Overnight success stories are rarely what they seem, but the rise of Kashus Culpepper has been extraordinary. Until five years ago he hadn’t even picked up a guitar, and had only sung in church in his small home town of Alexander City, Alabama. His enlistment in the US Navy set him on a path to his first album, critical acclaim from some of the world’s biggest stars, and a new life in Nashville as the leading voice of what he terms “Southern sounds” – a gorgeously gritty blend of country, soul, blues, jazz and southern rock.
When lockdown and its subsequent boredom hit his barracks in Spain in 2020, he fired up YouTube and taught himself to play. After a month or two he built up the courage to sing at one of the weekly bonfires thrown to keep morale high – and his comrades were blown away by what they heard.
“Enough sangria can make you do a lot of things that will get you out there,” he says. “But these guys in the military, my buddies, telling me that I can sing, it just built my confidence up. People around me growing up, they had real pretty R&B, gospel voices. I don’t sound like that. But these guys gave me confidence while I was over there. And listening to old blues records gave me confidence. Like Howlin’ Wolf, because he had a really raw sound. And then I was like, well, Howlin’ Wolf did it, why can’t I do it?”
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That edge to his voice, as well as the wit and warmth of the original material he started to write later, is what makes his debut album, Act 1, so special. It’s alive with characters and embodies the landscape he grew up in.
“Growing up in a small town, we’re different,” he says. “Everybody grew up going fishing all day, or waking up to salmon biscuits that mom made, or catching fireflies at night, or staying up all night at a bonfire. That shaped my music, my lyrics and my storytelling.”
It makes sense that the clips he started to upload online on his return from his time in the military, with their vivid wordplay, caught the attention of an actor. Samuel L Jackson was impressed with what he heard, and shared the videos with his millions of followers.
“He’s one of my favourite actors of all time,” Culpepper says. “His blues movie, Black Snake Moan, is one of my favourites. So to get his attention, I was just blown away.”
Within months he’d gone from gigging at small venues and Hard Rock Cafés to signing a record deal, relocating to Nashville and playing the city’s prestigious Grand Ole Opry, and having the likes of John Mayer and Elton John as very vocal fans. And his upwards trajectory shows no sign of slowing.
“Act 1 is just the beginning of my start to the music business,” he says. “This is my beginning, this is where I’m at right now. I just want to get all my thoughts onto my first project so I can just let people know me. All these different sounds – they’re me."
Act 1 is out now via Big Loud.
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