Catfish Haven

The Midwestern trio—who take their name from a trailer park one member grew up in—come on soulful and sweaty. They are all white boys, mind you, so don’t picture Sam Cooke or James Brown making the girls squeal at their glistening, furrowed brows. Think Joe Cocker’s onstage spazz-outs at Woodstock, because singer George Hunter even employs a similar sand-in-throat soul croon. They are an awesomely ramshackle bunch who sound like they’re playing the most rickety instruments they can find, which adds to that whole trailer-park-soul aesthetic they (or their label) have conjured. And really, if there are white boys who can claim to have soul, it’s white boys who grew up with trailer park cred. With Redwalls and Junkmail. BRIAN J. BARR

Listen to a sample of Catfish Haven's "Crazy for Leaving."