An Unforgettable Live Performance That Redefines Modern Rhythm and Blues

Song of the Day: “Nothing More Lonely” by St. Paul & the Broken Bones

Aug 04, 2026

St. Paul & The Broken Bones began their journey over a decade ago as Alabama’s premier purveyors of retro-soul revivalism, essentially kicking down doors with 2014’s Half the City. From there, frontman Paul Janeway and his trusty ensemble refused to stay neatly boxed inside vintage nostalgia. They went on a spirited stylistic walkabout—incorporating sleek R&B on Young Sick Camellia, dabbling in eerie, psychedelic art-rock on The Alien Coast and Angels in Science Fiction, and eventually pivoting back toward a warmer, more buoyant core on their self-titled 2025 release. They evolved from a party band into a restless, shape-shifting art collective that still somehow manages to fill rooms with people wanting to shake a leg.

Their newest release, Live at Southern Grooves, captures the band in their absolute natural habitat—sweaty, unpretentious, and firing on all cylinders. Rather than leaning on past decades of heavy orchestration or studio wizardry, this live outing functions as a victory lap that highlights how seamlessly their catalog blends together when played in a room with hot mics. Songs from their more experimental eras shed their studio coats and snuggle up comfortably next to the bouncy, direct soul tracks. It is a wonderfully straightforward record that proves the band doesn’t need a sprawling conceptual safety net to sound massive; they just need to plug in, let loose, and let Janeway belt until the ceiling tiles rattle.

Amidst a tracklist packed with crowd-pleasing energy, “Nothing More Lonely” from last year’s self-titled release, stands out to me as the album’s high-water mark. The track balances emotional weight with precise musical execution, allowing Paul Janeway’s dynamic vocal delivery to anchor the arrangement without overshadowing the band’s tight instrumentation. It captures the exact charm of the band’s evolution: smart, soulful, and dramatic enough to make you feel deeply sentimental about heartbreak while you are secretly trying to calculate if you have room for tacos (pro tip… you ALWAYS have room for tacos).