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WHAT THE PRESS SAYS...
...Lead singer Jordan Valentine displayed powerful pipes and a radiant sweetness that just scream "star!", and the band (a five-piece in addition to the two singers) had it goin' on. It's an instant party when the Sinners hit the stage - they're undoubtedly just as good as most of the '60s soul groups they emulate.
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Little Big Band: World's Greatest Sinners, Best R&B Blues Act
Hey, everybody's good at something. And since we don't know the World's Greatest Sinners personally, we'll just take them at their word. What we do know, however, is that on stage this little big band--who capture this category for the second year in a row--is a rockin' R&B powerhouse fueled by singer Jordan Valentine's old-school wail and wham, cranked up a couple notches by guitarist Tony Savarino's vocabulary of classic soul licks, and lit afire by horn players who dig in like the punk love children of the Muscle Shoals and Stax brass sections.
Ricocheting between wry originals and 60s R&B nuggets, rarely stopping between tunes, their sets at little joints like the Abbey Lounge and Plough & Stars leave listeners breathless. That's not a word that applies to Valentine and backing singer Georgia Young. Valentine in particular is a veteran of the Bucket of Blood circuit, where five or six sets of hard entertainment is what keeps bikers and other bar beasts from peeling each others' skins off, and a good singer needs to be able to hold and bend a note in a firestorm of sound--just like she does.
Boston's lucky to have an outfit like this, who, with seeming effortlessness, keep the high energy, passion, and plain fireworks of genuine soul/R&B/blues alive without fretting about labels or wedging their tongues in their cheeks. What they do isn't retro. Its great!
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Showing roots, soul at Best Music Poll
In the 'FNX Best Music Poll's sea of indie rock and electro, two bands stand out at tonight's festival like a tailored three- buttoned suit at a T-shirt and jeans convention - the World's Greatest Sinners and Girls, Guns and Glory.
Both familiar faces in Boston's live music scene, they were tapped along with the Bon Savants and Bang Camaro to represent the Hub as 'FNX brings the likes of indie-centrics Bloc Party, Kings of Leon and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to Lansdowne Street.
Instead of pandering to the Pitchfork Media generation or the current sound of music, both take their approach from less-mined genres. World's Greatest Sinners have helped foster Boston's live soul revival for a few years, while Girls, Guns and Glory have honed its Americana-battered twang 'n' roll to critical acclaim.
Ward Hayden, the '50s pinup-esque frontman and guitarist for Girls, Guns and Glory, is drawn to the idea of bringing diversity to an essentially indie rock festival. The band will line up at Axis alongside the amped-up guitars of Silversun Pickups and Say Anything.
"In the broad category of rock 'n' roll, we're still rock 'n' roll; only our rock 'n' roll is 50 years prior to present day," said Hayden. "I view mixing country music with rock 'n' roll as a way to still rebel within rock music, so hopefully we can turn some people on to something that's different from the norm or at least something that they haven't heard too often in a commercial setting."
For the World's Greatest Sinners, which have proudly played everything from dive bars to dance parties with relentless conviction, stacking up alongside synthesizers is nothing too unordinary. They share Bill's Bar with the Bon Savants and Snowden.
"There's so few people around doing what we do, being the odd kid out isn't new for us," said Sinners singer Jordan Valentine. "I mean, playing up the street from the Bravery isn't so weird when you've shared bills with fire eaters, strippers and Neil Hamburger."
Of course, converting the 16-year-old kid in a Say Anything T- shirt into the world of Stax or alt-country is an added bonus.
"Someone a while back told me that we don't play a set so much as throw a party, so unless the indie kids hate fun or something, I think we'll get along just fine," said Valentine.
Best Music Poll goes down today on Lansdowne Street and Avalon, Axis and Bill's Bar. Gates open at 5 p.m., and ticket info is at www.fnxradio.com.
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Back inside for one of the best live performances I have ever seen by the World's Greatest Sinners. I can't even describe why it was so amazing except the fact that there were saxophones and singing and gorgeous ladies and it was amazing. AMAZING. At one point, the lead singer said, "We're going to do it fast, because it seems like you like it when we do it fast," and I was like, "Huh, is that a Tina Turner shout out?" and then they kicked into "Ragdoll" and I lost my mind. Seriously, I may have been the only fucking person who knew the words, but who cares? "Do I love you, my oh my? River deep, mountain high, oh oh ohhhhh yeeeeah!" Classic. We stood there and pretty much said, "How the fuck did we not know about this band?" I love how this city just brings forward so many different genres of music, and so many talented folks.
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WFNX/Phoenix Best Music Poll 2006
Like most of the best blues bands who hang their hats in Boston, the World’s Greatest Sinners, who get the nod from our readers and FNX listeners in this category for the first time ever, are an amalgam of talented players who had been honing their chops for years in other bands before they found their home in the blues with other like-minded musicians. In the case of pedigrees, the common ground has a little to do with dressing sharp in suits and ties, and a whole lot to do with a deep affinity for soulful rhythm & blues. The latter, and the big, raw, Mama Thornton vocals of Jordan Valentine — bandleader, emcee, and a veteran of the B-3s — is what distinguishes the World’s Greatest Sinners from your basic vamping blues band. Oh, and they’ve also got a one-two-punch horn section in Andre Delbos and Andrew Hickman, as well as ties to the local rock scene through guitarist Tony Sorvino, whose résumé includes the Dents, the Rudds, and Garvey J. Bassist Greg Steinbaugh is a veteran of local alt-country darlings the Darlings as is drummer Bobby Baer, who has also survived stints with the Atlantics and Willie “Loco” Alexander. Too often there’s too little cross-pollination among the local jazz, blues, and rock scenes. The World’s Greatest Sinners are living, grooving proof that a little bridge-building can go a long way.
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"...Valentine, the band’s prime mover and frontwoman, says she had a dream set of favorite singles before she even had a band. Her poison of choice is “Northern soul,” so named for the DJs in Northern England who unearthed non-hit US soul singles. “I love that those records are so imperfect. You can hear the mistakes. And the record-geek aspect is a lot of fun. I’ve been carrying this idea around since 1996, when I was living in Pittsburgh. I had a mix CD of 22 soul songs that I’ve been trying to do ever since.”
Many of those tunes are on the Sinners’ self-released debut, Ten Before Eight. Of the 11 tracks, only two are close to well-known: “I’ve Got To Use My Imagination,” a ’70s hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips, and “Testify,” George Clinton’s first single with the Parliaments, here stretched to six minutes. The funkified version of Elmore James’s “Dust My Broom” is too far from the original to qualify. The rest — including Jamo Thomas’s great “I Spy for the FBI,” which a British DJ turned Valentine onto — are buried treasures, all done up sweaty and live-sounding. Valentine’s vocals are suitably brassy but also warm and emotive, a counterpart to the glamorous image she projects on stage."
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Behind the powerful vocals of Jordan Valentine, the super-talented Sinners provide a rollicking wall of joyous sound—enough to make you think they just moved here from Memphis. All the songs on this disc are covers of blues and soul classics, but not the ones you’ve heard a million times already, so it sounds fresh and not clichéd. And with Miss Valentine sounding like Otis Redding’s long lost daughter raised on a steady diet of Billie Holiday, there is nothing not to like about this band, or this CD.
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Like their R&B forebears, the Sinners aim to BRING IT, and they do. An unlikely darling of Boston’s indie scene, this tribute band’s entire goal is taking R&B lost classics and pop tunes to a whole new audience. Tonight’s phenomenal set seems to fly by as first one and then another guest vocalist joins the core band, placing his or her indelible stamp on each tune. Standouts are sexy Rod van Stoli crooning “Help Me,” the charming duet with Shaun Wolf Wortis and Jordan, John Powhida’s unhinged “We Can Work It Out,” and Ad Frank’s writhing rendition of “Are You Doin’ Me Wrong.” The topper is the reprisal of the belt-along “River Deep, Mountain High” with the inimitable Andrea Gillis and Anna Price, a number these girls first did at the Lizard Lounge a few months ago. Wow, what a night! The radiant Jordan owns the room, Tony Savarino’s guitar sears, and the twin horns from Andre and Andrew sizzle. The band is so fiery, tight and perfect that it’s unbelievable that sit-in guests Joe Kowalski (a former full-time Sinner on organ and piano) and drummer Tony Dintino only rehearsed a time or two. Of Tony, Jordan jokes, “We just found him out by the T stop and he happened to know all the songs.” She’s a dynamic soul mama and makes us all her bitches.
Oh, by the way: these Sinners not only rock, they have style. Jordan Valentine has selected a gorgeous strapless gown and upswept ’do—the perfect look for tonight’s grand celebration and one which complements her band of dark-suited guys perfectly.
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"The World's Greatest Sinners...How can you not love a band with this name? Its even
easier to love in concert. This is an extremely high-energy soul revue with a female singer
named Jordan Valentine who rips through classics by Ray Charles, Johnnie Taylor, and others.
Valentine is among the most dynamic singers, male or female, to hit town in a while. If you
love music for the pure joy of it, check the Sinners out..."
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"The real surprise find this go round are the World's Greatest Sinners. What we've got
here is rock & roll with a heavy injection of blues, soul and funk. The 1969 model Rolling
Stones wanted to be doing that...Oh, and lemme tell ya--When these guys do a ballad--brother,
its a BALLAD! Mm-mmm! That's good eats."
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"Indeed, a soul revival is starting to boom again. Valentine's band--called the World's
Greatest Sinners--has been flooring crowds with its sassy romp through nuggets by Ray Charles
and Bobby 'Blue' Bland, along with lesser-known but no less exciting dips into Erma Franklin's
'I Don't Want No Mama's Boy' and Cookie Jackson's 'I Got To Know'.
'There's a toughness and a rawness to soul music that I love,' says Valentine. 'I grew up on
Motown and my mother was a huge soul fan. Its just honest, no-frills music.' Valentine delivers
it that way, belting out the likes of Charles' 'Mess Around' and Johnny Taylor's 'Testify' and
fronting a horn-stoked band that is having as much fun as she is."
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