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ACL Fest review: The Lee Boys
The Lee Boys are not yet famous enough for a headlining slot at ACL, but after seeing them on the Vista Equity stage at 3 p.m. Sunday, everything else seemed a little anticlimactic. Like Robert Randolph, the Florida family group came up in the “sacred steel” music-based worship tradition of the House of God church. The band’s joyful gospel-funk fusion is also heavily inflected by blues, soul, rock and jazz. While drummer Earl Walker and bassist Alvin Cordy Jr. kept up relentless grooves that had fans dancing like maniacs, vocalist Derrick Lee frequently left the frontman role to pedal steel guitarist Roosevelt Collier, whose improvisations were explosive marvels of ingenuity and expressiveness. Most of the time, he kept a thoughtful expression, as though he were pondering the message of a sermon, and his uncle Alvin Lee on rhythm guitar was likewise as solemn as a church elder, but every so often, they’d catch sight of an audience member boogeying down or levitating, and they’d smile beatifically. Playing a seven-string bass, Cordy took an exceptionally creative approach even as he held down the bottom end, and he unleashed a couple riveting jazz solos as well. The level of communication between band/family members seemed downright telepathic, allowing for stunning, spontaneous dynamic shifts.
The band kept the audience enthralled with original gospel numbers such as “I’m Not Tired” and “So Much to Live For” (introduced by Alvin Lee with the guitar riff from the Doobie Brothers’ “Long Train Runnin’”), and with more familiar material, including the standard “Don’t Let the Devil Ride” and a glorious singalong version of the Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There.” Collier opened “Amazing Grace” with a spine-tingling solo verse on the steel before Derrick Lee took over in his commanding baritone. Paying homage to the late, great Solomon Burke, the Lee Boys delivered a stomping, soul-stirring cover of “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love.” By the end of the show, the crowd was exhausted from dancing, many of the fans looking more than a little wet and ragged — and completely ecstatic.
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