Review of "Out of the Blue"
One of DJ Caterina's favorite CD's this year -- a review.
Out of the blue, a Philly favorite is back
Frank Brown serves up new guitar-pop
By Steve Klinge for The Inquirer, The Philadelphia Inquirer – Philly.com
For fans of longtime Philly favorites Flight of Mavis and Buzz Zeemer, listening to Frank Brown's new solo album, Out of the Blue, will be like hearing from an old friend. Brown self-deprecatingly calls it a "comfortable bunch of songs."
While it's neither as jangly as Mavis (the trio Brown started in 1988) nor as power-poppy as Zeemer (his subsequent band with Tommy Conwell), Out of the Blue is full of the easygoing, catchy melodies that have always been Brown's forte.
Throughout the '90s, Brown's bands regularly played clubs including the Pontiac and its predecessor, J.C. Dobbs, on bills with peers such as Emily Valentine, the Rolling Hayseeds, and early Marah. "That was great; much fun," Brown says. "As far as the Pontiac or Dobbs, there was a period of time when you were so used to playing those places, it was like a second home."
But around 2000, "Buzz Zeemer just came to an end," he says. "We sort of looked at each other and said let's stop for a while." And although Brown played guitar for a time with Solid for Sixty, he devoted his attention to raising his sons, now 4 and 6, and to his new career as an elementary school teacher. "As far as the music goes, I was really done," Brown says.
He continued writing and playing for his own amusement, however, and he eventually gathered some friends and recorded Out of the Blue in brief, sporadic sessions. "It's going to be a bit of the old, a bit of the new," he says of Saturday's show marking Blue's release. "I just want to make it comfortable and get back into it."
Frank Brown, with the Hot Buttered Rum String Band, at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Point, 880 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr. Tickets: $10. Phone: 610-527-0988.
posted by DJ Caterina at 8:06 PM
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