Read Southall Band will be performing at Songbirds on Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 the day of show, available here.
Review for Read Southall Band:
After releasing their latest album, For The Birds, Oklahoma City-based six-piece, Read Southall Band hit the road and began their tour across North America. After completing more than 30 shows, the band recently added additional shows in 2022 including a string of tour dates down the East Coast before heading overseas for their European tour, supporting Blackberry Smoke.
A very isolating 2020 needed shifts in musical direction to get to a place where new music, let alone the group’s crowning achievement could even exist. Their third studio album, For the Birds, is ambitious and captures vigorous, rock ‘n’ roll energy with elements of country and southern rock. From classic to contemporary rock, these are songs that could appeal to the disparate fanbases of Gary Stewart, Joe Walsh, Rival Sons or Chris Cornell.
“I don’t think we would be a band without this album,” says frontman Southall. “I think for a while we were just focused on touring, getting out there and we didn’t take care of the music as needed. In a way, we needed that year off the road. We made an album and just worked. We refocused and decided this is what we want to be doing.”
Southall and his bandmates understand that the album’s long gestation and their sonic shifts may take some adjustment for fans. But that excited uncertainty is reflected in the new album’s title. “We came up with For the Birds because it’s been so long and we were worried that nobody’s waiting for us,” says Southall. “So maybe this record is ‘for the birds.’ If you like it, you like it. It is what it is. For us, it’s six individuals making tunes.”