The Delta Saints at the Mercury Lounge

Benjamin Ringel

Born to a musical family in Louisiana, Benjamin Ringel learned to play guitar at age 10. Later, he learned to slide notes on a resonator guitar. While attending university in Nashville, Tennessee, he met bassist David Supica and together they began assembling the blues-rocking Delta Saints in 2007. They recruited guitarist Dylan Fitch, and the core of the Delta Saints was established. Drummer Vincent “Footz” Williams and keyboardist Nate Kremer joined later. The band's fourth studio album, Monte Vista, was released on April 28, 2017.

At its core, the Delta Saints is a blues rock band, but at the Mercury Lounge tonight, the band showed how it has continued to expand its bandwidth by occasionally straying from its original swampy bayou sounds to opposite extremes, from singer-songwriter pop to experimental jazz. At times, the music revolved around pensive lyrics, but then on other songs, the compositions were turned into extended funk jams. Fortunately the band has been able to stretch without losing its integrity or identity. Several of the new songs were honest reflections of modern events: "Sun God" related to the current political climate, and "Spaceman" was a tribute to the late David Bowie. The Delta Saints is transcending its vintage roots sound to make music worth investigating.

Visit the Delta Saints at www.thedeltasaints.com.