Marty O’Reilly & the Old Soul Orchestra

Explaining Marty O’Reilly and the Old Soul Orchestra’s music is like describing a remembered dream. It feels familiar, but at the same time, it feels new. It’s blues but not blues, folk but not folk, soulful but not soul. Marty’s voice is beautiful and distinctive, his lyrics stark yet lush over gritty, electrified guitar. Chris Lynch’s violin, Matt Goff’s percussion, and Ben Berry’s rich bass meld beautifully. The chemistry of these friends is obvious. But one can also hear an urgency in the songs, expressing something elemental and perhaps contradictory: love and anger, joy and pain.