocals), Royce Phillips Jr. (alto sax), Ryan Greenblatt (drums), Austin Johanning (trumpet), and Erik Muench (bass).
About Ain’t Nothin’ Fancy
The band went into EAR Studio with producer Lars Goransson (The Relatives, Jewel Brown, Kool & Together,Cornell Dupree, Little Joe Washington) to capture their high-energy Texas swagger the old-fashioned way: nine musicians in a room together, recording live, straight to tape. That whirlwind, four-day session resulted in ROXY ROCA’s Stag Records debut, “Ain’t Nothin’ Fancy,” released on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 on vinyl, CD, and download. On it, green-eyed soul shouter Taye Cannon leads his crack band of veteran players through a tight, punchy set of funk and soul originals with the urgency of a man trying to save his own soul as much as the listener’s. The songs blend classic themes like heartache (in “I Don’t Wanna Dream No More”) and the oh-so-sweet comeback from it (in “Love Maker DeVille”) with contemporary subject matter like generational disillusionment (as in “Talkin’ ‘Bout Love”) and the fear of facing an uncertain future (as in “It’s Your Dream”), tied together with a message of hope and optimism that encourages listeners to put their spirits in charge of their minds, if only for this moment (and to make taking that advice just a little bit easier, the band handily rounds out the album with a few out-and-out club bangers like “Try My Love” and “Rainy Day”). “Ain’t Nothin’ Fancy” hits that elusive sweet spot that happens when a road-tested, polished band hitting its stride is allowed to just crank up and do what they do, with no second-guessing, no pitch correcting, and no focus groups — just hitting “record” and letting instinct take over. It’ll make you want to get up out of your chair!