NIEL BROOKS: Static Sessions

Niel Brooks

Static Sessions

© 2002 Niel Brooks (659057469621)

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Heartache music with as many roots in country as punk.

tracks

1 Night
2 Satellite Road
3 Southern Town
4 Jacob Halsey's 94th Dream
5 Anabel
6 Follow You Down
7 Rail-Road Blues
8 Barn Burning
9 Phoenix
10 Hang Your Head (Sept. 1963)
11 Philadelphia Around Midnight
12 One Story Town

notes

Static Sessions - Niel Brooks

Review By: Ryan Orendorf

Niel Brooks' Static Sessions feels like the musical equivalent of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. The album sketches stories of restlessness, love, religion and murder that intertwine to form the skeleton of an anonymous small Southern town. In a setting that seems all too appropriate, Static Sessions was recorded in a hundred year-old home in the upstate of South Carolina.

Brooks, a former Clemson native, is an adept storyteller and musician. Static Sessions relies solely on his acoustic guitar and harmonica and has a surprising amount of rhythm and energy for a recording without drum tracks. The guitar work is excellent, which can be a rarity for singer/songwriters. It's rich, complex, and varied enough to sustain the songs without any other instrumentation. Static Sessions is reminiscent of early Ryan Adams' recordings and parts of Wilco's AM and Being There. It has a rootsy and underproduced quality about it that brings out the roughness and emotion in Brooks' vocals.

The stories told are bittersweet and full of the contradictory influences that seem to shape small towns. "Satellite Road" is a soft lullaby about a double murder. "Jacob Halsey's 94th Dream" and "Railroad Blues" are upbeat, gritty songs of rebellion and escape. "Anabel," the album's most intimate track (you can actually hear the quiet draws of breath before Brooks begins each line), is an account of alienation from a love and the quiet resignation that follows. "Hang Your Head" is a haunting dirge for lives lost at the hands of racism. "Night" sums up the town's character with a tamed and disheartening feeling, one of reserved frustration. Brooks sings, "Dreams don't die in this town, they just don't get far."

Piece by piece, Static Sessions becomes a fascinating portrait of a Southern town that is full of paradoxes -- a town of Bibles and guns, of beauty and self destruction.

**************

Singer/songwriter Niel Brooks pens 12 songs covering religion, love, murders and social issues in his debut solo release, "Static Sessions." (November, 2002) A native of upstate South Carolina, with a family tree of mill-workers, artists, engineers and farmers, Brooks writes a wise blend of folk, country and rock influenced music from gothic, southern experience.

After several years of intensively studying jazz music, Brooks changed gears in the early 1990s with L.E.N.(Loud Electric Noise). L.E.N. emerged as punk rock with respect to early country writers. The jazz technicality, politics of punk and the emotional rawness of writers like Johnny Cash and Gram Parsons became the influences and foundation for Brooks' incredible songwriting.

Brooks was a founding member of the band Grass Cactus, where he played acoustic guitar and mandolin. Grass Cactus went on to produce the album "Cactus Juice" and toured extensively until 1999. Besides being a staple of the jam-band scene, Grass Cactus was highly respected for their notorious jazz-oriented improvisation, as well as a reverence for bluegrass and country.

Also a part-time addition to Greenville based alternative-country band Seconds Flat, Brooks has had years of valuable professional stage experience. Among other accolades, Seconds Flat released three full length albums. (The final album was recorded by Brian Ahern (Emmylou Harris) on Green Linnet records in 1999.)

Wilco, Whiskeytown and Nnenna Freelon are just a few artists that have shared the stage with Brooks. His writing has characterized him as "an adept storyteller and musician." Brooks' talent and roots create songwriting with a haunting reality of southern, gothic culture.

reviews

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  • Have you ever visited a small southern town?
    author: Jenny

    Have you ever heard a lonely train whistle miles away? Have you ever walked along the abandoned tracks? What about the picture of that old covered bridge in your grandmother's photo album? Do you know the mystical secrets of those people in the black and white pictures? Niel's voice will transport you to a place you have either never been or a place of your childhood so authentic and raw you will just sit down in the middle of your kitchen floor spiraling back to your English Lit class, remembering Eudora Welty, and ultimately, letting go ... to Niel's musical painting. Haunting, eclectic, and rare.

  • it's a winner
    author: Hawksley

    I'd probably only give 5 stars to Dylan; however, this song collection reminds me that there are truly gifted artists out there flying under the radar. Thank you, Niel Brooks, for making these "sessions" available, and for letting us into your world. When I hear the hymn at the end of "Hang Your Head" I get chills. And I think that says it all. This is a brilliant collection.

  • Wow
    author: Erin

    Static Sessions cannot be enjoyed once, but over and over as the songs wash over and drown you. I have never heard more awe-inspiring poetry ever-from musicians, poets, anyone...ever.

  • Truly a fine songwriter, Brooks spins a tale as true as any.
    author: michael m.

    This album is at once as warm as a southern August night and as cold as the sound of a gun in the distance. Niel Brooks' words taunt you as his guitar sends chills up your spine. Each song sounds as if it were recorded at the scene of the story being told. Static Sessions is definitely a record to sit back and listen to from start to finish . . . you'll restart it once it's done.

  • Excellent
    author: Kelli Moss

    bought on a whim. best cd i own. it stayed on rotation in my cd player for at least a month.

  • Delicate acoustic poignancy.
    author: David Fricke

    Reminiscent of early Neil Young, or perhaps Loudon Wainwright III without the strained comedy, Static Sessions was a gift to me from a friend - a wonderful treasure that has worked its way into my heart. The song sequence reminds one of pre-compact disc days, when side A meant something entirely different than B - not just songs, this is art.

  • genuine article
    author: Alston

    This record is somewhat lo-fi, and that if anything helps it. Very indie. Very genuine. This is where Steve Earle and Ryan Adams meet on a dark southern rural route - best listened to on a hot summer night, with a stiff bourbon.

  • You Need This CD!
    author: Amber

    This CD is soulful, comforting, well written. In short, it's amazing. If you don't own it already, shame on you.

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