FREE DOWNLOADS:
I have a growing collection bootlegs, home recordings,
radio performances, b-sides, that I always thought were fun to have around. Some recordings i made right after moving to Austin. Some i recorded before i moved here.
Just FYI you'll have to ignore Tom's Warning. It's dumb. And i don't know how to get rid of it. regarless....
Here are some free bootleg downloads:
3/7/09. We recorded a few songs this past weekend in a large hangar like room at my friends Ranch. We drank wine and beer recordings a lot of songs til about 4 in the morning.
Some new songs, some old, some dusty.
a song about Lightbulbs - Live on KVRX 91.7 Austin
...a few years before "the Great Ride." probably about 2005 or so.. Maybe longer, i recorded some songs at home when i was living in northern colorado. long before i knew any of the people who helped me make my first real record. It seems like a couple lifetimes ago even though it has really only been a few years. The basics of the songs were recorded in my apartment,... a small place located above a downtown pizza parlor. It was an old building...and my apartment was the place where the family who used to run the downstairs business would live. None of the ceilings were straight. There was a window that I used to climb out, which led out onto the roof and over look the city. One night when it was snowing, i once got stuck out there because the slanted roof that led back to my window had frozen over. if i had tried to climb it i would have slipped and fell about 20 feet into the alley. anyway, i had been drinking wine and the snow was getting pretty thick. it was about 11 at night. i took a leap of faith from the landing where i was to a portion of the slanted roof where i could brace myself against the chimney and not slip off. After doing that i was able to make another jump at my bedroom window. this time, i could grab onto the window ledge. i pried the 3rd story window open about 6 or 7 inches and fell into my bedroom. anyway, i may go into more detail at some other time. but not now. ...here are a few of the songs i recorded at that time....
i wrote this song one morning a couple years ago. i kept spelling the words wrong on the page. something i do all the time, but i was in such a strange frame of mind, particularly from some bad news that i had gotten. So I was writing and feeling so many feelings that all the misspellings on the page started to mean something. Ever since i have left the title of this song misspelled. this song will forever be misspelled. It's called "sais an orphan." but it's pronounced "Says an Orphan" just to clear up any questions ahead of time. Oh and...sometimes i call the song Subway Terrain Blues, just cause. Sais an Orphan - Free MP3 Download
Home Recording i just recorded this song a few weeks back at home. i was just goofing around and getting ready for a show. i was making some other demos of other songs and then i just recorded this one because some people had asked me to play it a few weeks earlier in Amarillo.
If the Streetlights glowed for us (home recording) - Free MP3 Download
it's pretty cool that there are places out there like Oregon. one of these Lost States. Places for people like me to dream about. i want to know what makes a place like Oregon what it is. Magic People. Magic Landscape.
I was contacted by the Rogue Creamery last year, 2008. They're great people. www.roguecreamery.com. I wrote this song for them. This is the studio version. Somewhere in Oregon - Free MP3 Download
Chris Brecht
how we lineup:
Chris Brecht - vocal, guitar, harmonica...
Matt Mollica - b3 Organ...
Ray Jackson - Steel Guitar..
Bobby Daniel - Bass...
Stephen Bres - Drums...
if you want to email - info@chrisbrecht.com
want to send a post card:
P.O. BOX 49602
Austin, TX 78765
Influences
i really have hundreds of influences. Bob Dylan. Neil Young. Ryan Adams' earlier records. Dion Dimucci. Ricky Nelson. Lucinda Williams. Eliza Gilkyson. Basically if you turn on an oldies station, i know about every song. I listen a lot to Larry Monroe's "Blue Monday" Show on KUT 90.5 FM. I dig the Temptations, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, obvious... J. Frank Wilson. Del Shannon. I'll go on and on later.
windows, doors, carpeted closets, places where you can't see behind, cobwebs, places under the rug,
long undivided roads, midnight cactus filled deserts surrounded by walls of hollow mountains, places
people don't see, places you thought briefly about going to and then forgot. those places, side of
the road motels, blue tile bathrooms and mildew stained drains, small little bars of soap wrapped in
waxpaper. little empty spaces at the corners of the tub. small beach side town between towns..
galveston seaside daytrips.
Drunk as a hoot owl,
writing letters
by thunderstorm.
~Jack Kerouac
Chris Brecht and the Dead Flowers at the Gibson Showroom
This is about the best bio I've got right now. It was written by Laurie Gallardo at KUT 90.5 FM Austin. She runs this program called "Texas Music Matters." I always thought that according to Texans everything in Texas Matters. I'm from Colorado. So i get to look at Texas from the outside in, even though I'm living here right now... Here's what Laurie has to say:
Chris Brecht isn’t exactly sure why he moved from Boulder, CO to Austin about three years ago, but it proved to be a fruitful decision. He released Night Highway 99 Sessions, a 2-song project formatted like an old 45 record, and started making the rounds about town.
There’s nothing really restricting a songwriter like Brecht to the “alt.-country” label. He digs more deeply into traditional roots and Americana, inspired by influences like Dylan but not imitating them. He’s even gone a step further by casting aside digital recording in favor of capturing his sound on a 2-inch reel-to-reel. That’s how he recorded his 2008 release, The Great Ride. ~ Laurie Gallardo KUT 90.5 FM
From the SEATTLE WEEKLY:
In a lazy drawl that sounds like a hybrid cross between Ryan Adams' soulful North Carolina slur and Bob Dylan's off-pitch, nasal mutterings, Austin songwriter Chris Brecht croons about trains, lost love and the nomadic life with the same passion and timeless appeal of greats from Woody Guthrie to Willie Nelson. And his devotion to all things retro extends to his songwriting and recording techniques: not only does he use a typewriter to put his poetic travelin' songs to paper, his debut album, The Great Ride, was recorded entirely to 2" tape. "I don't think I'll ever make a digital record, anymore," Brecht says. "I don't think that tape really makes [music] sound old or vintage; I just think that tape adds such a warmth and beauty that digital can't quite capture." This will be Brecht's very first Northwest tour, and though he's flying solo this time, he hopes to return by car soon with his full band, including organist Matt Mollica and his Hammond B3 (because Mollica refuses to play an electronic keyboard, ever.) Let's hope gas prices don't make that tour impossible, because the full band complete with B3 will be a sight to behold. If Bumbershoot and its country-heavy lineup isn't in the cards for you this weekend, checking out Chris Brecht should be.
www.seattleweekly.com Willamette Weekly - Portland, Oregon- It’s always nice to run across something suprising in the mail. Such was the case with Austin troubadour Chris Brecht’s 2008 release The Great Ride. The album is lyrically desperate, funny and poetic—something there’s plenty of time to consider given the sparse production. Brecht sounds somewhere between Loudon Wanwright, Alex Chilton and Slow Train Coming-era Bob Dylan. And despite the name drops here, Brecht is unique: His delivery is resigned and but not dispassionate, his songs homespun but not overly sentimental. And slide guitar just kicks my ass. CASEY JARMAN.
Have Guitar, Will Travel - the Santa Fe Reporter
There are an infinite number of young, aspiring musicians armed with nothing more than a guitar and a ravenous appetite for success. But only a few ever make it as professional musicians. Austin-based singer-songwriter Chris Brecht is one artist who managed to crawl out of the masses to begin an impressive alt.country career that brims with promise.
~the Santa Fe Reporter
Wrote a song for these fine folks. They make the best blue cheeses in the world. I shoulda wrote a blues song..ha.ha.....
....from across the ocean
Medeproducer Brad Rice, bekend om zijn ‘leven en laten leven’ reputatie, speelt elektrische gitaar. Op het wrange ‘A Song About Fightbulbs’ intensifiëren Jackson’s pedalsteel en Brecht’s harmonica de desolate sfeer. De Nomadische singer-songwriter lijkt in zijn ‘Great Ride’ al over een privé-paspoort te beschikken dat hem ongetwijfeld naar grootse muzikale einders zal voeren. Zijn natuurtalent staat daar borg voor.
Marcie
www.rootstime.be
The music world is changing. We're all jumping on that train. This is where you click to buy a copy of the Great Ride
~If you were disappointed by Adams’ Cardinology get this instead and you’ll be happy. - Marquee Magazine, Denver, Colorado.
Someone is Gonna Lose
Reviews for "The Great Ride"
Eugene Weekly: Recording to Tape
Chris Brecht writes country music for the ages - by Sara Brickner
If Austin alt-country songwriter Chris Brecht’s debut record The Great Ride seems born of another era, that might be because Brecht himself is a little old-fashioned. He writes his songs on a typewriter. He doesn’t own a TV. And though digital recording is standard, Brecht committed The Great Ride to two-inch tape rather than computer memory.
“I don’t think I’ll ever make a digital record, anymore,” Brecht says. “I don’t think that tape really makes [music] sound old or vintage; I just think that tape adds such a warmth and beauty that digital can’t quite capture.” Brecht sings songs about traveling by rail (trains show up in about half of his songs, something he attributes to living near them for a good portion of his life) and love lost. You know, the same stuff that Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan sang about. But while these themes could seem gimmicky or contrived in the wrong hands, Brecht’s songs feel genuine, his lazy drawl a cross between the soulful North Carolina slur of Ryan Adams’ early work and Dylan’s nasal, off-pitch utterings. But in his processes as well as his day to day existence, Brecht prefers the old school to the new....
the Austin Chronicle: "It's testament to the Austin songwriter's talent that The Great Ride is a trip worth retracing..." - Doug Freeman,
The Austin Chronicle
8 out of 10. Brecht is a troubadour in the Dylan sense. Wordy, poetic (with nods to the Beats) and existing in a space between Blonde on Blonde and the Basement Tapes. This is a collection of ten songs which, while rooted in Dylan’s late sixties sound, stand up on their own two feet and demand to be heard.
....this is an excellent debut. ... I reckon Brecht has the potential to go places if he continues in this vein. - Paul Kerr Americana UK
Brecht brings alt-folk-country to Austin with scruffiness, Woody Guthrie and beat poet lyrical undertones that make you feel like you are sitting shotgun with Kerouac at the wheel. The Great Ride, Brecht’s first full-length studio album release on Dead Leaf Records, hit the airwaves earlier this year and combines a nasal folkiness with guitar strums and lines of unfeigned poetry while sliding in harmonica, fiddle, Hammond B3 organ, and background harmony. The album has a freedom and restlessness with a folksy, bluesy, rock backbone. - Kathryn-Terese Haik
Austin Sound
Belgium: Zijn schitterende verhaaltjes en dat typische nasaal stemgeluidje gaan Chris Brecht
ongetwijfeld opzadelen met het "Dylan" syndroom maar hij zal er heus niet van sterven. Brecht houdt
alles perfect onder controle, de diagnose van je moet en kan er mee leven is hem en ons op het lijf
geschreven ...dit schijfje is een must - have, misschien een kleine stap voor de mensheid maar een
grote stap voor Chris Brecht (SWA) -
www.rootsville.be
USA: We always seem to think that musicians who are in Austin today will be here forever -- and Chris
seems comfortable in his skin here, true, but how can we deny that this guy just might (just might!)
be swept along down the road only to play here once or twice a year before long- FlanFire www.myspace.com/flanfire
songs for: newspapermen, magazine women, and children, fog train brakemen, underwater sea captains,
country air mamas, barbed wire papas, for the delicate and afraid to communicate, always irritable
fair trade coffee lovers, jet pilots and jack rabbits, cocktails and cottontails, robe people, sandal
people, boot people, immigrants, natives, country folk, city folk, ramblers, gamblers, bluesers and
boozers, behind the curtain never gonna say hello kind of people, slick under the hood people, dirty
hand to clean hand people, somewhere in the moonlight i think i saw a church steple, i'm gonna make
it look like i'm happy all the time kinda people, the worlds always against me people, morning
cigarette and coffee people, one last drink before the night falls people, phonies, cops, leftover
garbage handlers, pan handlers, ginners, tricksters, hipsters, up all nightsleepalldaylivers, people
you never want to see again people, people you know you'll never see again people, southern bells,
poker sticks handlers, knife fight alley hunters, shakespeares, hemmingways, oates, goats, chickens,
pens, pencils, farmers, maids, ribbons and bows, xs and os, fishermen, postcard senders, love let
hers, quiet types, sellfish, shelfish, one road leading to the next, it's all a blind turn people,
wake up in the morning one town to the next people, i always got somewhere to go people, always never
sleeps people.
work in progress
Oregon Tour By Train
The Vip Strip Club is Finally Open in the back of the Mix. The front still has Hip Hop Nights and Concerts that everyone loves. Now we also have an optional VIP area with FREE Bud Light every night. We are offering HALF PRICE admission to the VIP area for Armed Service People and Construction Workers for all of July from 5-9pm to Say Thank You. Send me a message if you would like your group to get a discount in August!!! Full Liquor Bar 18 to Enter and 21 to Drink. Now open Monday through Saturday 5pm to 2am. Tell Everyone!!!
Texas beaches need your help. Last week state Rep. Wayne Christian pulled a sly move in the legislature and created an exception to the Texas Open Beaches Act that allows him and his neighbors on Bolivar Peninsula to build houses on the PUBLIC BEACH.
This is bad news.
We have a campaign to convince Texas Governor Rick Perry to veto this bad bill.
This is very simple and your email could make the difference.
Texas beaches need your help. Last week state Rep. Wayne Christian pulled a sly move in the legislature and created an exception to the Texas Open Beaches Act that allows him and his neighbors on Bolivar Peninsula to build houses on the PUBLIC BEACH.
This is bad news.
We have a campaign to convince Texas Governor Rick Perry to veto this bad bill.
This is very simple and your email could make the difference.
Hello, it's me, Ruby Jane. I am a 14 year old fiddler, songwriter. I have some songs posted that are fresh out of the studio. Let me know if you like the new songs..be one of the first to hear, even before they are released!Thanks! new videos too! Ruby Jane
Localpalooza 09 will feature 30 top tier bands this August. Echofest will feature 12 Colorado bands this September and will kick off the ski season nicely. We look forward to all of your submissions. All genres welcome as localpalooza bridges the genre gap from jazz to metal! You may request an application at the addresses below.
Love and Lyrics Melissa Siverson President Whisper Fiercely Localpalooza@whisperfiercely.net Echofest@whisperfiercely.net
we are on our way back to TX after a GREAT West Coast run that wraps up on Sat May 2nd at the Scoot Inn in East Austin w/ our good friends the Mother Truckers...c'mon down!
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89.7 KACC is getting ready to add even more Texas rock and roll to the playlist this summer and needs your music ASAP. If you think we don't have your newest CD, get it in the mail - be sure we know where you are from and maybe include a bio - and send it to:
SPAMED! Can you ever forgive me? If so, please vote for me!
I am in Round Two of The TRCoA Unsigned Artist Competition. Help me get to Round Three by clicking my face and voting for me!
If I’m in the top 4 I get to play a showcase for record executives and could win 100 free hours in the studio.
If I were selected, it would really help me rock some faces off, please take a second and vote.
Thanks!
-Ted Hadji
Chris, I really enjoyed your music last night and especially the larger sound with the Dead Flowers backing. Thanks again for including The Tiny Tin Hearts in the show. Good luck to you on your upcoming tour.
We're going to have some MARVELOUS and TALENTED folks playing their favorite songs from Sesame Street, Schoolhouse Rock, and more! Artists include:
Albanie Falletta, Corrina Rachel, Johann Wagner, Luna Tart, Charlie King & co, Jon Doyle (of the White Ghost Shivers), members of The Lost Pines, Betty Soo, Datri Bean, Etan Sekons, Jiminy Crisket, Grace Pettis, Amanda Kitchens, and Sofia Echegaray.
Tickets: $7 adults / $5 kids / up to $2 off with donations of canned food items.
Hope you are SURVIVING these crazy economic times! Enjoy our new video "Whiskey Tonight" and stop by our site for a FREE download of the new song. Yes, something for FREE. Cheers!
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