Genre: Pop/Rock, R&B/Urban
Members: Joel Parisien (vocals, keyboards), Mark Rogers (drums), Josh Toal (guitars), Rich Moore (bass)
For fans of: Jamie Cullum, Spencer David Group, Stevie Wonder, Harry Connick Jr., The Blind Boys of Alabama
Label: Inpop

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Newworldson plays "speakeasy gospel."

Much like everything else you'll encounter about this four-piece band, the previous statement takes some explaining.

During the Prohibition, underground bars called "speakeasies" popped up in cities around the country. These gathering places were the primary breeding ground for what we now know as popular music and can best be used to associate the fusion of sounds that make up Newworldson.

It's part gospel, a little soul, and all kinds of North American roots music. It's garbed in a unique blend of guitar, bass, keys and drums, bolstered by universal truths that can live anywhere … a church, barroom, arena stage, or corner club.

But you also have to take a look at the root words of "speakeasy" to understand what Newworldson (guitarist Josh Toal, bassist Rich Moore, keyboardist/vocalist Joel Parisien and drummer Mark Rogers) is trying to accomplish.

The band is speaking easily of the Spirit that each member has welcomed to filter through their lives and music. They want their creative output to reflect the diverse ways and places in which they've experienced that Spirit. And they're determined to share that Spirit with anyone and everyone.

Most discussions about brand new bands on the national scene quickly turn to name origins. But rather than sending writers diving through dictionaries, asking about Newworldson's moniker points to maps instead.

"Sometimes when I start answering this question, it becomes a geography lesson as well as a musical one," Parisien says of the band. "North America's known as the new world, and we feel like the musical traditions we're tapping into are very uniquely North American.

"This project is like a child of the new world," he continues. "It really couldn't have come from anywhere else, because the mix of styles, the whole history of gospel and blues becoming jazz, rock and hip-hop, that cultural experience happened here in the new world."

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