Album Notes

"The long-absent R&B instrumental sound of bands such as The Mar-Keys and Booker T. & The MGs is being revived..." -USA Today

"Visceral... a Memphis tour-de-force." -NPR's All Songs Considered


The incendiary soul/jazz/funk of The Royal Sessions is a hard-hitting and authentic modern take on Memphis' original soul-stew sound - a mixture of original instrumental and vocal features that fuse R&B fundamentals with elements of modern hip-hop.

An all-star section of Stax sidemen - Ronnie Williams (The Bar-Kays, David Porter) on Hammond B-3 organ, drummer Willie Hall (The Bar-Kays, the Blues Brothers), and Charles "Skip" Pitts (Isaac Hayes) on wah-wah guitar - joins garage rock prodigy Scott Bomar (Impala) on bass to lay down deep funk grooves for a mighty horn section consisting of Memphis' finest young players.

Recorded and mixed at Willie Mitchell's (Hi Records, Al Green) Royal Studios, The Royal Sessions is steeped in the Memphis tradition. But it's much more than an homage: it's the sound of Memphis now- familiar, fresh, and unquestionably fantastic.


"This is funky, greasy, gritty soul, rooted in the tradition, but is timeless in its heat-seeking groove stealth. The Bo-Keys write killer tunes, with lots of stinging guitar, wailing organ and in-the-pocket backbeats -- check "Deuce and a Quarter," "Seven and 7," the souled-out Latin-flavored funk of "Spanish Delight," the bassed-up bluesy horn stroll in "Under the Table," or the trippy, in-the-mud organ and percussion funk orgy "Bling Bling," that closes the album... the perfect disc for that time when the party kicks into overdrive, or for cruising the boulevard, or whatever gives you pleasure." -All Music Guide

"It doesn't come mo' Memphis than Beale Street, Stax Records or Willie Mitchell's Royal Studio over on South Lauderdale... Put these three things together and you have the Bo-Keys' The Royal Sessions. Put all this Memphis talent together in a setting like the Royal... and you are creating new Memphis history." -The Daily Yomiuri

"Memphis soul legends in the making." -The Memphis Flyer

"Simmers with the true nature of funk... It's the music in the air, not just from yesterday, but a continual process of today building on the past." -Dean Rudland, Ace Records

"Timeless... simply an example of great players grooving." -Memphis Commercial Appeal

"A first-rate Memphis group looking to recapture the spirit of disbanded Memphis giants the Mar-Keys." -The Boston Herald

"The Bo-Keys have quite the resume. When you listen to Rufus Thomas' "Do the Funky Chicken," that's Bo-Keys keyboardist Ronnie Williams playing the piano. When you listen to Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul, that's Bo-Keys drummer Willie Hall laying down the beats. Sax player Jim Spake has backed everyone from Ike Turner and Al Green to Jerry Lee Lewis and Screamin' Jay Hawkins. And if the awesome wah-wah guitar at the beginning of Isaac Hayes' "Theme from Shaft" has ever put a grin on your face, you've got the Bo-Keys' effects-obsessed guitar player Skip Pitts to thank for it." -The Memphis Flyer