Half Mile Harvest

Half Mile Harvest sounds like American southern blues; it feels like great American soul music; it makes you tap your feet like genuine American R&B. But it’s not! The brothers Josh and Sam Teskey are Australian. They were born in a suburb of Melbourne that was a former Victorian gold-rush town. I guess that makes them from the Deep South, as due south from Melbourne is Tasmania and then Antarctica. You don’t get more ‘South’ than penguins!  

But, regardless of where they are from, they’ve got it just right. From the first note to the last, The Teskey Brothers have managed to create a remarkable blues/soul/R&B album in the vein of the mighty Sam McClain, B.B. King, and Otis Redding.

Half Mile Harvest is the band’s first studio venture. They are now three studio albums and two live albums in, with a third on the way. They have gained a significant following in their homeland, too, with two chart-topping albums to their name.

The opening track of Half Mile Harvest had me hooked right away. If I had to guess when this was made, I would have said the 1970s rather than 2017.

Listening to this album makes you want to pour yourself a generous Kentucky Old-Fashioned, dim the lights, toss your phone out of the window, crank it up a bit, and relax either solo or with your partner. It’s all about pleasure; feet tapping, swaying and humming along. To me, this genre is challenging to execute correctly, particularly for white artists attempting to master this soulful style. However, The Teskey Brothers have nailed it. 

Listening to the first track, ‘Crying Shame’, it has cool, swaying guitar riffs that pull us along with the husky voice of lead singer Josh Teskey on this fantastic blues/R&B track. Later, brass instruments chime in to accentuate the music.

On the second track, ‘Say You Do,’ we are closer to Otis Redding; the brothers, the great guitar riffs, and the brass all pull together, blending in a way that sounds just right.

‘Pain And Misery’ – the third track – places them in Aaron Neville mode. Once again, the husky voice and the cool, well-accented guitar riffs merge seamlessly with the brass instruments. Meanwhile, on ‘Reasons Why,’ the brothers master the style of Mighty Sam McClain and B.B. King – guitar, harmonica and all.

With this genre, we cannot overlook the Hammond organ, which comes in beautifully on – I Get Up and other tracks. Mix in some backing vocals, resulting in yet another song that effectively captures the essence of Southern Black R&B/soul/blues.

On ‘Till’ The Sky Turns Black,’ the brothers manage to pull off yet another style, featuring foot stomping, handclapping, and fitting backing vocals. We feel transported deep into the Mississippi Delta, sitting in front of a shack, seemingly creating music out of whatever is at hand.

Half Mile Harvest does not have a single bad track. Each represents a slightly different genre, yet they all hit the bullseye, leaving you swaying, tapping your feet, and singing along. 

Lead singer Joshua Teskey and lead guitar/backing vocals Samuel Teskey are not reinventing these great genres—nor are they trying to; they are simply keeping them alive, as if they grew up under a swaying banyan tree in the Deep South. What is even more impressive is that they are not performing covers of well-known songs from these genres; they actually wrote their own songs and managed to craft them as if they were from back in the day.

If you’re a fan of R&B, soul, and/or blues, this is the album to buy to experience something new yet deeply authentic. Additionally, be sure to keep an eye out for their other albums and anything they might create in the future. Highly recommended if you want to get your groove on.

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