SOUTHERN AVENUE: Family

Both musically and spiritually, powerhouse R&B outfit Southern Avenue is descended from the Pointer Sisters. More blues-oriented than the Pointers’ late-in-career hits, the Memphis-based Southern Avenue hearkens more to the Pointers’ early 1970s releases.

Where the Pointers started out as a duo with two of the sisters, grew to a quartet when the others joined, then stabilized as a trio for most of their existence, Southern Avenue also began life in 2016 as a duo—but with just one of the Jackson sisters teaming up with Israeli guitarist Ori Naftaly. But Naftaly and Tierinii Jackson were soon joined by Tikyra Jackson on drums and harmony vocals, and now on their fourth full-length album, Family, third sister Ava (violin, percussion, vocals) is also part of the group.

The Jackson sisters don’t sing three-part vocalese à la earlier sister groups like the Boswells or Andrews. Rather, Tieirinii usually takes lead, with her sisters providing harmonies—reminiscent of another 1970s sibling-harmony R&B combo, Sister Sledge.

Like most early R&B combos from a half-century ago, the Jacksons also grew up singing in church—and those gospel roots anchor the music of Southern Avenue. On the opening track, “Long Is the Road,” Tieirinii’s lead vocal is framed by her sister’s harmony before they go into a church-infused call and response. There is an organic comfort and familiarity to those harmonies that can’t be created on the fly.

Making Southern Avenue unique among family-based soul bands is the co-equal contribution of Naftaly, the Israeli-born guitarist who sounds like he was raised in the Bayou, not the Levant, or even Tennessee for that matter. With the Jackson sisters’ musical sensibilities clearly shaped by their Memphis upbringing, Naftaly’s twang provides a definitive tonal contrast.

It all comes together to near perfection on “So Much Love,” a timeless southern R&B gem that could have come out of the 1970s, ’80s, or ’90s and would have owned the airwaves had it come out when radio still created hits. Gorgeous vocal harmonies take the lead on the plush-pile melody, while Naftaly briefly loses the swamp vibe and provides a near-perfect guitar solo, building on the theme, turning it sideways before bringing it back to center with a jazz-tinged tone sounding somewhere between Albert King and Chet Atkins.

They close out the album with “We Are,” another church-infused tune in which Tieirinii shows off a low-end growl in her singing, a touch of the tigress that has marked some of the best blues singers from Etta James to San Diego’s own Jeannie Cheatham.

Southern Avenue has been making waves in the blues and soul communities for the last half-decade, and Family may be the album to break them through to the mainstream.