Average White Band

AWB is regarded as one of the best soul, R & B, and funk bands ever. Though first known for the timeless instrumental mega-hit 'Pick Up the Pieces', the band's strength consistently lay in its songwriting, stretching across several gold & platinum albums and triple Grammy nominations with Atlantic Records. They were the first Brits to simultaneously top the USA Top 100 Singles, Albums, and R&B Singles charts, before taking similar international and UK honors.

Paradoxically, given their Scottish roots, the six-piece took the instrumental influences of Jazz greats Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, The Crusaders etc., and R&B heroes Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Al Green, Stevie Wonder - and molded their own authentic soulful blend, embraced ever since by both black and white audiences alike worldwide.

While a good number of tracks, such as ‘Cut The Cake’, ‘Queen Of My Soul’, 'Let's Go Round Again' attracted major chart action as further hit singles, many other album cuts, like 'Schoolboy Crush' became deep sampled and turntabled as 'rare' grooves. AWB's samples run into the hundreds, and so their contribution to Hip-Hop and modern R&B is unquestioned. Ballads, such as 'Cloudy', 'A Love Of Your Own' and 'If I Ever Lose This Heaven' stand as some of the finest soul-album tracks ever.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of their eponymous breakout album "AWB" and the group will be performing that record throughout their 2014 dates as a salute to one of R&B music's most classic and influential albums. A box set of their complete studio recordings is released this summer, on Demon Records.

        The Average White Band - with Scots originals Alan Gorrie and Onnie McIntyre alongside noted US musicians Rocky Bryant,(drums) Freddy V. (saxes), Rob Aries (keys), and Brent Carter (vocals) - continues its place at the pinnacle of soul music to the joy of widely eclectic and multi-generational audiences around the globe.