Prophets and Outlaws

Based in Dallas, Texas, Prophets and Outlaws give away their debt to the outlaw country of the '70s with their very name, but they're not retro-revivalists in the mold of Chris Stapleton. The quintet of vocalist Matt Boggs, guitarist Stevie G., and his brother drummer James Guckenheimer, keyboardist Jamie "Jelly" Ringholm, and bassist CJ Thompson are equally inspired by slow-burning Southern soul, which gives them a distinctive sound that separates them from their rootsy peers in the 2010s. The quintet released an eponymous EP in 2011, which was followed in 2013 by Wanted!, an EP whose cover art paid homage to groundbreaking 1976 compilation Wanted: The Outlaws. The group continued to tour regionally and throughout the midwest, producing a pair of EPs -- Wolf Howl and Texas Home -- in 2015; they also released the seasonal single "Christmas Day" that year. A fifth EP, aptly called V, was produced by Jason Burt and arrived in 2016. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine