If pressing play on Soul Brother No. 1, The Reverend Shawn Amos’s eighth and latest studio album, feels like a time warp back to the 1970s — well, that’s not accidental.
“When I was a kid, the music of that era was sort of in the background,” Amos said during a recent conversation, en route to a gig in Houston. “It wasn’t like I was going to those shows or hanging out with those artists — it was not necessarily my music, but it definitely influenced me.”
That sort of visceral, vulnerable funk-rock — think Parliament-Funkadelic, the Isley Brothers or the Denton-born Sly and the Family Stone — informs just about every moment on the startlingly concise, but deeply textured 10-song collection, which drops May 3.
The 56-year-old Amos, born in New York City, has called Dallas home for the last six years, and this record is merely the latest creative endeavor in a life brimming with such pursuits.
Amos is a singer, a songwriter, harmonica player an award-winning author, record producer, former A&R man, digital marketing entrepreneur and the son of Wally “Famous Amos,” the founder of the Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie brand.
It’s a lot for one life to contain, but Shawn Amos wears it all lightly, speaking of the value of direct, plain language, unvarnished emotion and defining a person’s truth, which fuels kinetic Soul Brother No. 1 tracks like “Back to the Beginning,” “Hammer” and the hopeful closer “Things Will Be Fine.”
“Thinking about those songs in the ‘70s, what I love about the music is there’s no metaphor — it’s poetry, but of a different concept,” Amos said. “It’s just these direct pleas, which might come across as trite or cheesy, but they’re deep, and they’re real. I wanted to write in that vein … getting into my own identity, and speaking my own individual truth, which feels like a bolder statement, frankly, in a place like Texas than it does in L.A.”
Amos, alongside his handpicked bandmates, will breathe life into Soul Brother No. 1 in concert on May 9 at Deep Ellum’s Club Dada, the final stop on a brief Texas run. Amos is audibly excited about the effect he’s hoping the songs will have on an audience, but regardless of how the project is received, he’s come out the other side of it renewed.
“I hope that people will sit down with it and actually let it sink in,” Amos said. “I hope it opens up something in themselves. It’s coming from a Black artist, and by and large, it’s about a Black experience. But it really is like I say, it’s a metaphor for anyone who just wants to have an honest talk with themselves … and just share love.”
The Reverend Shawn Amos at Club Dada, Dallas. 8 p.m. May 9. Tickets are $10.
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at [email protected] or find him on X (@prestonjones). Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
