TEXT BY CLAIRE STEWART
Brad Guin went years and years in the music industry without knowing he could sing. He played saxophone for headliners like The Temptations, Greg Allman, B.B. King, and Martha and the Vandellas when he was just seventeen. He has played in The Apollo Theatre, Austin City Limits, every Blue Note Club in Japan, as well as the finest theaters in every major city in North America—but he was always behind his saxophone. In the hopes of producing his own original record (which he thought at the time would be mainly instrumental), Brad traded a Fender Rhodes piano to his friend Jimmy Nutt for three days of studio time in Sheffield’s The NuttHouse studio. He then invited his ‘most bad-to-the-bone friends’ to the session. These included Buster Marbury, Jason Isbell, Ken Waters, Jimbo Hart, and Greg Lowery. One day when Buster heard Brad messing around with a song, he said “You need to do that, man. You got something.” And Buster knew exactly what he was talking about. After keeping his talent a secret for so long, even from his wife and son, Brad slowly began to grow confident in his vocal ability. He later produced and recorded an album with only one other person present. In 2011, he assembled the group we now know as Bad Brad and the Sipsey Slims, and starred as lead vocalist. Brad says he is influenced by music ranging all the way from James Brown to Hank Williams to Motown and 60s pop. Brad is self-diagnosed with what he calls ‘Jim Nabors syndrome.’ “I am country as a turnip green, and I sing like an old black man.” He lived in Tuscaloosa through childhood on the edge of the Sipsey swamp and called himself a swamper until he came to Muscle Shoals and met a different kind of ‘swamper’ in the studios here in the area. When he moved here, he was exposed to the vast musical history in the Shoals and immediately immersed himself in it. He said that in this area, it always feels like something is about to happen. “I feel like the ground rumbles with creativity here. You are constantly affected by the talented people around you and you are inspired by their accomplishments. I don’t get that anywhere else.” Recently, Brad worked with the Alabama Blues Project in Tuscaloosa which gives many at-risk and troubled youth the opportunity to learn about and play the blues music that is so deeply embedded in Alabama history. He says that he has been inspired by so many of the young people that have come through the program that he says he “couldn’t stump” with every kind of music he threw at them. He wants to help others grow up with the same eclectic music appreciation he was fortunate enough to be raised with. Brad wants to provide his listeners with what he says is missing from a lot of music today—“We are missing so much dynamic contrast. This album has such a high-quality, vintage sound that I think people will really like. All I want to do is take everyone on their own musical journey.”
Here’s the thing about Bad Brad and the Sipsey Slims: they have a distinct Muscle Shoals sound to their music. The vocals are deep and bluesy, and the music that girds all of that up is rich with horns, organ, and that beautiful saxophone, in the same style that put Muscle Shoals on the musical map. Think Percy Sledge; think Clarence Carter. Then stop thinking, grab a beer, and sit back and let this rich music roll right over you. If it doesn’t transport you to a place where there’s red clay and cotton, you are not a Southerner.
“I feel like the ground rumbles with creativity here. You are constantly affected by the talented people around you.” J ULY /AUGUST 2012 | NOALAPRESS . COM | 45