MP3 Brandon Ayre - The Golf Album

A mixture of retro-rock, with folk, blues, and country, both acoustic and electric.

18 MP3 Songs
BLUES: Guitar Blues, COUNTRY: Country Blues



Details:
"The Golf Album", by singer-songwriter Brandon Ayre, is a heartfelt, humorous, and remarkably clever look at people, and golf. Golf in all its facets is certainly the central theme, but the songs themselves, written and performed in a variety of styles, have much broader appeal than one might first think.

Vancouver-based producer Rolf Hennemann, who has worked with artists as various as Chiliwack, Heart, and Raffi, put together a superb group of studio musicians. "Man, we didn't know what to expect," says guitarist Robbie Steininger. "Eighteen songs about golf? Written and sung by an E.R. doctor? But he was good. And he not only knew how to write, but sing. He'd obviously done a lot of both. So we ended up having a ball. He and Rolf just let us wail. They were some of the best sessions I've ever played on." (Steininger's wife, Megan Metcalfe, ended up singing on the disc, as well as acting the part of the aggrieved wife in "Golf Rehab".)

The fun is not just in the topics--"My Wife Thinks I'm Gardening", and "It's O.K. Honey, The Kids Are Safe with Me"--but in the music itself. "The Kids Are Safe With Me" is a bluegrass tune. "Practice Range" is a classic electric twelve bar blues. "Chilidipper" a punchy little rocker, has shades of everything from "Oh, Pretty Woman", to "Tequlia", by The Champs. There's an amusing English music hall waltz, aptly entitled "Iron Necktie". It's about a golfer wrapping his putter around the neck of his competitor. And a lyrical cello on the final acoustic ballad "The Friends We Make Out Here". It's one of the strongest tracks on this impressive indie CD.

In 1999, Brandon Ayre moved from East Hampton, Long Island, NY to the Canadian Pacific Northwest. He's now living in Manchester, VT. He's married, has two wonderful kids, and claims to play to a twelve handicap. (Make that a 14 now.)Many years ago he was the lead in Montreal HAIR. (More years ago than he can currently remember.) His primary influences are The Beatles, Tennessean-born Jesse Winchester ("The best blue-eyed soul singer in the world") and fellow Montrealer, and fellow singer-songwriter, Leonard Cohen. He's still friends with Cohen, who has dubbed THE GOLF ALBUM the "Great-golf-a-Mighty!" CD.