Not a religious person myself, but there is a ton of beauty to be found in hymns. "down in the river to pray" by Alison Krauss is a great example. Amazing Grace is another one.
This is awesome. I have his "Finally, my love is in my arms" line from Etta James engraved on my wedding ring and love how it turned out.
Cool! My ring has, "Our Love Shines Like Gold" on the inside...referencing the Robert Frost poem and the Bouncing Souls song.
What’s he done from home so far? American Slang, Elsie, Get Hurt, and Painkillers? Now another solo album and Gaslight EP. Sad that he might make it through his entire discography before the pandemic ends and he can do a proper US tour again.
Personally, I hope he’s had a chance to start writing for a new album. I know doing the Hymn covers project, live from home and Sittin’ Around at Home interviews probably consumed a lot of time as well as maintaining family life first. Hopefully any touring will help fund a new record and keep himself going and give him the chance to do a bigger more extensive tour to follow.
i am certain that someone like Brian never stops writing, but I would not count on a new album soon. he's gonna get out on the road and make some money next year.
I feel like there’s a lot of overlap in his work between Gaslight, Crowes, Molly and the variations he’s done solo. Do you have a favourite of his 3 solo records?
Sleepwalkers is my favourite too. I think I love Local Honey way more than most. Just wishing it was longer. Painkillers has some great Brian songs, especially when you add in the reworked solo songs. I personally feel Seepwalkers has major American Slang vibes so it always surprises me when I hear people like one and not the other. Im really looking forward to LP 4 and I’m curious how the music/vocals come out on this Divine Hymns thing. I’d prefer original content to a Christmas album/hymns thing, but I feel hearing him Amazing Grace could be awesome like his old acoustic cover of Cohen’s Hallelujah.
To me, the album felt short. I love 21 Days, Hard Feelings, I Don’t Mind, and Horses. Lonely For You and Stolen My Heart are great and fit perfectly with the other songs on the record. When You’re Ready is good. Vincent, I just find ok. What makes it feel short to me is that it doesn’t have a few higher energy songs. When I get to the back half of Hard Feelings there feels like a swell of energy. I just wish there were a few more of those on the record and since I like the other songs, it could only have been fulfilled by adding other songs with a bit more energy. 12 was perfect for Sleepwalkers. I don’t know if the number of songs written, studio/production costs or artistic choice lead to 8 songs. I listened to Brian’s Local Honey, Spanish Love songs and Hot Mulligan’s records a lot because it was the last new music going into lockdown. Maybe it’s sentimental to me, but I still listen to Local Honey and those records often. Again….Great songs. I just like a slightly longer records personally (to carry me between bands records).
Hi, welcome! I was this way for nearly a decade. Despite many, many, many times trying to get into TGA, it just never clicked. Even after I enjoyed Brian's solo albums. I always thought it was really strange. Then COVID hit and for whatever reason, TGA all of a sudden clicked with me. BIG TIME. No rhyme or reason, just hit me like a ton of bricks. There's still hope.
I'd probably go: Local Honey Painkillers Sleepwalkers But they're all so goddamn good and depending on the day/mood, I could go with any one of them for No. 1.
For me, I do like all the songs on Local Honey, but it's just (overall) inferior to the previous albums. Like others have said, it's a little short and a little slow/same tempo. I enjoy the songs individually when I hear them but as a full album I just like the other two much more. But BF does not write bad music, so there is no such thing. We are talking degrees of greatness here. I am very interested to see if the next album, BF10, will be more like Local Honey, or something else. At some point I'd like to hear the man get angry and rock again.
Agreed! Brian does not write bad music. Glad I’m not the only one who finds it a bit short. As for next record, I’m assuming in the same vein as Local Honey, but Sleepwalkers was such a surprise stylistically to be so full band so you never know. I’m eager to see what’s next in terms of new music because I listen to his music so much. Gonna try and enjoy Night Divine, even if it ends up feeling very seasonal.
Local Honey is the first Brian’s album I’ve listened maybe twice and never had a desire to get back to it again.