PORTRAITS

LEON BRIDGES THE DISHWASHER’S DREAM BY JON BERNSTEIN

Photo by Rambo

ust a few months after he quit his job proach to songwriting. “I’m just writing.” Hear- far no one’s been able to refute his music. washing dishes in Texas, Leon Bridg- ing Bridges discuss his songwriting in such de- Though he is hardly the first artist in recent es was on stage in front of a sold-out tached, mechanical terms, he comes across less years to hinge his career on the resurgence of crowd at the Mercury Lounge, a venue as a highly emotive young singer-songwriter ’60s R&B, Leon Bridges’ soft croon stands in Jthat frequently showcases some of the most and more as a seasoned, master formalist. De- stark contrast to the catharsis found in the ma- talked-about buzz acts in the country, in spite having never really listened to soul music jority of young contemporary soul singers, who New York City. At the time of the concert, until college, in a few short years Bridges has tend to draw primarily from the ecstatic release he had released two songs. become a veteran modern practitioner of the of singers like Otis Redding and Wilson Pick- Those two songs, “Coming Home” and genre’s conventions and constraints. ett. “I’m not a big shouter like Sharon Jones or “Better Man,” were first-rate revivalism gone Bridges, who recently signed a major label [Paul Janeway] from St. Paul and the Broken viral, faithful throwbacks to early ’60s rhythm deal with Columbia Records, is also an expert Bones. I’m a smooth cat,” says Bridges, who & blues that had accrued nearly a million and visual stylist. His black-and-white, polished says much of his caressing vocal delivery comes a half plays since their late 2014 release on vintage aesthetic is tailor-made for Instagram from listening to ’90s R&B singers like Ush- SoundCloud. In his music, Bridges mines a and is an integral part of his persona. “Was er and Ginuwine growing up (the first album language and a sound that has remained largely asked today if I just got out of a movie set, I’ll Bridges ever owned was Usher’s 8701). “A lot extinct for the last half-century, singing about take it,” Bridges posted on his Facebook page in of people like to see funkier, James Brown type “jezebels” and “tender, sweet loving” over ca- January. The story of his quick rise is a cross be- of material when we perform, and that stuff is ressing backing vocals and late ’50s soul-pop tween new-age, brand-conscious digital virality all amazing but I can’t do that stuff. It’s just not arrangements that have earned him frequent and old-fashioned major label A&R discovery, me.” comparisons to Sam Cooke. To add to their with Columbia swooping in to sign Bridges be- One of the songs Bridges is most proud of mystique, the songs were, naturally, recorded fore he had ever even been on a proper tour. writing thus far is “Lisa Sawyer,” a meandering, on vintage recording equipment from the ’40s For an artist as rapidly ascendant as Bridg- wobbly coffeehouse folk number that tells the and ’50s. es, backlash against the early hype is inevita- true story of his mother’s upbringing in New For the 25-year-old Bridges, aping the sounds ble. Writing in response to the local media’s Orleans. He says that every single word of it and styles of the ’60s has been like learning a growing tendency to start calling Bridges “The is true, and the song, which is slated to be in- foreign language. “I started writing this type of Truth,” Steve Steward of The Dallas Observer cluded on his forthcoming debut album, gives a music about a year and a half ago,” he says, call- recently wrote that, “what ‘The Truth’ seems to sense of how many influences and new sounds ing from his hometown of Fort Worth a week mean here is some sort of fetishized nostalgia, the young singer-songwriter is still soaking in. before his trip to New York. “And before I got that idea that something old and familiar like After an early performance of “Lisa Sawyer,” started writing, I went back and tried to learn a Sam Cooke song is somehow more authen- a fan came up to the young singer and started all the phrases from that era that people used. tic than a comparatively new counterpart.” As enthusiastically comparing him to Sam Cooke, Whenever I write a song, I think, ‘Okay, what Bridges continues to get talked about as one asking him if Cooke was a big influence. At are the phrases from back then?’”. of the biggest rising acts of the year, there will that point, Leon Bridges only knew one Sam “A lot of the songs don’t even come from a inevitably be more skepticism towards his per- Cooke song, but for him, just knowing one was deep place,” he continues, discussing his ap- fectly packaged, retro-fitted persona, but thus enough.”

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