LEON BRIDGES

Leon Bridges

The music industry, effed-up beast that it is, with its corporate tastemakers and deep-pockets peddling inane mass-consumerist drivel and whatnot, sometimes slips up and lets something good sneak on through. Then there’s the battle with music fans and lovers who’ve been pummeled by so long and can be clearly confused by quality product. In other words, on the majors’ stage, it is very hard for true artists and game-changing musicians to make it.

Enter Leon Bridges. The Atlanta-born but Fort Worth-reared singer guitarist might seem like a throwback or retro act to most but the truth is in the sound. With the release of his debut album on Columbia Records, Coming Home, Bridges has challenged notions of youth, cultural identity, and musical heritage. Looking like a cross between Sam Cooke and Ray Charlesí wardrobes with a modern flair a la Cosmo Kramer, Bridges is not a poster boy for contemporary music and he is most certainly, not an imitator of a foregone style.

Though he might evoke the soulful music of yesteryear and his leanings do stem from soul, gospel, and the blues; Bridges brings a renewed intensity and candor to R&B that had been destroyed by the music industry. How? In the simplest of forms; stripping it down and delivering honest, original material. It helps that a chance encounter with Austin Jenkins, formerly of the Texan rockers White Denim, resulted in Bridges entering a studio with like-minded individuals who helped the fledgling musician take his compositions to the next level.

In what can only be described as another stroke of luck, Bridges was able to produce and release Coming Home to his liking, with the least bit of label interference possible. The album, short at 35 minutes is true to form and deliberate. It is also a template from which Bridges explodes on stage turning what looks like a soul revue to the uninitiated, into a raucous, righteous, and wholly satisfying experience. If you’re gonna do something like this, you better do it right and so far, it don’t get more right than this.

Leon Bridges with Lianne La Havas at 8pm on Tuesday, September 13 at the Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave, Miami Beach. $35-$155. Leonbridges.com.
~ Abel Folgar