Thee Sacred Souls emerged from San Diego as a retro-soul outfit whose style draws from multiple strains of R&B, encompassing Latin-infused grooves alongside Northern and Southern traditions. Drummer Alex Garcia, bassist Sal Samano, and vocalist-songwriter Josh Lane established the core trio, which expands onstage with additional guitarists, keyboardists, and harmony singers. After early indie singles charted, the group delivered its self-titled debut on Daptone in 2022. The limited-edition Instrumentals, drawn from that first album, appeared in March 2024, followed in October by the second studio set, Got a Story to Tell.
Garcia and Samano both hail from Chula Vista, where their surroundings were steeped in Chicano and Motown soul, boogaloo rhythms, and low-rider aesthetics. They began collaborating in 2018 by assembling an oldies ensemble and creating R&B instrumentals, yet progress halted without lyrics or a frontman. Lane’s smooth tenor and crystalline falsetto caught their attention via Instagram; the City Heights resident had relocated from Sacramento in 2017 following years of church singing and subsequent classical training that included French arias and Italian opera. He initially envisioned a solo path leaning toward dream pop and chillwave, and although he had composed material for some time, he remained unknown on the Southern California circuit. After exchanging messages with Samano, the three convened to jam, at which point Lane supplied words on the spot for several tracks, among them “Can I Call You Rose?,” which became their debut single.
The musicians settled on the name Thee Sacred Souls in April 2019 while rehearsing new originals and select covers. A demo secured early septet engagements across Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego featuring guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals. Gabriel Roth attended one of the first shows in Fullerton, was immediately impressed, and signed the band less than a month after they had started performing live. Throughout 2020 and 2021 the members wrote, practiced, and tracked material while socially distanced. Their opening release, “Can I Call You Rose?” b/w “Weak for Your Love,” surfaced in March 2020 as the pandemic intensified; shortly afterward they captured the anti-violence plea “Give Us Justice,” composed in response to George Floyd’s death three weeks earlier. January 2021 brought “Will I See You Again?” b/w “It’s Our Love.” By spring the group resumed occasional live appearances that grew larger as the year progressed and additional songs took shape.
February 2022 saw the digital single “Trade of Hearts,” followed in August by the self-titled debut album, produced by Roth (also known as Bosco Mann) at Daptone’s Riverside facility. The twelve-track collection presented the trio alongside the Daptone Horns, session players, and vocalists, incorporating several prior singles. March 2024 brought the limited-edition Instrumentals revisiting the original album’s repertoire. In October the band issued its sophomore album, Got a Story to Tell, again produced by Gabriel Roth; the eleven-song set, co-written by the core members, incorporated contributions from horn, string, percussion, organ, and backing-vocal guests, among them saxophonist Larry Rendon, a founding member of the 1960s East L.A. ensemble Thee Midniters. Supporting dates featured keyboardist Riley Dunn, guitarist Shay Stulz, and backing vocalists Astyn Turrentine and Viane Escobar.
