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“I have to admit,” recalls singer/songwriter Alex Brumel in a recent interview, “that I fell in love with Janel Elizabeth’s voice the first time I heard it, but I wondered if our backgrounds were too different for a collaboration to really work. I grew up working in theatre, which led me to the rock operas of The Who and The Kinks, and then to singer/songwriter and country music in my teens. Janel, on the other hand, is a seriously soulful jazz and blues singer who was raised on Stax and R&B and sings with David Berger's Sultans of Swing and with Max Weinberg. So even though we came from different performance backgrounds, we decided to get together and sing some songs just for fun, and that first session was one of the coolest nights of my life. My musical future flashed before my eyes. From that moment on, we knew that this collaboration would not only work, but would become the primary focus of our careers. I know it’s a cliché, but we really do complete each other musically – and we knew it from the first time we sang together.”
A distinct brand of soulful country-pop, a kind of "21st Century Americana," developed out of that very first session. Elizabeth remembers, “The music instantly brought to mind so many of our favorite artists, from Ray Lamontagne to The Band, Whiskeytown to Union Station and Nickel Creek... all bands we really admire because they created something totally original from their obvious love and respect for our country's music. That's really what this collaboration is all about for us - taking what we collectively love and finding our voice - making it our own. My hope is that it’s the kind of music that won’t alienate loyal fans of any one style of music, but can actually wind up bringing a wide range of music lovers together. And, maybe most importantly, I think the way we’re doing it is pretty unique: with Alex's high tenor and my low alto, we meet somewhere in the middle, and we often leave people guessing who's singing which part...it's the boy-girl harmony thing, but with a twist. People seem to really like it.”
And thus begins the musical collaboration of Alex Brumel and Janel Elizabeth. Their debut recording, The Mill Stone, features originals by both Brumel and Elizabeth arranged for a variety of musicians, from acoustic duets with a cellist to full-band performances. Combine this recording with Alex Brumel’s third solo release, To Bring You Home (produced by drummer/writer Eric Novod and featuring ex-Bob Dylan multi-instrumentalist David Mansfield) and Janel Elizabeth’s debut jazz EP, Live at Ronnie Scott's, and the two are ready to embark on a musical journey that is bound to turn heads and raise eyebrows. Perhaps Alex says it best: “Really, we’re just excited about what we’ve stumbled upon here, and in our own small way, we think we have something new and important to say. We just hope people enjoy it as much as we do.” |
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