Reviews
Chris Brecht’s long-awaited 2008 debut, The Great Ride, raked in folk and country roots behind the local songwriter’s winding narratives and distinctive nasally drawl. Brecht’s tunes reel with the lure of the late night open highway, steeped in a poignant and personal loneliness and longing, braced against a wonder for the road. Since The Great Ride’s release, Brecht has expanded his band and sound, and while his characteristic Dylanisms remain strong in the new material, the Dead Flowers buck with a more polished country rock vibe in the vein of the Band or Sweetheart of the Rodeo-era Byrds, folding in impressive flourishes from the group that includes, among others, Ricky Ray Jackson (Lomita; Brothers and Sisters) on pedal steel and John Michael Schoepf of the Happen Ins. Chris Brecht and the Dead Flowers will be holding down the Belmont downtown next week on Wednesday, September 9, and they’ve offered up a taste of some of their new material below in the form of both a lo-fi demo and full band take in the studio.
Scratching out from under the influence of Dylan seems a veritable rite of passage for young songwriters, and Chris Brecht’s local debut rewinds thoroughly through the Basement Tapes. His elongated nasal drawl, the easy rhythm of B-3 organ, and restless lyrics cutting sardonic all build upon firmly set foundations; “Readin’ My Mind” even lifts its lilt straight from “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere.” It’s testament to the Austin songwriter’s talent that The Great Ride is a trip worth retracing. “Night Highway 99″ drives a rambler’s harmonica into the steel of Lomita’s Ray Jackson on “Someone Is Gonna Lose,” Eleanor Whitmore contributing fiddle and Emmylou-styled harmonies. “A Song About Lightbulbs” burns mournfully, while “Better Grab My Coat” strips acoustic with a hint of Townes Van Zandt. “Absinthe” and “Belle Streets Midnight” drift though bluesy scenes drawing fatalistic import through Brecht’s incisive vision, proving a promising, if indebted, first offering.
In a lazy drawl that sounds like a hybrid cross between Ryan Adams’ soulful North Carolina slur and Bob Dylan’s off-pitch, nasal mutterings, Austin songwriter Chris Brecht croons about trains, lost love and the nomadic life with the same passion and timeless appeal of greats from Woody Guthrie to Willie Nelson. And his devotion to all things retro extends to his songwriting and recording techniques: not only does he use a typewriter to put his poetic travelin’ songs to paper, his debut album, The Great Ride,was recorded entirely to 2″ tape. “I don’t think I’ll ever make a digital record, anymore,” Brecht says. “I don’t think that tape really makes [music] sound old or vintage; I just think that tape adds such a warmth and beauty that digital can’t quite capture.”
It’s always nice to run across something suprising in the mail. Such was the case with Austin troubadour Chris Brecht’s 2008 release The Great Ride. The album is lyrically desperate, funny and poetic—something there’s plenty of time to consider given the sparse production. Brecht sounds somewhere between Loudon Wanwright, Alex Chilton and Slow Train Coming-era Bob Dylan. And despite the name drops here, Brecht is unique: His delivery is resigned and but not dispassionate, his songs homespun but not overly sentimental. And slide guitar just kicks my ass – Casey Jarman.
Recording to Tape
Chris Brecht writes country music for the ages
by Sara Brickner
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If Austin alt-country songwriter Chris Brecht’s debut record The Great Ride seems born of another era, that might be because Brecht himself is a little old-fashioned. He writes his songs on a typewriter. He doesn’t own a TV. And though digital recording is standard, Brecht committed The Great Ride to two-inch tape rather than computer memory.
Part of that, Brecht says, are the errors, the foot taps and the guitar clicks that can’t be taken out of a taped recording. “The artifacts inside the music, to me, are so much more important when I listen to records, and that’s kinda what I wanted on my own record,” Brecht says. “You’re trying to create something substantial in the artifacts that are left behind, rather than having an album exist solely on a MacBook hard drive. It’s more fun to have 35 pounds of reel to reel tape sitting there.” Preferences like Brecht’s can be cumbersome and inconvenient, or more expensive, as tape recording is. But to Brecht, they’re worth it — and for the uber-modern naysayers who might call a love for dusty vinyl records and tape recording pretentious, Brecht says this: “There’s a certain amount of effort that goes into creating something. There’s more artifact. There’s the residue. I don’t think an artist is pretentious for holding onto that.”
Have Guitar, Will Travel – the Santa Fe Reporter
There are an infinite number of young, aspiring musicians armed with nothing more than a guitar and a ravenous appetite for success. But only a few ever make it as professional musicians. Austin-based singer-songwriter Chris Brecht is one artist who managed to crawl out of the masses to begin an impressive alt.country career that brims with promise
