Tanya Lee Smart's big, bluesy voice was always going to lead her back to soul music eventually. After extended time out to raise a family, the Henry Fjords presented the right collision of sharp musicianship, Stax and Motown roots and neo-soul clatter to bring her back to boiling point.
Drummer Sam Barr had met Damien Salomons (bass), Matt Luciano (guitar) and Andrew Morse (keys) via Gumtree, and quickly found a potent chemistry borrowing from jazz, funk and the more trashy rhythmic elements of modern soul outfits such as Hiaitus Kaiyote.
He describes the core of the band in terms of "a Venn diagram with music in the middle… a traffic engineer, a wedding guitarist, a psychologist and a sales rep united by the love of soul".
Smart says, "These guys write music, I write melodies and lyrics. It's what I've done for 15 years. Improvising is what I do. As soon as we started rehearsals, these songs just started appearing."
She's clearly quick on her feet. She talked her way into her her brother's rock band, the Gumbys, when she was 13. She's since played the guitarist-songwriter card, fronted all-girl rock band Sumo, and belted out heavy New Orleans funk with Mama Smart and the Smooth.
"It's big music," she says of her latest venture. "I've got a big voice. These are songs we've created with lots of passion; they're our babies." A five-track EP is almost ready for release and they're not shy in their ambitions: "Bluesfest 2018 is on the bucket list," Smart says.
For now, behind the painted-out windows of Moya's Juniper Lounge in Redfern lurks precisely the kind of New York City underground ambience where legends are made.
GIG DETAILS: Tuesday, January 24, Moya's Juniper Lounge, 101 Regent Street, Redfern. Free.