Brooks New Harmonies In Light

Brooks New Harmonies In Light

Bruce Von Stiers

Brad Brooks has been a staple on the San Francisco bay area music scene for a while. His music has been compared to Wilco and XTC. Brad had a pretty well received album a few years back called Spill Collateral Love. Since then Brad has been touring and writing new music.

The accumulation of time and writing has set the scene for Brad's new album. He titled this one Harmony of Passing Light. It is an eclectic set of songs that gives the listener a pretty broad spectrum of rock and pop sounds.

Brad does the vocals on the album, along with playing the guitar and harmonica. He is joined by Paul Hoaglin on guitar and Shay Scott on piano, Wurlitzer and backing vocals. There is also Todd Roper on drums, Patty Espeseth on cello and Elisa Randazzo on violin. Other musicians include Matt Cunitz, Cory Wright, James Deprado and Adam Rossi. Backing vocals came by the way of Jeni Wroblewski, Kyle Caprista, Tahoe Jackson and Debra Luck. Todd Roper and Paul Hoaglin also provided some backing vocals. One surprise for me was seeing Jeff Campbell listed as backing vocals on one song. I recently reviewed Jeff's great new album, Stop and Go.

Brad opens the album with a fun and energetic song called Calling Everyone. Head bopping, hip shaking music backs great vocals.

Steal My Dismay has a classic Al Stewart kind of sound to it.

Spinner And The Spun is a cool rock flavored song.

Will It Be Enough might well have fit into a country music lineup as it has a mix of rock and country styling.

Paul McCartney's music came to mind as I listened to Night Fades.

Bumblelina is a nice mellow sort of rock flavored ballad.

Farewell to Foderal has an aching tone. The song has some great guitar and key work.

Exemplary Girl is a slight head bopping, fluid pop tune.

Hope That I Got You has a mixture of pop sounds that melds into a sedate and serene ballad.

Sea gulls and surf sounds open the song Knowin What The Moment Is. The song is light and lyrical with good guitar backing Brad's vocals.

Grand Manner is a mellow yet sad song with a nice piano backing sound. It is the last song on the album.

Brad Brooks indeed has a unique musical style. From aching, longing tunes to upbeat pop laden songs like Calling Everyone, Brad brings a lot of talent to the table. Harmony of Passing Light was indeed a fun listening experience.

Harmony of Passing Light can be purchased on iTunes or from amazon.com or CD Baby.

Check out Brad's official site to find out more. The site is http://www.bradbrooksmusic.com/

Back