Ah, Sookie Sookie Now! A Southern Funk Retro Soul Rock Thang

The Slo Get Up by Wyatt Closs

This podcast is inspired by an event I produced one time called Sookie Sookie Sunday under the guise of Madame Zenobia Presents in DC. It was Labor Day Weekend. We were searching for a vibe that had a southern soul sensibility but was a little gritty/greasy and still felt fresh. The event went well but we always wanted more for the music. We couldn’t find that sweet spot comingling old school R&B, certain types of authentic blues, organ grooves, and then new stuff that paid homage to those sounds. Here we have a range of funky grinding tracks from new schoolers like Alabama Shakes, Platinum Pied Pipers, Raphael Saadiq, and Cody Chestnutt to classic sanctified soul from cats like Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson, Lester Abrams’ LA Carnival experiment and an even more obscure track by a 70s funk band from North Carolina that called themselves The Communicators and Black Experience Band. At the end, we cap it off with the song “Sookie Sookie” itself, but not before a baby mash-up of Eddie Murphy’s “The Barbeque” comedy routine rides over top of it for a minute. For some this will be road music or some music to barbeque by perhaps. For me, its what might be playing at a juke joint near my childhood home if it were around today. It was a cinderblock building serving liquor and pig’s feet. I was never allowed to go there. Or its what I envision is on the jukebox at The Hideaway, a spot I went to in Harlem when I lived there where hardworking men, part-time pimps, and flashy cats hung out before really going into the street. Colt 45 Malt Liquor posters with Billie Dee Williams were still hanging there a few years ago. That’s what made things Sookie Sookie to me. Like grape Kool-Aid and gin.