Great Southern River
Name origin
The name 'Great Southern River' came up from two different roads that perfectly cross each other, at least as intended by this band. The first road is the one that leads back home. We're from the southernmost state in Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul (which can literally be translated to english as Great Southern River). The second road drives us through regions where the musical genres we bring together in our songs are from: southern USA, specially regions around and nearby the southern half of Mississippi River (Mississippi also means Great River).
Foundation
The band was first idealized as a side project by the end of 2013 by guitarist/songwriter Chris Fiorin while he was involved with other musical projects. But since he always wanted to do something in that genre, he ended all other projects and officially founded Great Southern River on February 13, 2014.
2014-2017
The band started to rehearse as Great Southern River. The line-up changes became too frequent, making it hard to maintain a constant evolving process for the band. In 2016, Fiorin decided to put Great Southern River on hold, but kept working on songwriting.
2018-present
Fiorin wanted to bring the band back and invited old friend and musical colleague Gabriel Severo to join him. Severo became the band's bassist and main producer/engineer. Searching for a singer, Fiorin found an Allman Brothers cover band and got impressed by the vocalist. He got in touch with Marco Esteban, who joined the band as the lead singer.
They started to work on the album. Fiorin finished the songs and the pre-production started by the end of 2018. Recordings happened through 2019 featuring guest musicians Mateus Mussatto and Cachaça Vicari Bento. By the end of the year and beginning of 2020, the final touches were given with the addition of the keyboards by Luks Diesel. Manuela Mesquita also contributed with additional backing vocals.
The band's first album Great Southern River was released on April 17, 2020.
Musical style and influences
As a southern rock/blues rock band, Great Southern River has The Allman Brothers Band, Gov't Mule, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top as its main influences. Also, classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Whitesnake, The Beatles, The Who, Rolling Stones, Grateful Dead.
Current members
Marco Esteban - vocals, sax
Chris Fiorin - guitars, backing vocals, percussion
Rodrigo Nizolli - guitars
Gabriel Severo - bass
Drax - drums