Thee Sacred Souls
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Wheatland
January 19, 2025
Photos by Paul Piazza
Thee Sacred Souls recently played a sold-out show at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Wheatland. The young retro-soul group from San Diego have experienced a rapid ascent in the music world for a number of reasons. The retro-soul genre has snowballed over the course of the last few years into a substantial movement. Bands like Durand Jones and the Indications, The Sinseers, and the now defunct Chicano Batman have all helped to propel this to wider audiences. Respected labels like Daptone Records and Colemine Records have substantially supported artists who embrace it as well. The commonality with all of these groups exploring the genre is that they are making music of the highest quality that has weight, permanence and a feeling of deep dedication. It’s a beautiful thing that we are witnessing at this place and time.
As further proof of this, the Hard Rock show by Thee Sacred Souls sold-out very quickly after being announced late last year. It’s been a quick rise for this group which began in San Diego in 2018 when bassist Sal Samano and drummer Alex Garcia formed an instrumental oldies band. A year later, vocalist Josh Lane moved down from Sacramento and joined, and the rest, as they say, is history. “Can I call you Rose?”, the first single that the group collaborated upon, is already considered a standard in the genre. The group was signed to the legendary Daptone label shortly afterward and released their debut self-titled record on the label in 2022. They subsequently toured as openers for St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Portugal. the Man and Nathaniel Ratleiff and the Night Sweats. They also got garnered a spot on the prestigious Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park and were in the bill at the prestigious stadium retro-soul extravaganza Fool in Love gathering held at SoFi Stadium.
Recently, the group released their second album, Got A Story To Tell. It’s been well-received and it’s anchored by an uptempo, urgent tune called “Live for you.” This song has aspects of self-awareness and empowerment, and even has a bit of a Marvin Gaye feel to it. It seems to be striking a chord with audiences everywhere. On this night in Wheatland, Lane was indeed living for the moment, with a strong contingent from his hometown Sacramento in attendance. The band has swollen to become a spectacularly efficient ten-piece, with two background vocalists, a trio of horns, and a highly skilled, mustachioed percussionist. The sum of these parts is a massive soul and rhythm and blues machine. They were spectacular all night and the crowd danced, sang and swayed throughout.
Lane prowls the stage constantly and ended up cruising through the crowd and singing in the midst of everyone for a couple of songs. This seemed to enhance the night for the packed house, which leaned in emotionally on this band’s performance.
After their current West Coast run, the band head over to Europe for an extended winter tour before returning stateside for a number of festivals, starting with Coachella. Then it’s back to Europe for more festivals. One could say this retro-soul thing has got some legs and the world is better for it.
Opening the show was the charming duo of vocalist Claude Fontaine and guitarist Kleber Jorge, who sprinkled Brazilian vibes over some beautiful musical musings.
