Sir Charles Jones and the Sound That Modernized Southern Soul

Before King George, before the package tours and the viral line dances, there was Sir Charles Jones, the man who dragged Southern Soul into the 21st century and made it sound young again.

His 2001 album 'Love Machine,' released on New Orleans' Mardi Gras Records, was the pivot point. 'Is There Anybody Lonely?' became a genre anthem, and 'Friday' turned into the kind of record that still empties chairs at every cookout and reunion a generation later. Where the soul-blues of the '80s and '90s often skewed older, Jones brought a smoother, R&B-aware delivery that pulled in a new audience without losing the church and the grit.

He crowned himself the 'Undisputed King of Southern Soul,' and for the better part of a decade nobody seriously argued. The era he opened, roughly 2000 to 2010, is the bridge between the Malaco old guard and the Facebook-and-YouTube generation that followed.

Listen to the breakout stars of today and you can still hear his fingerprints: the blend of tenderness and swagger, the conversational hooks, the sense that this music is for grown folks who still want to feel something.