The debut record from Chris Brecht. Analog Alt-Country. Songs that thread a highway between folk, country, indie, and the 1960s.

10 MP3 Songs
COUNTRY: Alt-Country, FOLK: Alternative Folk

Details:
âInfluenced by Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, Chris Brecht takes off from there to create space for his own words and music. He vividly illustrates the promise of a young songwriter.â - Larry Monroe, KUT Austin 90.5 FM

âA 5 star debut, The Great Ride is where Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty slip away to drop bennies and dig poetry. Analog Alternative-Country the way it should be.â - Gordy Quist, the Band of Heathens


When Chris Brecht arrived in Austin 2-years ago, he sounded like someone who had just jumped off a freight trainâ¦or so he was once told in a scribbled note that was dropped inside his guitar case during a show. Back then, he was playing shows with only his guitar and harmonica. He had a hand me down style of playing from the 1960s that allowed him to fit right in as an acoustic act in Austinâs coffee shops, punk venues, and even make his way to the music sceneâs apex, The Cactus Café. Snap two and a half years later and he has put together a band that could easily shred envelope for alternative-country music. Now, with the completion of his debut record, The Great Ride, a beginning has been marked for Chris Brecht.

Chris Brecht canât remember exactly why he ventured to Austin from Boulder, Colorado in late 2005, but, by July 2006, he had already teamed up with guitarist/producer Brad Rice (Ryan Adams, Son Volt, Keith Urban) to cut 45â¦the Night Highway 99 Sessions. The 2 song release was formatted like an old 45 record, hence the title. Between Riceâs edgy guitar playing and Brechtâs beat-style lyricism, the sessions produced a moody, freewheeling musical adventure of alt-country landscape. The 45 introduced Rice as a âlive and let liveâ producer and Brecht as a standout songwriter in a town that is home to a thousand thriftstore poets. It also landed Brecht and his newly formed band a small handful of live radio performances, a speculative fan base, and regular headlining slots at the historic Hole in the wall.

In late summer of 2007, Brad Rice and Chris Brecht began the production of a full-length album. It is rare it seems that, in his day and age of digital media and pro tools records, a producer and an artist would venture into the studio to record a band live, in one room, on 2â reel to reel tape. But they did it. In three burn out days, they recorded the basic tracks to what was beginning to sound like a groundbreaking record. But complications arose, and due to his busy touring schedule with Keith Urban, Brad Rice was forced to let go the project. With Rice gone, a half finished record, and no one at the helm, Chris Brecht took over production.

The record became, The Great Ride, ten songs that wander the landscape of traditional songwriting and then break all the rules. According to Brecht, an incessant writer, hundreds of songs rest in the recordâs wake.

The songs thread a wandering highway somewhere between Ryan Adamsâ Heartbreaker and Bob Dylanâs Highway 61 Revisited. Even his song âNight Highway 99â pays homage to beat generation poet Gary Snyderâs âNight Highway Ninety-Nineâ by quoting him in the songâs first line. The rest is traveling, loving, losing, gaining, smoking, forgetting, forgiving, giving you everything, including verse after verse of cultural nakeness and the assimilation of one poetâs experiences in love and generation.

People who are interested in Bob Dylan Wilco Ryan Adams should consider this download.