We Call it Soul

VINYL FORMAT. Wiley and The Checkmates have a lot to live up to. The hill country blues of Fred McDowell, Junior Kimbrough, and R.L. Burnside. The literary landmarks of William Faulkner, Larry Brown and John Grisham. Herbert Wiley formed the Checkmates in 1960 and the group began performing on the chitlin' circuit as a marquee act and playing behind soul legends like Otis Clay, Percy Sledge, and Syl Johnson. After a dozen years with The Checkmates, Wiley quit music to run the family business and raise a family. In 2002, Wiley was inspired to reform the Checkmates after watching an Oxford punk band rehearse in a local storefront. Wiley brought together local gospel, jazz, and rock musicians and fashioned a modern take on the sound of the original Checkmates. Wiley and the Checkmates released their debut CD Introducing... in 2004. Wiley began crisscrossing the Southeast with Checkmate regulars like J.D. Mark (Precious Bryant, LCD Soundsystem touring guitarist) and Matt Patton (Paul "Wine" Jones, the Dexateens), playing venues ranging from Alabama frat bars to the annual Ponderosa Stomp festival, where the Checkmates backed unheralded soul pioneers like Bobby Patterson, Harvey Scales, Ralph "Soul" Jackson, Roscoe Robinson and Hermon Hitson.