The Holmes Brothers' unique synthesis of
gospel-inflected
R&B harmonies, accompanied by good drumming and rhythm-based guitar playing, gives them a down-home rural feeling that no other touring roots music group can duplicate. Brothers Sherman and Wendell Holmes, along with drummer Popsy Dixon (the falsetto voice), are the group's core members, although they occasionally tour with extra musicians. All three harmonize well together.
The Holmes Brothers are so versatile, they're booked solid every summer at
folk,
blues,
gospel, and
jazz festivals, as they play a style of music that is a gumbo of church tunes,
blues,
country,
funk,
reggae,
roots rock, and
soul.
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The Holmes Brothers' unique synthesis of
gospel-inflected
R&B harmonies, accompanied by good drumming and rhythm-based guitar playing, gives them a down-home rural feeling that no other touring roots music group can duplicate. Brothers Sherman and Wendell Holmes, along with drummer Popsy Dixon (the falsetto voice), are the group's core members, although they occasionally tour with extra musicians. All three harmonize well together.
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The Holmes Brothers are so versatile, they're booked solid every summer at
folk,
blues,
gospel, and
jazz festivals, as they play a style of music that is a gumbo of church tunes,
blues,
country,
funk,
reggae,
roots rock, and
soul. Although people like
Bo Diddley and especially
Jimmy Reed were early influences on Wendell and Sherman,
gospel music also played an important role in their respective upbringings.
Although they'd been performing in Harlem for years,
the Holmes Brothers -- originally from Christchurch, VA -- have only recently become international touring stars. Thanks to a fair deal at Rounder Records, the group released five recordings for that label, beginning with a 1989 release, In the Spirit. When this album made waves and got them off and running on the festival and club circuit around the U.S. and Europe, they followed it up two years later with Where It's At (1991),
Soul Street (1993), and
Promised Land (1997). The group's career has been aided by the interest of people like
Peter Gabriel, who recruited them for his WOMAD (world music) festivals in England and who also recorded them in a
gospel context on the album Jubilation, for his Real World subsidiary of Virgin Records in 1992.
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