Lexington band Magnolia Boulevard brings back Thanksgiving show at The Burl

What could be better than throwing a party as the holidays set in? How about throwing two, simultaneously.

That is, in essence, what Magnolia Boulevard is doing this weekend. The long-running Lexington band’s Friday evening homecoming at The Burl will be something of a soirée with two missions.

Mission one — to honor the release of its first full-length album, an achievement singer/songstress Maggie Noelle sums up concisely and completely: “It’s about damn time.”

Mission two — to celebrate the season itself.

Friday’s show is officially billed as Magnolia Boulevard’s second annual Soul Stuffing Friendsgiving, a post Turkey Day performance intended to gather fans and friends on home turf. That’s a luxury Noelle and bandmates Ryan Allen, Roddy Puckett, Austin Lewis and Brandon Johnson seldom get to indulge in during the rest of the year.

The band has been traveling, recently in Northeast Virginia, and over the winter, when many bands let up on touring duties, Noelle and her mates will be touring through New York and Pennsylvania before dipping down throughout the South.

That’s usually the standard operating procedure surrounding the release of a new record — the lives of the busiest and most roadworthy bands become even busier.

“We’ve got to push this album, buddy,” Noelle said, again with effective brevity.

The self-titled “Magnolia Boulevard” is hardly the band’s first recording project. It has released assorted singles and EP discs, including the fine four-song 2000 sampler “New Illusion,” which was cut with producer Paul Reed Smith at his Dragon Crossing Studio in Annapolis, Maryland.

“Magnolia Boulevard” returns the band’s brand of Southern stewed soul, blues and rock ‘n’ roll to the hands and studio of veteran Central Kentucky producer Duane Lundy, who also oversaw some of its initial recordings in 2018.

“Duane is such a freak,” Noelle said. “He is so good at what he does. We’ve grown this relationship with Duane to where I feel he really knows and understands our sound. Duane recorded this album as live as possible. Essentially, it was all tracked live, other than just overdubs here and there. But he really wants to get the sound of the room, which is great for us since we are, above all, a live band.”

The eight songs making up “Magnolia Boulevard” were penned primarily by Noelle and keyboardist Allen, the two mainstay members of the band. The lineup with bassist Puckett, guitarist Lewis and drummer Johnson was cemented last year.

“A lot of people get really confused because I call Ryan my brother onstage all the time,” Noelle said. “Not only do we have a lot of similarities with our music, our politics, how we want to live our lives, our aspirations — all of those things combined, really — but we work really, really well together. We’ve perfected our partnership with this band. I lean on him for a lot of things. He’s leaned on me, as well.”

Working together with Allen has taught Noelle “how to co-write with another human.”

“He’s not just been my friend and my business partner, but’s been a teacher for me,” Noelle said. “This baby of ours, this band, is also motivation for me because I can’t let my brother down.”

Not surprisingly, Noelle and Allen sit at the core of Magnolia Boulevard’s new album. Noelle’s soul-informed vocals soar with an expansiveness that Lundy makes even larger, while Allen’s keyboard work provides almost churchy counterpoint. Comparative band newcomer Lewis pumps the roots and blues sensibilities further on guitar.

Listening to all that bleed together on one of the new album’s finest works, “Spellbound” (one of the record’s few older compositions, which was written by Noelle alone), also begs the inevitable question: What kind of genre tag do you place on this kind of Southern-reared, soul leaning rock ‘n roll?

It’s not easy, Noelle said.

“Someone recently described us as ‘Appalachian soul,’ and I love that,” she said. “I really, really love that description because we’re Appalachian people. Ryan and I — and the rest of the boys, for that matter, too — are really proud to be Appalachian. I think we’re where Americana roots rock meets that straight up rock ‘n roll. That’s definitely the direction that we’ve been aiming for.”

There’s also the whole “friendsgiving” aspect to Magnolia Boulevard’s Friday show at The Burl, which Noelle said was an unintentional overlap. But it serves as a hometown layover for an Appalachian soul express that will keep riding well into the winter.

“We honestly didn’t plan it to be like this,” she said. “But I’m really happy that we can do the release on our friendsgiving show so we just give back to the community that has continually supported us. We tour nationally. We’re constantly on the go, so we don’t really get to play in our hometown that often. So it feels really good to come back home and share with everybody.”

Soul Stuffing Friendsgiving with Magnolia Boulevard and the John Inghram Band

When: Nov. 28 at 8 p.m.

Where: The Burl, 375 Thompson Rd.

Tickets: $20

Online: theburlky.com, magnoliaboulevardband.com