At the heart of Grits & Soul is the collaboration of Southern song crafters, Anna Kline & John Looney. Their sound is steeped in lonesome roots country & drenched in Mississippi soul & blues. Whether they perform as an acoustic duo or a full band, the Grits & Soul sound haunts you. Anna & John have a dynamic musical chemistry felt through their heartfelt original songs & intricate harmonies.
The release of their first full-length album, Flood Waters, coincides with their appearance as a featured showcase artist at the 2013 International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass week in Raleigh, North Carolina. Grits & Soul will play in a series of showcases sponsored by Merlefest, Pinecastle Records, & The Mast Farm Inn.
The majority of the Flood Waters album was recorded at Compass Records in Nashville, as part of a Kickstarter campaign for The Porchlight Sessions documentary & features all all-star cast of their friends: Jay Starling on dobro (Love Cannon, Larry Keel, Keller Williams), Kyle Tuttle on banjo (Peter Rowan, Rebecca Frazier), Lyndsay Pruett on fiddle (Jon Stickley Trio), & Adam Chaffins (Matt Flinner) on upright bass. After the initial rhythm tracks were cut, Anna & John came home to Asheville to fine-tune the recordings at Foxfire Studio with producer/engineer Rudi Ekstein. Other friends who make an appearance on their album are Nicky Sanders of The Steep Canyon Rangers, Robert Greer of Town Mountain, & Amanda Anne Platt of The Honeycutters.
They have shared the stage with some of the best bluegrass pickers in the southeast including championship banjo player Charles Wood, Darren Nicholson of Balsam Range, Shawn Lane of Blue Highway, Nicky Sanders of The Steep Canyon Rangers, and Mark Schimick of Larry Keel & Natural Bridge, to name(drop) a few.
Flood Waters not only highlights Anna’s powerhouse voice & John’s skill as a talented bluegrass picker, but also showcases them as gifted songwriters. From hard-driving bluegrass tracks to slow-burning, bluesy ballads, Grits & Soul are a memorable musical team, not defining themselves by any genre but by bending the rules to create their own distinctive sound. The common thread Anna and John share – a love for classic country, soul and blues, and bluegrass – lends their homegrown Southern sound a palpable energy and authenticity.