Reigning Sound leader Greg Cartwright sings in a mild tenor voice that puts me in mind of the style of Nashville retro-rocker Paul Burch. The similarities end there: Cartwright, who formed Reigning Sound in Memphis 20 years ago, favors poppy garage rock with a decided Bluff City flavor, while Burch seems quintessentially Nashville in his fusion of country and early rock ’n’ roll. Reigning Sound’s first few albums, cut with a lineup that included Memphis musicians, feature Cartwright’s songwriting and guitar work and a brace of cover versions on the order of Flash and the Memphis Casuals’ 1966 “Uptight Tonight,” written by Jim Dickinson, as well as songs by The Rolling Stones and Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. These days Cartwright leads the band — which has undergone personnel changes over the years — from his home in North Carolina, and the Sound’s new full-length A Little More Time With Reigning Sound, out May 21, brings the group’s original Memphis lineup back on board. A fine songwriter, Cartwright wrote a tune called “Wait and See,” the best track on Mississippi soul singer George Soulé’s 2006 Nashville-recorded full-length Take a Ride. In addition, Cartwright & Co. backed Shangri-Las singer Mary Weiss on her 2007 album Dangerous Game, with many of the album’s songs penned by Cartwright. A Little More Time finds the band in fine form — if there must be newfangled garage rock, let it be as blithe and pop-friendly as the record’s “Let’s Do It Again” and “A Little More Time.” Listening to A Little More Time is like opening a time capsule filled with artifacts from 1966. All that’s missing is a Beatle wig and a Green Hornet mask. EDD HURT
Listen to Reigning Sound’s New Album
