“That turn is really like a palate cleanser, like a break.”
That’s how Adrian Ciucci, singer, guitarist and primary songwriter for Richmond rock band the Southern Belles, describes flipping a vinyl record. That interstitial necessity has its downsides, particularly if you’re ensconced on the couch or holding a riveting conversation. But there are benefits, too, including the opportunity to stop and consider what you’ve just heard and reaffirm your commitment to the remaining tracks.
Ciucci’s group has pressed two LPs to vinyl: 2017’s “In The Middle Of The Night” and “The Southern Belles IV: Reprise,” which was released in December. A lot happened in between when those albums — the band’s third and fourth — were shared, though Southern Belles fans would be forgiven for thinking the opposite, as the band effectively closed up shop during that time. “We just hit a wall — a mental, emotional wall of ‘I can’t get back in that van,’” Ciucci says.
Driven by Dedication
That was early 2019, after the Southern Belles had spent nearly a decade building momentum by interweaving strands of psychedelia, soul and roots music, all with a jam band’s knack for making songs feel like episodic experiences. The group formed in 2011, bringing together friends who had known one another since they were teenagers and had gone through “countless, nameless iterations of playing arrangements,” as Ciucci puts it. The current lineup includes keyboardist Tommy Booker, bassist Zach Hudgins and drummer Mark Henderson; Andrew Carper (bass) and Raphael Katchnioff and Aaron Zarrow (drums) have also contributed along the way.
Ciucci remembers a sense of cohesion at the outset around expanding the band’s reach. “We like it, but if it’s going to mean anything and be sustained we gotta get it out there. The only way that we thought we knew how to do that [is] you play as much as possible and you travel as far away as possible and keep creating new material.”
The band did establish enclaves of enthusiasm elsewhere — some as near as Charlottesville, others as far away as South Carolina, Georgia and Colorado. Those footholds were hard won, resulting from countless hours on the road and a willingness to endure more than a dozen show nights in a row — something Ciucci views differently in retrospect. “I think that takes a toll on the people,” he notes, “and frankly I think it takes a toll on the product when you’re just grinding all the time.”
In one particularly frightening incident, the group’s van blew two tires at once. The trailer it was pulling flipped, though all members walked away unscathed. “Literally a miracle if I’ve ever experienced one,” Ciucci says. “I think I called my mom when I got to the side of the road.”
The Southern Belles’ approach to recording may have been less dangerous, but it was depleting in its own way. Their debut album, “Sharp as a Knife,” landed in 2012, followed by sophomore album, “Close to Sunrise,” in 2015. For maximum cost effectiveness, the group put in tremendous up-front work, then put in multiple weeks of 10- and 12-hour days in the studio. “We were doing those records in very concentrated periods of time,” Ciucci remembers. “There weren’t nice, organic breaks to reassess pieces that you’d already done.”
By 2019, a larger reassessment was due. There were no blow-up fights or breakup moments. No announcements or climactic farewell performances. “The tank became empty,” Ciucci says. “We didn’t do anything. We just stopped booking and stopped working on it.”
Flipping the Script
Things fall silent when you reach the glossy part of a record between the grooved spiral containing audio and the label, known around pressing plants as dead wax. Ironically, a whole lot of life happened when the Southern Belles reached the end of its first continuous run. Marriages. Starter homes. Kids. New jobs. Ciucci began estimating for a contractor, then opened his own contracting business. “We were trying to establish some semblance of a normal home life later than a lot of our friends had started doing that,” he says. “If you were to look in the windows of any of our houses right now, we look pretty damn domestic.”
But the collective desire to make music never went away, and something new grew out of the lack of gigs, deadlines and expectations: an appreciation for sustainability. “The vision now is to move forward on our own terms,” Ciucci affirms.
The Belles’ return to performing took place at the Broadberry in December, timed to celebrate the release of “The Southern Belles IV: Reprise.” Ciucci claims he had the most rust to shake off, given that his bandmates had continued playing with other ensembles. The band had months to rehearse, but there were still plenty of nerves ahead of the Broadberry show.
“Nobody likes to feel ridiculous,” Ciucci says. “The idea of a bunch of guys in their 30s getting up there to rehash something that was magical six years ago did have an element of ‘I hope this isn’t a bust.’”
He needn’t have worried; the show nearly sold out, providing a proof-of-concept for the next chapter in the band’s relationship with its fans. “There was a palpable energy,” Ciucci says. “It could have gone wrong in so many ways, and the fact that it didn’t is a testament to the work that we put in, the product that we have been building and the relationships that we have established with the people that like the Southern Belles.”
That connection is central to Belles 2.0. “I’m trying to eliminate buffers of management agencies and booking agencies and all these people you need to talk to,” Ciucci says. “It’s a very direct and cool relationship.”
Ciucci’s plan for scheduling performances is just as intentional. Instead of booking multi-city runs, the Southern Belles will focus on reestablishing one market at a time. Richmond was first, and will remain central thanks to a pair of already-confirmed Broadberry shows (dates forthcoming) designed to become a two-pronged, year-end tradition. The first will be a guest-heavy, early November tribute to “The Last Waltz,” the Martin Scorsese-directed film that memorialized the final concert by The Band. The second is a more Belles-focused event called the Debutante Ball taking place in early December.
Charlottesville was chosen as the first regional market revival; Ciucci and company are slated to play the Southern Cafe and Music Hall on Friday, March 29. “Each show is going to be the only important thing until it’s completed, and then we’ll worry about the next one,” he says.
Even their post-break recording was paced more gradually. It started with casual Sunday song-sharing get-togethers around two years before the new album’s release. Demo sessions followed, and eventually longtime producer Bryan Walthall joined in, revising the demos in his home studio, Stereo Image. Formal recording started in early 2023, though instead of cramming the tracking into one grueling stretch, the process was piecemeal. A week of bass and drums at the Ward Recording Studio, then some time to process. Next was Booker’s turn; he had multiple days to luxuriate in Elephant Ear Studios’ keyboard utopia, with its generous array of vintage organs, clavinets and synths, then there was another break. Tracking wrapped up back at Stereo Image with guitars and vocals.
Walthall is among the variables that didn’t change upon the Southern Belles return; the band has been as loyal to Walthall on the production side as they have to Richmond-based designer and illustrator, Leslie Herman, who provided art for all four LPs. The same goes for the band’s own rapport, which has proven durable. “That doesn’t necessarily go away,” Ciucci confirms. “It might get rusty, it might need to be shaken off a little bit, but that definitely helped the whole situation. [I have] to give it up to Tommy, Zach and Mark — they’re tremendous musicians.”
If enthusiasm is any measure, this new era for the band is well-positioned to stay in rotation. “Morale is high right now in the Belles camp,” Ciucci concludes. “If I were buying stock, I’d buy Southern Belles stock right now.”
“The Southern Belles IV: Reprise” can be streamed via Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. The Southern Belles will perform at the Southern Cafe and Music Hall on Friday, March 29. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and music starts at 8 p.m. For tickets, visit thesoutherncville.com.
