The third week of the 2019 Levitt AMP Middlesboro Music Series is bringing to the stage the funky sounds from Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics.

“We are very excited for Levitt,” Velle said. “We were booked to play a Levitt show I believe it was in Memphis and when we got there, it was lightning and thunderstorms, so they weren’t actually able to have the show.”

Velle said they are very excited to be a part of the concert series that has brought so many great people into Middlesboro.

“It’s very exciting and we are honored to be a part of that artist lineup that you all work so hard on every year,” she said.

Ruby Velle and the Souphonics have been together for 13 years as a band. Velle is also working on her solo career.

“Both trains are moving at the same time, which is exciting and fun,” Velle explained. “We do what I like to call sweet soul music, and I’ve also called it cosmic soul. We try to reach the masses with conscious music put to a really great back beat and funky sounds from the 60s and 70s.”

Velle explains that they consider themselves old souls in music, and their inspiration comes from those who have come before them in their genre.

“We mix our little blend of old and new, ancient and modern and we have been doing that for 13 years as a band,” she continued to explain. “We put out two albums along the way and our most recent album ‘State of All Things,’ which you’ll hear a bunch of songs from in Middlesboro.”

According to Velle, the album won “Album of the Year” last year in Atlanta under the category of “Non Hip Hop.”

“That’s a little funny,” she said. “There is such a genre as ‘Non Hip Hop’ in Atlanta and we are very happy to be recognized for the ‘Everything Else Category.’”

Velle explained that they have been really championed by the Atlanta scene, and it’s really important for them to bring what they have been doing in Atlanta to the Southeast and to all of America.

“The last couple of years we have been touring as a band, and after the album came out we have been doing everything that we can to promote it,” she said. “We just put out a single called ‘Forgive, Live, Repeat’ and it talks a little bit about what it takes to go through such a long journey with the people that you are working with.”

They said the notion of forgiveness comes up a lot with a band as it does in any relationship.

“We wanted to write a little about that, but I’m very proud of the new single,” she said. “It seems to be the funkiest song written about forgiveness. We are definitely paving our own. Soul music has always been so poignant in expressing emotions of different kinds, and we try to lean on that.”

If you want to hear Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics before the Levitt AMP Show Thursday night, you can check them out on Spotify, Shazam, Pandora and Amazon Music.

Opening for Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics is Jade Robertson.

Robertson, best known for her rasp and grit she provides in her vocals, has been performing since the age of 13. With influences from Janis Joplin to Stevie Nicks, Robertson has developed her own style.