Teskey Brothers – Auckland Town Hall, 7 December 2023: Review

Rev Orange Peel and Photos by Leonie Moreland

8th December 2023

Teskey Brothers testify in Deep Southern Soul fashion and slay the supplicating Auckland crowd.

Last time I saw them was at the Powerstation before the virus madness. The venue was packed and sweaty.

With everyone seated downstairs in the Great Hall, it took a few songs to generate that heart and soul salvation. But they get there.

Josh Teskey lead vocals and guitar, and younger brother Sam Teskey formed the group in Melbourne in 2008. The best home for music in Australia, and my favourite city in the vast oceanic southern hemisphere.

They started in the streets, then played for friends at parties and maybe weddings. Success came in 2017 with recording contracts and their debut album Half Mile Harvest.

Their other two albums Run Home Slow (2019) and The Winding Way (2023) were number two and one albums respectively in Australia. They have had sales success in the Netherlands curiously, without cracking the big American or British markets.

That is only a small matter of time now.

Broadly they are Americana. In their evocation of Deep Soul with elements of Black Gospel, R’n’B and Country, they are a retro American music band.

Anyone who loves Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Band or the Blasters will find a happy home here.

Man of the Universe is their opening song, and instantly their credentials are presented. The sound of Stax, Muscle Shoals and Fame studios. Dann Penn and Chips Moman. Memphis Horns and the dark end of the street.

Two young women play trumpet and tenor sax. The bass guitar Fabian Hunter has a Beatle’s Ringo bowl haircut and a porno actor’s moustache. I cannot reliably identify the others in the ensemble. Piano, keyboards and drums.

Carry You and Oceans of Emotion. Josh has got the classic blue-eyed Deep Soul voice racing now. The Joe Cocker huskiness with a smoother delivery. High tenor peaks which are close to the Gospel Yodel. But mostly it is the expression of the heart. As brother Sam explains late in the show.

Sam plays liquid glass slide guitar tones. There is some of Duane Allman, the phrasing and judiciousness of Steve Cropper, also the vibrato of Roebuck Pop Staples. But mostly it is his own style, and he branches out from that as we will hear later.

Crying Shame starts with the keyboard tones that Ian McLagan was famous for, playing behind Rod Stewart and the Faces. It may crop up one more time. Sublime Black Gospel phrasing and I have just nailed Josh’s voice doppelganger. Eddie Hinton, who was considered a white soul brother to Otis Redding.

There was also Frankie Miller, a Glaswegian one but the best was of course Toots Hibberts.

I Get Up. With the Soul horns and melodic lead guitar tones, the sound of Van Morrison and his great Caldonian Soul Revue of the Seventies is also at hand. Josh does have some Vannerisms and he does dance like a baby elephant.

Incidentally, another great Australian voice was also lumbered with this criticism. The great Judith Durham with the Seekers. She was also renown as a great Black Gospel stylist before her fame.

They do straight Country when they pare down to an acoustic trio for Carry Me Home. That is back porch old-style, not slick Nashville. Sam plays a resonator guitar.

Josh takes a pause to introduce Drown in my Own Tears, written by Henry Glover and performed definitively by Ray Charles. Josh explains the importance of seeing him live at age sixteen in setting him on his musical odyssey.

I can report the same mystical experience seeing him perform twice in New Zealand. Black and White seem to lose their colour barrier when the Teskey’s perform this tonight.

Paint My Heart. Shimmering organ starts but this is Sam’s tour-de-force. Josh sings this at a slower tempo and wrings all the emotion out of it.

Then the lead guitar takes some Blues licks and works it up into a homage to Michael Bloomfield playing spiritual cosmic guitar on the glorious East-West.

Paul Butterfield Blues Band second album, so go and check it out on Spotify right now. You’re welcome!

After that they follow with What Will Be. More Eastern tones and vocal keening. Heady mix of hard R’n’B and Gospel. Josh plays harmonica and testifies at length. The James, Jackie and Solomon stage craft. That is Brown, Wilson and Burke of course.

Mel Parsons is one of New Zealand’s greatest Folk and Country artists currently active, and her support set is a perfect half hour of her signature sound.

There are some new songs of a forthcoming album, and she is confident to debut them here in front of a packed Town Hall.

One with the lyrics in the middle of the night has a Springsteen style. There is a cavernous drum sound which is unique to the venue.

I like it but others around me do not. Interesting to note it is absent with the main act.

Tiny Days she plays solo with acoustic guitar. A sweet Country tune and there is great echo round her voice. Not there on the main act again.

With her band, Josh Logan bass and Jed Parsons drums, they race through Country Folk and finish on the one song that rocks out.

Americana with tribal drums and evocative of the Badlands.

Teskey Brothers close with Hold Me. A great way to finish a Soul Revue. High keening vocals, Celtic and Eastern tones with liquid teardrop guitar. Sam takes his one singing cameo. Everyone joins in on the mantra. Keep our feet on the ground.