On The Verge

Sol Driven Train

Charleston, S.C.
Port-Town Sound
www.soldriventrain.com

“In an early jam session, [saxophonist/vocalist] Russell Clarke penned the line, ‘It’s a feeling, soul feeling. It’s a soul driven train,’” says guitarist/vocalist Joel Timmons. So the quintet took the name “Sol Driven Train” as a tribute to their “sunny South Carolina roots.” The group first performed in 2000 at a backyard party on Folly Beach, S.C., just outside Charleston. Although the lineup has evolved through the years, the band began as “a collection of high school band room buddies jamming in college dorm rooms,” Timmons says. We have a “port-town sound—a blend of Southern roots music, New Orleans brass and Afro-Caribbean rhythm.” The group released their Watermelon EP this past summer, which Timmons says touches on “sweet summer love” and is “a bit lighter thematically” than the heavy themes of illness, recovery and hope on 2008’s Lighthouse or loss, life and love on 2010’s Believe. Following a busy fall and winter tour, Sol Driven Train will put out another full-length in 2012. Because band members switch instruments, lead vocal responsibilities and musical genres, their live performances are “constantly shifting expression,” Timmons says. “[It’s] sometimes improvisational, sometimes tightly structured—our live playing is joyous, as we truly love making sound!”