Cecily Wilborn doesn’t just make southern soul music. She lives it. The West Memphis artist, who grew up in the two-stoplight town of Marianna, Arkansas, has turned her experiences into a sound that’s both deeply rooted and refreshingly modern. A music production graduate from Full Sail University, Cecily wrote, recorded and produced her breakout single “Southern Man” on her own, a love letter to her husband that has racked up 13.6 million streams worldwide. Now, she’s preparing to release Soul Therapy, an album she promises will be unlike anything southern soul has seen before.
Tell us what’s going on
We are in the process of making magic. Southern soul ain’t seen nothing like this before. Shout out to my people with Blackground. They pulled all the stops out. We are in Atlanta about to shoot my cover for my new album, Soul Therapy. Y’all knew it was going to have to be something that was going to hit you where it hurt. We out here making music that’s going to change some lives. I’m excited.
How would you describe your sound and what makes southern soul the right home for you?
The soul is a given. I do soul music, but you’re gonna hear the blues, you’re gonna hear the gospel, you gonna hear the R&B, you might even hear some country. But it’s southern soul. There’s certain things you just can’t get unless you come from the South. Certain sounds you don’t hear, certain words you don’t hear. We put words together, make up our own words sometimes. But you can only get that in the South. And I love that because no matter where you are in the South, everything is identifiable. If you’re in Arkansas, you know you’re in Arkansas. You in Mississippi, you can read the trees on the highway and tell you in Mississippi. Go down to Louisiana, you know by the smell of the water you’re in Louisiana. I love that even though the South is so generalized, we still have all these identifying traits and that’s what you going to get with this album, Soul Therapy. Everything that I’ve done so far, it’s been versatile, but one thing you can feel on all of it is the soul.
What city shaped you the most musically and how does that environment show up in your storytelling and performance style?
Shout out to Marianna, Arkansas. Cecily Wilborn was built and raised in Marianna, Arkansas. It’s a very small country town. We got two stoplights. We used to have one. They added another one. My mother is a pastor. She’s been pastoring the same church for 40 years. Shout out to New Bethel. I learned a lot by listening to that old stomp your foot, pat your knee. We got window units in the windows, we ain’t got central air in our churches. That’s how I grew up. I remember certain ways that women would sing, certain ways my father and his brothers would sing, even my grandfather. I learned how to do certain runs, certain curves, how to put the character to what you’re singing, how to deliver the music. All of that came from Marianna. Now, I live in West Memphis. I’m really close to Memphis, Tennessee. I love to tell everybody Arkansas gave me the blues, but Memphis taught me how to do the blues. Between Arkansas and Memphis, I really got the best of both worlds when it came to music.
Being that you’re from a small town, raised in the church, what was it like when you said you wanted to sing the blues and southern soul instead of church music?
It was not hard. Let me tell y’all something. My mom and daddy, they’ve been pastoring that same church for 40 years. I just shared this story with a legend. I got a chance to talk to the great gospel legend, Evelyn Turrentine. She is one of the biggest gospel artists, especially for a woman. She asked me that same question. I told her with my dad being a pastor, I felt the confidence to do what I wanted to do because when I decided to go do covers, I didn’t even have original music out. I was doing just cover songs, just blues in clubs. I was the youth director at the church. I was choir director at the church and it was a lot of people who had a lot to say. My daddy stood up in church randomly one Sunday. I don’t know what provoked him. I don’t know if somebody said something to him, but I remember sitting in church and he said, “Let me clear the air real quick. If Beyoncé was to walk in here, not only would y’all want to hug her, but you’d take her tithes too. If Aretha Franklin came in here and paid tithes, you wouldn’t turn her money down. You’d want an autograph. My baby has a dream and she has a gift. Just because she in it don’t mean she of it. And if God going to bless it, that mean it ain’t no mess in it.” When he said that, I was like, I don’t care what y’all say. My daddy said I could do it. My daddy’s stamp of approval on it. That’s all it took because I’m a daddy’s girl.
Southern soul is rooted in live experiences. What real moments inspire your writing these days?
Living in West Memphis every day. From waking up trying to just get the ends to meet, taking care of them kids, making sure that you ain’t pissing off the one person that loves you the most. Just trying to find yourself. Everything in life inspires me. Red lights, traffic stops, everything inspires me. All the way up to the way the sun goes down. I just wrote a song called “Sundown.” It’s a love song about my man. I left my heart with a man in Arkansas, but I love that man, but I don’t miss him until the sun goes down. Arkansas gives you slow living. I love everything about being able to just see what’s going on around you. Do your little investigation of what you want to talk about, what you want to do. It gives you time. It ain’t too fast. You got time to think things through and really enjoy it. Even if it’s a bad time, you still got time to figure it out because it’s slow living. Shout out to all the people that’s listening to southern soul right now. I know what y’all after. Y’all just trying to make it. I get you. I got something for that too. Soul Therapy.
What inspired “Southern Man”?
That was my man. Thank you to my man. There is a story that comes behind “Southern Man.” It was not supposed to be my hit song. I was working on a song called “Pickup Truck” that is one of everybody’s favorites. “Southern Man” was a gift to my husband. When COVID hit, my husband had just had a stroke. He was just getting back to work. I was nervous about not working in the middle of a pandemic. I had just started a job. I was like six months in. I loved the job. The job loved me. But when they started taking a hit due to COVID, I was the first one in the door. So I was the first one out when it was time to do layoffs. I had a hard time adjusting to not helping my husband with bills. Don’t get me wrong, my husband is not a person that requires me to help with bills. When I started having a real hard time with it, he was just like, “Don’t worry about it. You’re in school to be a music producer. Go to school, take care of these kids, keep the house straight, and get through school. We’ll talk about bills later, but I got it.” I thought that was all cool till Father’s Day came up and I had no money. I’m like, I can’t buy this man a gift with his own money. So what am I going to do? We love “Wild ‘N Out.” Shout out to Nick Cannon. We go to this “Wild ‘N Out” show in Dallas, Texas, and I put a song out for him called “Southern Man.” He got it. That was my gift to him. I didn’t think nothing. I’m not tracking the song because it wasn’t supposed to be a hit song. It was just a love note to my husband. Six months later, I jumped up and the song was everywhere. I couldn’t do nothing but cry happy tears because I didn’t know people loved Southern Man the way I did. That was a song that I wanted my husband, if I don’t get a chance to tell him what he means to me ever again, he can play that song. He’ll know exactly what he means to me. I appreciate him for being a father to children that he didn’t birth. He came into their lives when they already had a father. They still know who their father is, but they don’t question the love that they get from that man. He don’t miss no basketball appointments. He don’t miss no cheer camps. He’s still at gigs with me on the weekends. He does everything to make sure that the family just floats. I see that characteristic in my daddy. I see that characteristic in my uncles. My brother was like that, God rest his soul. Every man that I’ve encountered growing up was the epitome of a southern man. I can go other places and be like, yeah, y’all ain’t like the men where I’m used to. I don’t mean to put them on a pedestal because they ain’t perfect, but they’re real. They are real men. Shout out to all the men down here in the South that’s doing it big for us. We love y’all. We appreciate y’all.
Southern soul is having a resurgence right now. What role do you feel your generation is playing in the evolution of this music?
It’s a bridge. I keep hearing people say, “We’re bringing real music back.” And I love that. For all of my peers in this generation of music, we’ve all pretty much come together with the same conclusion. We just got to raise the standard. The messages in the music are really what’s pushing society. If the music calls us out of our names as women, those children that are ingesting that, they think that that’s okay. If we start putting real love back in the music, if we start putting the edifications of real men and real women and what life is supposed to be like, two parent homes, if we put that back in the music, it’s not strange when kids see it in real life. I feel like we got to stop letting the TV raise these kids. One thing you can do is teach a child a song. ABCs. “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Put some real messages in that music and them kids gonna get it. I feel like we are bridging the gap because they don’t want to listen to Johnnie Taylor. They don’t know who that is. We do though. If we take that Johnnie Taylor soul, that Betty Wright soul, that Anita Baker soul, if we take those messages and figure out how to put a little sugar on it and make them like it like you do everything else at home, I think we’ll be able to get our kids back. We’ll be able to take our culture by storm. And not only will southern soul grow, but southern soul gonna take over. Ain’t going to be no other genre. Hip hop and rap are losing their way now. It’s only because I remember old school rap. I still listen to old school rap. My playlist don’t really have a lot of updated rappers other than BigXthaPlug. I can’t hate on BigXthaPlug, but I love the old school rappers. I also still listen to Motown. I also still listen to the Tina Turner rock and roll era. I still listen to that old sound. I figure out how if BigXthaPlug says this and everybody’s rocking with it, okay, they like the message. How do I take that BigX message and put it with an old school sound? So that now your mama, your granny and your daughter can sing the same song in the same room and not feel weird. I think it’s a great way to bridge all the generations together. I love when I go to shows and the mama, the grandma and the daughter are all at the show together. That’s southern soul music. Four generations all coming together to do the same thing right now. Unity.
When we go to West Memphis, when we’re in Arkansas, what restaurants should we hit? What lounges do we check out?
When you come to West Memphis, you got to hit me up. There are three places I’m going to definitely tell you to try. The mayor of West Memphis, his name is Marco McClendon. Most amazing guy ever. He owns a restaurant. It’s called BlackBerry Molasses. Then I have a god brother who has a little spot. It’s a little hole in the wall. And then there’s Sizzlin Skillets. Let me tell you about Sizzlin Skillets. Sizzlin Skillets will fry your fish hard and dip it in honey gold sauce. If you don’t know what honey gold sauce is, come to Memphis and we got you. It’s going to change your life. Dip your fish from now on and tell them that’s the Cecily Wilborn way. We got music, we got juke joints, and if them three spots can’t give it to you, we’re 10 minutes from Memphis. We are like 15 minutes from Beale Street. There’s so much music, so much culture, so much soul, so much rock and roll, so many different types of people you gonna meet. You got to come to the Delta. You just got to come to the Delta and see it for yourself.
Where do I go when I want to get fresh?
When you want to get fresh, I’m not going to tell you no lie. I have a personal tailor because y’all see I have a certain southern swag. I don’t really shop in the malls and the stores anymore. I like to go to the older places. I think there’s a vintage store in Memphis. It’s a boot store, believe it or not, because I love my boots. Yes, they sparkle a little bit. All country girls like to sparkle. There’s Cavender’s, Wrangler, those are spots where I shop, but I’m a country girl. Most of the time, if my dad shops, we buy his clothes and we get them from everywhere because my dad’s a pastor. You may see him in some Jesus sandals, you may see him in some cowboy boots. It just depends on what the weather feels like.