Soul-R Fusion

The singer and songwriter Tim Koehler was hanging out at the rustic Crab Shack, aka Buddy's Crab House & Oyster Bar, in Surf City a few years ago.

A rock band was playing. He couldn’t see them from where he was, “but I could tell that the bass player was, like, ridiculous,” Koehler said.

Fast forward a few years, and Koehler now shares a band -- and a relationship -- with that ridiculously talented bassist, Alex Goodell. On Saturday, the couple’s Wilmington-based band, a duo called Soul-R Fusion, will play an album release show for their new double CD, “Like a Circle ’Round the Sun,” at Beale Street Barbershop in Wilmington.



A mix of acoustic rock, soul, blues, jazz and funk, it’s all set to Koehler’s lyrics about everything from life’s responsibilities (“The Juggler”) to the couple’s cat (“Sooner or Larry”).

“Our style is really a fusion of different styles,” Goodell said. And since she’s “also a science nerd,” she came up with the name Soul-R Fusion. Solar fusion is what creates the Sun’s energy, while her band emits energy of the musical variety.

Soul-R Fusion’s sound is propelled by Koehler’s rhythm guitar, occasional harmonica and husky vocals, with Goodell’s fretless bass interplay throwing down licks and accenting passages.

“She’s the most bad-ass bass player in town, I’ll tell you that,” Koehler said over coffee recently at Port City Java on Market Street. “The dynamics of what we she do, she’s a second lead instrument.”


They’re both from New Jersey, despite meeting in North Carolina. He started playing in bars at age 18, “solo and duos, a couple of bands here and there.” She started on violin before switching to bass in high school. Both took years off from music before reconnecting with it later in life.

They’ve spent time in classic rock cover bands, with Koehler tending toward the bluesy, Grateful Dead end of the spectrum, and Goodell gravitating more toward Steely Dan and jazz fusion.


They still play some covers when they do longer sets -- their regular gigs in Wilmington are at Mad Mole, Fermental and Bill’s Front Porch -- but these days they try to keep live shows at about 90 percent originals.

With influences including Pete Townsend, Tom Waits and Todd Snider -- “storytellers and guys with smart lyrics, that’s my jam” -- Koehler said writing “is like therapy for me, and I need lots of therapy.”

“I’m writing about me,” he said. “I’m writing about us.”

“He’s writing about our cat,” Goodell added, who calls Larry “our muse.”

As Koehler sings on “Puddytat,” which is technically about inspiration, not cats, “I remember the memories before they slip away/ And try to turn ’em into sonnets.”

The couple went in last year to record with Jeff Sanchez, who they play with in Wilmington rock outfit The Clams, initially with thoughts of doing a 10- or 12-song album.


“But the vibe was so good, we just kept going,” Koehler said.

Sixteen songs (and two covers) later, they had an 18-track double album. John P. Rodgers, from Southport band Johnny and the Flip Side, plays on a few tracks, but mostly the album “represents exactly what you’d hear if you came to see us,” Koehler said. “No frills.”

But a lot of soul. - Star News Online