Under various names, and various incarnations, The Soulistics have been spreading their smoky sound around Utah for years now.
Since 1993, the Salt Lake City-based 10-piece band has featured a fat-sounding horn section and an array of singers able to sound like a wide variety of soul superstars. You might have seen them back in the '90s, when they called themselves Soul Patrol. Or maybe you caught them as The Soul Survivors -- the name they were using when they played Wolf Creek's ski hill in 2008.
The band returns to those same slopes on Saturday for a show benefiting the Wolf Creek Foundation, which supports weekend retreats for Hill Air Force Base families, as well as the Ogden Rescue Mission and other charitable foundations.
If you come, be ready to hear the classics as you remember them, said Rick Jackson, singer for the band.
"If you do Aretha's (Franklin) 'Respect,' we do it like she does. That is why the band is so big -- we want to have all the horn parts from the songs in there. Our female singer (Carrie Scott) can do songs like Tina Turner, Aretha, Gladys Knight. I try and work like Al Green, James Brown, those sorts of acts. It is all about feeling."
Feel it
Putting together a solid, 10-piece soul outfit in Utah is no small job, said Jackson.
"In Utah, it can be hard to find," he said. "Not that you don't have good musicians, but you find jazz players, rock players. It takes some looking to find soul players. And musicians and artists are very sensitive people. Getting 9 or 10 people together who are drug-free and dependable -- well, it can get very difficult."
Then the music itself is not just about tight chops, but about the feeling, according to Jackson.
"Soul is a different thing," he said. "You either feel it or you don't. We went through seven girls looking for a new female singer. Now, don't get me wrong, they could all sing, but they were too jazzy, or too rock, or too country. They did not have the feel. We do."
With soul music, Jackson said, you can't cut corners or water it down.
"A lot of little bands do that, try and do this music with a small crew," he said. "When you have a studio, you can have all the instruments you want. We try and bring those instruments with us so we can get that sound."
He believes the look of the band is important, too.
"We dress up in the style of those old soul bands. Like Earth Wind & Fire, or Tower of Power -- they showed up in suits, in shined shoes, all that. We present that same sort of image."
Workin' it
Jackson said the band practices for three hours once a week.
"We have to practice, or we won't come with a very good show," he said. "The horn players especially really need that work, because when they get on stage, there are no charts, no stands -- the only thing in front of them is microphones. So the music is all in their heads."
One of the fun things about playing this music, said Jackson, is that it is so accessible to so many types of people.
"These are popular songs," he said. "You don't have to be a die-hard soul fan to love 'Respect' or 'Papa's Got a Brand-New Bag.' That is why we go over well, I think. People like these songs."
When asked for a favorite song of his own, Jackson has trouble choosing.
"Like picking a favorite child! Well, now we are starting to write, and might throw in a new song or two of our own, and that is fun. But we won't do enough to lose that core audience. We're just proving wrong those people who say 'You can't do your own stuff.' We can -- we have all this creativity in here.
"As for classics, I guess if I had to pick, it might be one we've just added in -- 'September,' by Earth Wind & Fire. It is one of their best hits."
Jackson laughed. "And it is tough to play. We were kind of patting ourselves on the back that we could pull it off."
Watch "Express Yourself"
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