Band Bio
Laura Reed & Deep Pocket fill the stage with captivating, soul shaking, conscious music. The crowd is emerged with lyrics of truth and a voice of intensity backed by bass, organ, and drums, horns, and harmonies reminiscent of the past days of motown and funk.
The roots of their sound and message stem from Laura’s diverse experience of growing up in South Africa and the American South. Formed in the summer of 2006, the band switches up the music between funk, progressive R&B, and pure SOUL behind Laura Reed’s captivating stage presence.
Laura Reed’s tasteful rhythm section, Deep Pocket, consists of Ryan Burns on piano, synth, and Mama Lou (his 1936 model-A Hammond organ). Ben Didelot brings it all together on the low end with his solid bass lines and occasional dance steps. Jimbonk holds down the rhythm on the drum set with an amazing ability to keep the dynamic just right for not only the song but also the energy of the crowd. Debrissa McKinney has been a recent addition to the group, being referred to as the "masta harmoniza”. She elevates the music to the next level of sublime with her positive energy and smooth vocals. You will also catch Deep Pocket with the addition of tasteful guitar by Silas Durocher, the funky Asheville Horns, Soul Revolutionary Sidney Barnes, music master Josh Phillips, and visionary DJ Kurfu.
Throughout their career Laura Reed & Deep Pocket have shared the stage with/recorded with: The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, George Clinton, Peter Rowan, Belita Woods (PFUNK), Gary "Star Child" Shider (PFUNK), Rob Mercurio (Galactic), Larry Jackson (Earth Wind and Fire), Ike Stubblefield (The Funk Bros), Kendra Foster (PFUNK), Sam Bush, The Blue Rags, The Overtakers, Natti Love Joys, Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, Pato Banton and Mystic Roots Band.
Laura Reed and Deep Pocket have recently released their debut album Soul:Music. The album was recorded at Asheville's own Echo Mountain Studios, and engineered by Bill Reynolds (Band of Horses). You will be hearing more about this petite siren and her hype band as they tour world-wide and spread their message of empathy and love for humanity in the unconditional form of music and the raw reflection of the human condition. Laura states music as the most honest and pure expression in her life, a language that allows her to release "what I could never even admit to myself or say out lout, but can sing.” When she sings you can feel her soul coming through the speakers, whether it’s smooth R&B, funky reggae, or just down right SOUL MUSIC.
LAURA REED
Laura Reed is a nomadic soul, finding herself trans-planted trans-Atlantic from South Africa to the American South. She carried with her the quintessential African harmonies and musical colorings that she gathered as a child in Johannesburg and Natal. Growing up in North Carolina (Chatham County to be exact), she cultivated a deep appreciation for the American Blues, Jazz, Soul, and R&B that was circulating around her. She fused these styling’s with her earliest musical memories, epiphanies, stories, and confessions.
Laura spent a large portion of her life traveling extensively throughout South and Central America, a gathering ancient wisdom and familiar warmth to fuel her songwriting and fulfill her wanderlust. At the closing of her most recent journeys she found herself back in the mountains of North Carolina, faced with the opportunity to make music with some of the finest musicians that Boone had to offer. They joined forces and Laura soon became a finger on the hand of this musical entity that is Deep Pocket. Since this conception Laura Reed & Deep Pocket have been drifting relentlessly throughout the Southeast -- soon to be the world -- to share their musical gifts and positive creations.
Laura has found herself on the stage, more often than not, cleansing herself nightly to the gawking awe of an audience still unaccustomed to large amounts of soul erupting from sisters of minimal stature. Not only has Laura been pouring herself over the stage, but she has been recording regularly with her band, releasing their debut album Soul:Music in October of 2007. She is currently also part of a recording project deemed the “Big OL’ Nasty Get Down,” as well as a Spanish/American fusion project the “Border Lounge.” She has shared the stage/collaborated/recorded with such esteemed artists as:
George Clinton, Larry Jackson, Ike Stubblefield, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Sidney Barnes, Rob Mercurio, Tyler Simmons, Garry Shider, Belita Woods, Kendra Foster, Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, The Blue Rags, Woody Wood, Bill Reynolds, Joe Driscoll, Dub Addis, Benny Hill, Sam Bush, as well as many up and coming artists from around the world.
JIMBONK BUCHANON
This note was found imprinted on a highly scratched and damaged sheet of titanium fastened to the figure’s chest:
“…model number is LR.24-DP.69 Metronomical Cyborg, but we refer to it as Jimbonk. It was produced and brought online November 51st, 2623 at Pearl Labs on the eastern coast of what used to be the American States but is now a ravaged wasteland of death, pestilence, fear….xxx0x33….extremely skilled in the lost ability to rock socks off and the forbidden art of acoustically splitting eardrums…..**@_2=o……implants were forged and linked through various uses of Diamond Mechanosynthesis, a process of forming covalent chemical bonds using precisely applied mechanical pressures to build diamondiod structures ….xxx62lx-2$#*……veritable forest of sticks, we found Jimbonk was capable of sonically altering a subject's mind, reality, and even DNA through sub-molecular positional fabrication after only a few seconds of drumming……we have sent him back to your time with the prime agenda of finding the means to reverse what has happe-ned and save# the future of humankin0d. Most importantly, …remember,..s9.23.. ….drinking ..2xx. …… failure…”
BEN DIDELOT
Didelot (pronounced Did-uh-low) is your brother from another mother.
He and his bass rig "Sweet & Low" go together like whip cream and
cherries. And that's even before he adds his Mu-Tron to the equation.
Didelot earned his Ph.D. (Phunk Hop Degree) after graduating from The
Old School, where his main interest of study was the Low End Theory.
He hooked up with Laura Reed and the rest of Deep Pocket in the summer
of '06 and has been thumpin' ever since. He doesn't worry about
dropping bass lines 'cause he knows someone will be there to pick them
up. And with influences like Bootsy Collins (P-Funk) and Hub (The
Roots), you know he's gonna hold it down... all night long...
RYAN BURNS
Ryan Burns was conceived in the burning inferno that is the Sun. He traveled to earth on the back of a gamma ray and landed in Charlotte, NC on July 12th 1980. His family soon realized that he was NOT like the other children.
Like Jesus Christ very little is known about Ryan Burns’ adolescent years. What we do know is that he has been living a very meager life somewhere in western North Carolina for the past 6 years. He has decided to channel his unworldly powers through a device known on earth as a 1936 Hammond model A Organ; however, throughout the Cosmos this device is known only by the name “Mama Lou.” In the right hands “Mama Lou” can bring a crowd of any size to their knees, for she is the keeper of many of the universe’s secrets …
DEBRISSA MCKINNEY
The Masta Harmoniza brings light, love and a friendly disposition to the Deep Pocket. Hailing from the mountains of Virginia, this creature is quite the versatile musician. She plays the Tenor Sax, and friends can testify that her wackily, extraordinary, “offie-the-wallie” personality will touch the world.
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