Tomás Doncker formed his True Groove label with an artist-first ideology that gravitated toward the “global soul” movement. More of an ideology than a genre, “global soul” refers to the collective enjoyment of music as a positive force all throughout the world. His label continues to exemplify this with enjoyably eclectic artists, including previously featured names like Lael Summer, Marla Mase, and Kevin Jenkins.
In addition to running a label, Doncker is a producer, singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He shows off all these skills throughout his band’s new release, Moanin’ At Midnight: The Howlin’ Wolf Project. Doncker has this to say about the release: “We had been bouncing the idea of a blues” record around for awhile. A “hardcore” modern Blues record. Every time we discussed it The Wolf came up. Willie Dixon came up. “Smokestack Lightning”, “Spoonful”, “Evil” – on and on…The stories – so vivid, even today! We wanted to be a part of that lineage, that history. We wanted to tell that “Same Ol’ Story” one mo’ time…Our way! We felt the time was right.”
Two of my favorite tracks on the release are the swankily enjoyable “Shook Down”, led by smoky organs and smooth harmonica, and the infectious rocker “Spoonful”, which reminds me of Paul Weller’s tribute material. You can stream the entirety of Moanin’ At Midnight: The Howlin’ Wolf Project below, in addition to buying it at Bandcamp:
