Grey Watson is an unassuming, young guy with a secret weapon: a very entertaining voice with a surprisingly comfortable southern sensibility. After listening to the three tracks posted on the Sorry Saints’ MySpace page, I met him at Speakeasy one night after a solo set. He performed to support the Birmingham Folk Festival, coming up next weekend (August 2).

First thing’s first: his band, Sorry Saints, are going through a “restructuring” of sorts. With their drummer heading to law school, a shake up is in order in the very near future for Grey, the Matts (both G & M ) and Ben. So, The Terminal Concert on the 26^th will be the last chance to see this particular lineup. In fact, soon, the name might even change. They’re a fairly new band whose last show could possibly be only their second. Not for lack of talent or listenability, that’s for sure.

The Sorry Saints recorded their demo in the historic FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals. “Aretha Franklin recorded there,” Grey reminds me. “It was where Dwayne Allman did a lot of his early stuff”. In fact, their keyboardist Ben is an assistant sound engineer there, and the legendary studio is a nice fit for this self-described “country rock band”. As a Birmingham native with a penchant for 60s and 70s country, it was refreshing to hear Graham Parsons and The Band being mentioned as some of Grey’s influences. “We’re all big fans of The Byrds,” he goes on. “Hahaha…’early Byrds’,” he laughs.

I know alot of people in Birmingham who clock hours worth of iPod listening time to music from the days gone by that the Sorry Saints draw from. It’s nice to know that Birmingham bands can retrace the sounds of of 30 and 40 years ago in a way that etches a new idea of our city’s music.