Between 1988 and 1995, Chicago's Souled American released six records. Their style evolved from alt-country precursor to an ambient Americana that one critic termed "trance roots." Though they received little attention at the time, they were celebrated by Jeff Tweedy, The Jayhawks, John Darnielle, Jim O'Rourke, and Counting Crows, and their influence hung in the atmosphere of bands as diverse as Califone, Cracker, and the Fruit Bats. Recent write-ups in Uncut Magazine (April 2025) and on NPR.com (June 2023), as well as lengthy raves in new books by Jeff Tweedy (World Within a Song), Mark Guarino (Country & Midwestern), and Ira A. Robbins (Music in a Word: Volume 3) testify to the continued affection and admiration stirred by these old recordings.
For decades, rumors persisted of a seventh record by Souled American. It was in the works, almost done, nearly there. "It's a few weeks from completion," band members assured interviewers in 1997, and again in 1999, 2003, and 2006. "It'll be done soon," the wife of a band member posted on social media in 2009. "They are working diligently on it, day and night," she wrote in 2010.
Meanwhile, after a handful of shows in the early 2000s, the band vanished. In 2012, their website went dark. In 2015, their former guitarist Scott Tuma told an interviewer, "I don't know anything about them and I don't know anybody who does."
"They're planning on releasing stuff in the near future," posted one of the band's closest friends in 2016. "This is going to happen soon," he posted in 2017. "There's a new record in the can and it's ready for promotion," he posted in 2019.
At long last, it's here: Sanctions, Souled American's first record this century. The band, once a quartet, now consists of guitarist Chris Grigoroff and bassist Joe Adducci. Each wrote half of Sanctions. Engineering duties were split between Jeff Hamand, who worked on every one of the band's previous six records, and Clark Hayes, who helped with their last two.
The voices have grown deeper, richer. The startlingly original musicianship remains. Perhaps, after so long a wait, it’s the emotional immediacy of the material that is the most surprising. Every line of Grigoroff's "Born Free" and "Unforgiven" feels fresh and intimate. On "Fractured Sun," "Living Love," and "Freeing Wheels," Adducci fuses the fragility and frailty of folk music to the personal idiosyncrasies of contemporary rock. The production—recorded mostly live, mostly on analog tape, entirely at home, without percussion or click tracks—lends a timeless topicality to "Stranger," "Boom Boom," and "We," songs that feel tragically relevant in today’s politically distraught world.
In October 2024, Scissor Tail Records reissued Souled American's last two records--Frozen and Notes Campfire--on vinyl. In April 2025, Omnivore Records released a career-spanning anthology Rise Above It. Sanctions will be released on Jealous Butcher Records, April 17, 2026.
