The Brothers Lekas
It Ain't Free
© 2006 The Brothers Lekas
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Bluegrass, modern folk, traditional folk, americana, acoustic,
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The Brothers Lekas have been kicking back playing guitar, mandolin, and singing and writing songs for more then half of their lives. For the past five years, the brothers have been a backbone of the San Francisco music scene with their band In Rare Form, opening for diverse acts like The Mother Hips, Burning Spear, Spyro Gyra and Perpetual Groove at historic venues such as San Francisco's Slims and 12 Galaxies, the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano and Sweetwater in Mill Valley.
This past year, the brothers went back to their acoustic roots to record their new release It Ain't Free. The new release highlights San Francisco's rich musical influence with a blend of folk, bluegrass, Americana and contemporary acoustic music. Early listeners have compared the sound to mid-1970's The Band, acoustic Led Zeppelin and Wilco. It Ain't Free was recorded using a single microphone which gave The Brothers Lekas the opportunity to display their talents on various instruments, including guitar, upright bass, mandolin, octave mandolin, greek bouzouki, violin and piano. With the help of sound engineer Jason Mills, Mark and Erik produced the CD utilizing specific instruments for certain songs to best tell the story of the each individual song.
The brothers will be supporting It Ain't Free with a CD release party at The Purple Onion in San Francisco on Thursday, November 16th, and at other local shows in the San Francisco Bay Area followed by an upcoming tour. For more information, please visit www.thebrotherslekas.com.
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CD Review
author: San Fran VoiceSan Francisco Bands: The Brothers Lekas Posted by Kathryn April 11, 2007 No Responses Del.icio.us Digg it! Technorati As I sat down to write what I wanted to write about The Brothers Lekas, I kept wanting to refer to them as “the band” and I kept having to correct myself. Because technically, these guys aren’t a “band”, they’re a duo comprised of – you guessed it – two brothers. But between the two of them, Mark and Erik Lekas play so many instruments that they create a full, rich sound that makes it seem as if they have a whole band behind them instead of just the talents of the two of them creating that music. Their genre is a folk rock flavor that’s more rock than folk in terms of multi-instrumental energy but more folk than rock in the sense that they use instruments heard regularly in country and bluegrass music. The Brothers Lekas play acoustic music which makes use of their years of training in guitar, bass, cello, mandolin, piano and even bouzouki. Their first CD, It Ain’t Free, was released at the end of 2006. It’s a ten-track album which takes reflective lyrics sung mostly by Erik (although Mark’s voice rings clear on “Song of My Own”) and pairs them with observations about life in general and the bigger picture of nature to create a story which is woven from song to song. If the lyrics are the story, the instrumentals are the pictures which help the listener to better understand the words being shared. So, when you hear that “it’s been weeks and not days” (“Quicksand”), you know that time has passed but when you hear the lines punctuated with the piano, you really understand the impact of the emotion being described. One could stand alone without the other but each contributes to the total experience. Incidentally, the songs I’ve mentioned here, which happen to be my favorites off of the CD, aren’t on their MySpace page but the four songs that are (”Forgiveness”, “Wishing You Around”, “Walking In Circles” and the title track) all exhibit this same combination of strong lyrics fused with impressive instrumentals. The Brothers Lekas play next in San Francisco on May 12th at Cafe International in The Haight. The show is free and all ages. In addition to this work that they’re doing together, they play with Steve Strehler in the psychedelic jam band In Rare Form which has been part of the San Francisco music scene since the turn of the milennium
Outstanding modern folk CD. Pick up a copy today.
author: RadioIndy.com staff"It Ain't Free" is a CD of strong, visual songwriting accompanied by a tasteful mix of acoustic instruments. The sound is very raw and real. One of the strengths of the CD is that its relatively simple production highlights the natural sounds of the instruments and allows the songwriting to shine through. "Walking in Circles" and "Quicksand" are excellent tracks with strong songwriting that includes visual and meaningful lyrics, and a beautiful arrangement of guitars and mandolins. "One Step At a Time" is an Americana tune with a catchy, foot-stomping chorus. If you enjoy singer/songwriter-style modern folk music, you will enjoy this CD. Pick up a copy today!