"The best damn band to ever come out of Auburn, Alabama."
Tony Brook, songwriter/performer
From its beginning in a hot, muggy warehouse space in Auburn, Alabama, to the clubs, auditoriums, and festivals around the Southeast, the "southern-fried soul searching" theme of the music of Spoonful James connects with fans much like the band itself connects on stage.
1996 - The band formed during a summer school break for Wynn Christian and Quinn Borland. The two shared a love for the 1970s blues-funk of Freddie King and the StaxVolt records of Albert King, Otis Redding and others. Christian and Borland picked up a drummer and began playing local clubs as a power trio in Auburn, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa, AL.
1998-2003 - Spoonful James enters a new phase with the addition of Patrick Lunceford on drums and the release of its second album, Seven Mile Breakdown. Lunceford proved to be a driving force as the band toured the Southeast relentlessly, winning over crowds in music towns like Memphis, Nashville, Tallahassee, Charlotte and Atlanta for years.
2005-2008 - After a short lived hiatus from 2003-2005, thankfully the band began performing and writing again. As fate would have it, long-time friend Taylor Hicks (American Idol winner, 2006) invited Spoonful to join him on a run of larger venue shows in 2007 as well as feature the popular Spoonful James song "Seven Mile Breakdown" on his new album The Distance. Ultimately, the song charted on Country Billboard top 100 and was even performed live during Hicks' appearance on American Idol season 8. This exposure brought new audiences who fanatically continue to come out night after night to hear, to listen.
2009- Present - Riding a new wave of energy from a run of successful shows and writing/rehearsals that came to be known as the Carpenter Sessions, the band entered the studio in the summer of 2009 and emerged a few months later with Are You Listening?. The album, recorded in Lafayette, Louisiana, captures the flavor of the Spoonful style while balancing studio nuances with their trademark live spontaneity. Quite simply, it's the soulful, swampy balance the band has always been. Spoonful is the well-seasoned iron skillet that takes those ingredients and fries up an aural spectacular that feels like a platter of hog jowl and cornbread washed down with a cold lager beer. The music ranges from the serene to the ass-kicking, the light to the dark, sometimes within a song. It is unspoiled – at times, downright raw – with the refinement of experience. The excitement, the intensity, and the down-home funkiness of the sound continue to bring the band together, and it's what the audience returns again and again to hear…to witness.
"A roots-rock trio.citing influences from Freddie King and Stevie Ray Vaughan to the Allman Brothers." -- Birmingham's Black and White
"Spoonful James is an original hard-driving southern rock band.The band is definitely worth catching.Seven Mile Breakdown is a winner and worthy breakthrough effort for this fine band." -- Musician's Realm
