Southern Avenue is an American five-piece blues and soul blues band from Memphis, Tennessee, United States Formed in 2015, they took their name from a street in Memphis running from the easternmost part of the city limits to "Soulsville", which was the original home of Stax Records Rock 103 described them as "the most talked about band in Memphis" Southern Avenue reached the finals of the International Blues Challenge in 2016Their self-titled debut album entered the US Billboard Top Blues Albums Chart at number 6 in February 2017, and reached number 1 on the iTunes Blues ChartThe band's eventual leader, Ori Naftaly, grew up in Israel and relocated to Memphis in 2013 to compete for Israel in the International Blues Challenge competition After advancing to the IBC Semi-Finals (the highest an Israeli artist had placed at that point in time), Naftaly made the move permanent and toured the United States with his own band However, Naftaly became disenchanted with his own outfit and later met the Memphis native Tierinii Jackson, a vocalist who introduced him to her drumming sister, Tikyra Other musicians joined the fledgling outfit in 2015 who took the band name Southern Avenue, in recognition of the Memphis street They toured the United States and in Europe, appearing at several music festivals and competed themselves at the International Blues Challenge in January 2016, representing Memphis
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