Eddie 9V

An unabashed soul-blues revivalist in the vein of Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Eddie 9V specializes in conjuring the sounds of the 1960s: he punctuates his testifying with stabs of horns and lets electric piano lay down the groove, tying everything together with the steely sting of a Fender Esquire. All these traits were evident on Little Black Flies, his 2021 debut for Ruf Records, and came into sharper relief on its 2023 successor, Capricorn. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Eddie 9V — born Brooks Mason in 1996 — started playing local blues clubs when he was just 15 years old. Drawn to older blues and soul records, along with such Atlanta players as Sean Costello, he found a musical soulmate in his brother Lane Kelly. The pair played classic rock covers in the Smokin’ Frogs, a group that evolved into the Georgia Flood, a band that specialized in blues. The Georgia Flood represented the Atlanta Blues Society at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2013. Brooks Mason was still in high school at the time. The Georgia Flood continued throughout the 2010s, with Brooks and Lane also moonlighting in the indie rock band PREACHERVAN. By the end of the decade, the Georgia Flood wound down. Looking for a place to channel his love of blues and soul, Brooks Mason reinvented himself as Eddie 9V, playing most of the instruments on Left My Soul in Memphis, a 2019 debut album recorded in large part in Lane’s bedroom. Eddie 9V took to the stage supported by his PREACHERVAN bandmates for the concert caught on 2020′s Way Down the Alley (Live at Blind Willie’s). Eddie 9V caught the attention of Ruf Records and that contract gave the singer/guitarist the opportunity to hire local blues musicians for Little Black Flies, which the label released in 2021; the record was produced by Lane Kelly. Eddie 9V headed to the famed Capricorn Studios in Macon, Georgia to cut his next album. The aptly titled Capricorn — which was again produced by Kelly — appeared in early 2023. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine