Cyril Neville - Magic Honey '2013

Tracks list

Tracklist
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01. Magic Honey
02. Swamp Funk
03. Somethings Got a Hold on Me
04. Another Man
05. Still Going Down Today
06. You Can Run but You Cant Hide
07. Invisible
08. Blues Is the Truth
09. Running Water
10. Working Man
11. Money and Oil

Most artists make albums. Cyril Neville makes gumbos. Served up in September
2013 on Ruf Records, Magic Honey finds the 64-year-old Southern icon on anarchic
form, snatching inspiration from a kaleidoscope of sources and shaking up a
sonic cocktail where anything goes. “I’m extremely proud of this
record,” notes Cyril of his latest signature dish. “It’s a
tasteful, well-cooked musical gumbo that I think will be pleasing to the palates
of music lovers.” Singer. Poet. Percussionist. Neville Brother, Meters
legend, solo star and talisman of the South’s all-conquering new
supergroup, Royal Southern Brotherhood. Just as Cyril Neville’s career
path keeps you guessing, so Magic Honey defies expectations and breaks out of
any pigeonhole you try to place around it. One foot may often be planted in the
traditions of his beloved blues on these twelve new songs – take the raw
emotion on Something’s Got A Hold On Me or the slow-burning Blues Is The
Truth – but the other is striding out and kicking the rulebook into
touch. 

There’s the spring-heeled, funk-flavoured strut of Running Water, the
snare-cracking groove of Invisible and the stinging title track (“My baby
is a queen bee… magic honey dripping from her hive”). There’s
the amped-up satirical sideswipe of Money and Oil (“Don’t matter
how you feel, it’s all sell, sell, sell”) and the album’s
most overtly rock-out moment, Working Man (“Got no time for living,
’cos I’m working all the time…”). By the time you
reach the silver-tongued reggae lilt of Slow Motion and the irresistible
dancefloor-filler that is Swamp Funk, you’ll be reminded that Cyril is a
songwriter who combines a clear artistic vision with a wandering eye. 

Magic Honey is the kind of genre-slipping statement that’s only possible
when you’ve got a crack musical squad pulling together, and as Cyril
began putting the heat under this gumbo at Studio In The Country in Bogalusa,
Louisiana, he was flanked by plenty of capable cooks. On production, David Z
lived up to his mighty reputation – earned alongside Prince, Buddy Guy,
Etta James and more – creating an organic sound on Magic Honey that
pulsed and breathed. “I waited a long time to work with David Z,”
says Cyril of the partnership, “and I feel the wait was well worth it. I
love how the record turned out and look forward to working with him again,
soon.” Out on the floor, meanwhile, a bedrock of first-call musicians
locked into a musical telepathy that meant the LA sessions felt less like a dry
box-ticking exercise and more like a group epiphany. “Making this record
was a spiritual, musical event,” agrees Cyril. “The musicians and I
approached it like it was an important gig we were playing. All the tracks are
first takes. The atmosphere was just that electric. All the way live! And I was
blessed with the best rhythm section for the occasion in ‘Mean’
Willie Green (drums), Cranston Clements (guitar), Carl Dufrene (bass) and Norman
Caesar (keys).” 

Along with a dash of Neville family DNA – courtesy of Gaynielle Neville
and Omari Neville on soaring backup vocals – there’s also a
sprinkle of celebrity stardust, with New Orleans veteran Allen Toussaint
handling the keys on the cuckolded shuffle of Another Man, Dr. John on organ for
Swamp Funk, ex-Bluesbreakers’ axeman Walter Trout boiling up Running
Water and Cyril’s Royal Southern Brotherhood bandmate Mike Zito lending
muscular riffing to Money and Oil and Working Man. 

It’s one hell of a guest-list, and only serves to underline the respect
and pulling-power that Cyril Neville has amassed during his four-plus decades in
the industry. Music legends don’t keep CVs, but if they did,
Cyril’s would land with a thump. Born in late-’40s New Orleans,
Louisiana, as the youngest of the four siblings who would soon define that
city’s R&B sound as The Neville Brothers, Cyril absorbed his
parents’ vinyl collection and found his own voice when he turned
professional at 19. His first gig was with Art Neville and the Neville Sounds
(alongside elder brothers Art and Aaron), and though his subsequent
splinter-group Soul Machine never quite achieved the heights it was due, Cyril
was on fire, pricking up ears with 1970’s debut solo single, Gossip, then
arriving in the lineup of Art’s funk outfit, The Meters. 

By that point, The Meters were already flying off the back of 1969’s
smash-hit Cissy Strut. Now, Cyril brought congas and vocals to timeless albums
including 1972’s Cabbage Alley and 1975’s Fire On The Bayou, and
when unabashed über-fan Mick Jagger invited The Meters to open up the Rolling
Stones’ US stadium tour of 1974, Art’s suggestion that Cyril take
lead vocals was vindicated by a series of roof-raising performances. 

The Meters were too special to last, but the lineup’s dissolution in 1976
cleared the path for the bloodline to regroup as The Neville Brothers and start
a four-decade hot-streak – from 1976’s Wild Tchoupitoulas, via
1989’s Grammy-winning Yellow Moon, to 2004’s Walkin’ In The
Shadows Of Life – that continues to this day. Suffice to say, when
critics refer to this band as New Orleans’ first family of funk,
it’s not hot air or hyperbole, but a statement of fact. 

Lesser artists might be content to sit back and watch the royalties roll in.
Cyril, by contrast, remains creatively insatiable. He not only maintains a
thrilling solo career that’s given us classics like 1994’s The
Fire This Time and 2000’s New Orleans Cookin’, but has also
collaborated with icons including Bob Dylan, Bono and Willie Nelson, toured the
world with funk act Galactic, led his offshoot band Tribe 13, founded his own
record label Endangered Species and made TV appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
and HBO’s Treme. 

An artist with a conscience, Cyril has also spread good karma, both through the
New Orleans Musicians Organized (NOMO) project that helps fledgling bands
navigate the shark-infested waters of the rock industry, and alongside Tab
Benoit on the 2005 Voice of the Wetlands Allstars tour that raised the profile
of the Louisiana Gulf Coast’s environmental plight. 

“Oh, Cyril is quite the character,” says Mike Zito of his
bandmate’s sprawling backstory. “I mean, he’s the guy.
He’s got all the stories. He’s been around the world a million
times, played with everybody and their brother. He’s toured with the
Rolling Stones, he’s friends with Keith Richards, he’s written
songs with Bono. He’s done everything anybody could ever do...” 

Not quite. In September 2013, with no sign of his stride slowing down, Cyril
Neville puts yet another cherry on top of his astonishing career with Magic
Honey. It’s the gumbo you’ve been waiting for.

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