On a warm August evening, I had the pleasure of sitting with six (of the seven) members of the Soggy Po’ Boys, a New Orleans-style band out of southeastern New Hampshire. It takes me a little bit of time to match up faces and names against what I know of the band from online photos and videos, where pianist Mike Effenberger is “the bearded one” and the rest are mostly clean- or closely-shaven, as this evening, they are all sporting impressive beards that would make Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill of ZZ Top envious. We settle into a comfortable seating area on the first floor of a church in Kittery, Maine, where Effenberger has just wrapped up playing a gig—the same church where the band recorded their most recent album, It’s Good to Laugh Again (November 2022).
The Soggy Po’ Boys (the band name refers to the iconic New Orleans “po’ boy” sandwich) play New Orleans-style music that, in some ways, defies description. There’s an infusion of Caribbean undercurrents and their albums also carry the “funk” tag on Bandcamp, but neither of those descriptors will be helpful in anticipating their sound. The band members are careful to refer to what they play as “New Orleans music” and not “New Orleans jazz” to make space for the funk, brass, and Caribbean influences. Suffice it to say, it’s hot and driving when it’s fast, and sultry and gothic (in a good way) whe
