St. Paul & The Broken Bones is an American soul band formed in Birmingham, Alabama in 2012 — eight members deep, with a four-piece horn section behind Paul Janeway's Otis Redding-schooled vocals. Half the City (2014) is the one to grab first: modern Southern soul done the classic 1960s way. Shop St. Paul & The Broken Bones vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
St. Paul & The Broken Bones formed in Birmingham, Alabama in 2012 around Paul Janeway (born March 18, 1983) and bassist Jesse Phillips. The eight-member band features a four-piece horn section (trumpet, trombone, two saxophones). They have been associated with the contemporary American soul revival scene alongside contemporaries like Charles Bradley, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Lake Street Dive, and Leon Bridges. Paul Janeway's distinctive vocal delivery (use of Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett-influenced phrasing) and the band's Birmingham-era classic Southern soul aesthetic have been defining. They have continued releasing material across multiple decades.
St. Paul & The Broken Bones's sound combines soul, R&B, Southern soul, Birmingham soul, rhythm and blues, gospel, and funk with Janeway's distinctive vocal delivery, horn-section arrangements, and lyrical content addressing romance, race, and Southern American experience drawing on classic 1960s Southern soul traditions.
Single Lock Records, RCA Records, and ATO Records pressings of the St. Paul & The Broken Bones catalog have been issued in multiple color variant editions and limited deluxe pressings.
Listeners new to St. Paul & The Broken Bones typically start with Half the City (2014) or Sea of Noise (2016).
