Although he already has a career most musicians only dream of, Cyril Neville still feels he has some things to do.
As a Neville brother, a Meter and a guest on recordings from everyone form Bob Dylan to Willie Nelson, Neville could just rest on his laurels. Instead, he joined up with Devon Allman, son of Gregg, to form the aptly named Royal Southern Brotherhood.
“I feel like this is where I’m supposed to be at 63,” Neville said recently on the road somewhere between Detroit and Chicago.
He also feels lucky and grateful that he, Allman, Mike Zito, Yonrico Scott and Charlie Wooton found each other. Zito and Neville have the same management. One day someone suggested that names like that, along with Allman, should get together. The result was a dozen tracks in two days in the studio.
“What people are hearing,” Neville said of the self-titled debut. “That’s the old school way. Knee to knee, elbow to elbow in the studio.”
“Everybody to sort of hung their egos outside of the studio.”
A year later they are on the road playing clubs, theatres and a stop at the Thunder Bay Blues Fest. They’ve already sold out of CDs once. Neville said no one in the band expected to be received this well.
“People are really catching on,” he said.
“In this business you’re only as well known as whatever the last thing is that made somebody else some money,” he laughs. “Hopefully this time we’ve put something out there that’ll make us some money too.”
Describing themselves as the soul of the south, the band wants to showcase that southern flavour. But Neville said he also wants to continue to up his musical game in order to do southern music, which he considers some of the best in the world, justice.