Southside Johnny and Asbury Jukes celebrate release of new CD performing in East Greenwich

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The iconic Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes released the much anticipated Soultime!, their first new studio CD of all original material in five years, on Leroy Records in September 2015. In celebration of the new CD, they will perform live on Friday, February 12 at 8 p.m. at The Greenwich Odeum, 59 Main Street, East Greenwich, while they continue to tour throughout the year across the country and overseas.

The new CD was written and produced by Jeff Kazee and John Lyon and was recorded at Lakehouse Recording Studios in the Jukes’ hometown of Asbury Park, N.J. Soultime! celebrates the transformative power of ’70s soul music and represents a return to – as Southside sings – “just letting the music take us away.” The new disc will be available starting in September on iTunes, Amazon, www.southsidejohnny.com and at Asbury Jukes live shows.

Soultime! encapsulates everything that fans cherish about Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. The pattern of horns plus rhythm – each song painted with catchy choruses, top-notch string arrangements and gospel charged vocals – keeps on coming. Highlighting the eleven tracks on the new disc is “Looking for a Good Time,” a show-stopping blast of unforgiving soul that’s tailored in tribute to Mayfield’s muscular 1970 “debut” album “Curtis.”

The tracks “Spinning” and “All I Can Do” summon the grittiness that Isaac Hayes and David Porter brought to their best work for Sam & Dave. The romance and tenderness of “The Heart Always Knows” might have been a B-side for the Drifters’ “This Magic Moment.” And, the funk flavored “Reality” sounds like it belongs on Bobby Womack’s soundtrack to “Across 110th Street.”

“Soultime!” features Southside Johnny on vocals and harmonica, Jeff Kazee on keyboards and vocals, Glenn Alexander on guitar, bassist John Conte, Chris Anderson on trumpet, John Isley on saxophone, Neal Pawley on trombone and drummer Tom Seguso.

New Jersey’s own Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes released their last CD, the live “Men Without Women: Live 7-2-11,” also on Leroy Records, in 2012, which was recorded live on July 2, 2011 at the Stone Pony Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes performance with Little Steven Van Zandt. That disc features live versions of the songs from the “Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul” 1994 album of the same name, along with three Asbury Jukes bonus tracks.

With a decades-long successful career, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes delivered their soul-searing brand of raucous blues and R&B, recorded over 20 albums and became known for huge hits like “I Don’t Want To Go Home,” “Love on the Wrong Side of Town,” “The Fever,” “This Time It’s For Real” and “Got To Get You Off My Mind.”

Tickets are $55 and $75. Visit www.theodeum.org.

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