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PRESS There's a song for every season, an intonation for every falling leaf. A riff for every angry thunderstorm. Austin's Brothers & Sisters recline in the burnt and sunny pastures of Texas summers and vacation on the breezy beaches of California. They make simple music, choruses slipping easily into the groove of a verse, but it's their feel-good attitude that's taken them from ideas floating around in Will Courtney's head to packed houses in Austin's notoriously fickle music scene. "Things and ideas are classic for a reason," bassist David Morgan relates of Brothers & Sisters' familiar melodies. "There's the timeless, odd thing in music, and if you tap into that, which I think we do sometimes, people latch onto it." The six brothers and two sisters that make up the core of the band are more kindred than even the name implies. Will and Lily Courtney were reared by music; mother Cynthia Clawson is a revered contemporary gospel singer, who – with father, preacher, and songwriter Ragan Courtney – released last year's Brothers & Sisters' eponymous debut on their Calla Lily Records [distributed by I Eat Records]. Will came home to Texas from L.A. two years ago and started making music with his sister. The rest of the unit – Morgan, guitarists James Olsen and Daniel Wilcox, pedal steelist Ray Jackson, tambourine player Courtney Chavanell, and drummer Greg McArthur – quickly clicked, and with the help of tours with Trail of Dead, Brothers & Sisters have become a hit with their Beach Boys harmonies and Byrds calls. "Pop music is what brought everybody together," explains McArthur. "Simple songs, not hard to play." Brothers & Sisters' smile and sway is a welcome respite from the often-contrived indie rock of the last decade. Instead of forced, complicated structure, B&S are accessible, sometimes even obvious. The songs on Brothers & Sisters (Texas Platters [below] , February 3, 2006) find Will and Lily fluctuating between key and feeling, each strum accentuated by the euphoria in songs like the jubilant "Sunday Living" and innocent "One Night." When the serene reverberation of "Without You" crosses into pop perfection, crystalline tambourine echoes timelessly. It might be vintage, but it's not weathered. "What's really fun about playing in this type of band is that the songs are pretty easy," Morgan chuckles. "It's easy to play a show with one of your friends' bands and say, 'Hey, just come onstage and sing. You've heard it once; you can probably get by.' "It's comfort food as music."
photo by Felicia Graham
The moniker of this Austin-based country-rock ensemble refers to siblings Will and Lily Courtney - respectively, the group's lead singer-songwriter and the harmony singer-tambourinist - as well as the "extended family" of musicians listed on the CD jacket (which includes Conrad Keely of ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead). This communal vibe contributes to the warm gather-round-the-fire feel of Brothers and Sisters' low-key debut. Most of the songs deal with the quiet sorrows of growing older with too much time and not enough money ("Purple mountains don't mean nothin' unless you're on top"). The gorgeous gem "One Night" couches a plea for nookie into a dappled Byrdsian chime and an irresistable chorus. The tear-in-beer ballad "Old Love Letters" could be a lost track from Grievous Angel. There is nothing pretentious or even ostentatious about this music; one can almost smell the tobacco and old Lone Star beer cans spiked with salt and lime.
Brotherly Love: Austin's best-kept, countrified secret Brothers and Sisters bask in the same golden sunshine as the Mamas and The Papas and the Byrds, but the Austin-based collective also mines that era's darker side, combining sugar-sweet harmonies with foreboding, gloomy lyrics. It's a dichotomy that singer/songwriter Will Courtney (aka Brother Will) sees no problem with. "I don't set out to have that contrast in my songs, but it does happen a lot," he says. "The truth is, life, for the most part, is filled with hardships, heartache and disappointment. But for me, I really never lose hope that the good stuff is just around the corner." And the good stuff is everywhere on the group's self-titled debut (Cally Lily/I Eat Records): hazy strummed sing-a-longs, boy-girl harmonies, vibrant keys. Ask Brother Will what the band sounds like, however, and he'll most likely name cornerstone 70's cult films like Five Easy Pieces, Being There and Harold and Maude, instead of bands or instruments. "All of those movies have this sense of longing for the past, but are aware that the present, however painful or joyful, is only here for a moment and you really have no choice but to embrace it," he explains. That desire to embrace the world is also part of the inspiration behind the band's name. While Brothers and Sisters only contain one pair of blood siblings (Will and his sister Lily), the moniker, as well as the Brother/Sister prefix attached to each member, has a lot to do with Courtney's childhood: "Lily and I were raised to believe that we're all brothers and sisters in this world," he says. "I really wanted to have a band that would be so big that it was like an audience on the stage, and it would break down the barriers between audience and performer."
Brothers And Sisters, the first band of the night, was a fantastic six-piece out of Austin (including Conrad Keely, lead singer and guitarist for Trail of Dead on keyboards) who played what they called “Texas music for an Ohio crowd,” before breaking into a song about California. Huh. The brand of country-rock they played was so catchy and upbeat that it was hard to keep from joining in their harmony-heavy “ba-ba” refrains. Courtney looked like Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam and sang like Neil Young, while the rest of the group, including two female singers/tambourine players, rocked like The Beach Boys, Gram Parsons, and, well, Neil Young.
Austin, Texas' Brothers and Sisters remind me of a lot of great bands: Crosby, Stills & Nash, Whiskeytown, Beachwood Sparks, and even a little bit of the Grateful Dead. But that's not a bad thing; this country-rock collective make some seriously good music. Their debut album is merely the beginning for these folk-loving folk, and we were happy to get the chance to speak to Brother Will Courtney, the mastermind behind the band, shortly after he completed the band's first West Coast tour. His tale is an interesting one, and if you get a chance to see them on tour, I'm sure they'd appreciate it if you'd come and see them live. (INTERVIEW HERE)
Ah, California dreaming on such a summer’s day. Brothers and Sisters effectively wrangle up the laid-back sunshine vibe of 1970s California AM radio pop/rock, but without being a retro throwback. For the record, this Austin septet actually features only one pair of siblings, leaders Will and Lily Courtney. Their five bandmates and another seven “extended family” members have pooled their resources to create a strong debut of acoustic guitar-driven, country-kissed songs. While they certainly draw from the Eagles and Neil Young, they also touch on the works of artists closer to being their contemporaries, such as Will Oldham and My Morning Jacket. Still, the band are too earnest to belong to modern times. Will Courtney denies the trappings of present day consumption-crazy culture in “New Life”, with its groovy organ-fed shuffle and casual declaration: “All these luxuries, these extra things / They don’t mean shit.” The lyrical and musical straightforwardness of Brothers and Sisters is refreshing, as is the quality of the tunes all throughout this very good first album. We will soak it in and hope for more.
Austin, Texas produces more musicians than any other city in the United States, so it should come as very little surprise that many of the most highly regarded bands in rock hail from the Lone Star State's fine capital. Yet, with the state's rich history of cowboy culture and country music, it's amazing that there aren't more breakout acts with an ear for twang. Austin eight-piece Brothers and Sisters don't neglect their state's heritage, however, marrying sunny pop music with a laid back alt-country vibe on their self-titled debut, a 12 song set of dusty guitars, warm, crackling organ and ragged vocal harmonies. (READ MORE)
ALL IN THE FAMILY: Brothers and Sisters' mellow West Coast country-pop is the surprise local hit of 2006. Moreover, in an industry of artifice, they come by it honestly: Singer-songwriter Will Courtney started the supersized ensemble that he anchors with actual sister Lily last year after returning from a four-year sojourn in L.A., where he worked in the mail room of an A&R firm. "The president heard my demo, and it turned out he used to engineer Neil Young records in the Seventies," says Courtney. "He told me he wanted to help me get a deal, and that started to scare me because the way he was talking was all snaky and sneaky. I stepped away from him, and that ultimately cost me my job." Already driving an F-150 and wearing cowboy boots, Courtney figured he might as well move back to Texas, where he could start a band and help his parents run their record label, the Calla Lily Company. (His mother is a story all by herself: a gospel singer banned from Christian radio for her huge gay following.) Brothers and Sisters played their first show in October, and their earthy, honest sound struck an unlikely chord among local hipsters. "It's been really overwhelming," Courtney says. "I'm not saying I'm doing anything amazing or new, but I kind of feel like people are looking for that good, old feeling like those classic records. That's all I ever listen to, and I just want to keep that alive." Brothers and Sisters play the Whisky Bar tonight (Thursday) before heading west on a three-week tour.
Five boys. Two girls. Twelve tracks. One hell of an album Everyone who is/was anyone appears to have influenced this engaging debut--not surprising considering the band’s seven members came together in Texas from points as far afield as Hawaii, California, North Carolina and the deep South. The most obvious ghosts knocking around in here are 70’s Neil Young, the gentler ‘Who Loves The Sun’-era Velvet Underground’ and vintage (is there any other?) Beach Boys. Pleasantly under-produced with quirky lyrics, some nice off-kilter guitar solos, laid-back vocals and plenty of old-fashioned melody, there just simply isn’t any dead wood on this album. Despite all the influences at work, Brothers and Sisters bring to the mix as much as they borrow and when they occasionally sound derivative, they do so with unabashed pride. We like the sound of our musical heroes, so what? There is something of The Magic Numbers about this retro-inspired band although Brothers and Sisters are far more diverse and seem more deserving of acclaim than that other beardy, mixed gender outfit. For those wishing to revel in jangly, chorus-kissed 70’s California pop, there’s ‘Without You’ and ‘Lost and Found’. For those wanting to revisit Neil Young’s more solemn side, go no further than ’Old Age’ or ‘Breathing Lessons’. The rest fall into a loose, sort of Green On Red category of rambling country rockiness although some real emotion kicks in on the country lament ‘Old Love Letters’ and the mournful, acoustic finale ‘Going South’. Singer/writer Will Courtney seems to be running the show here and it’s not clear exactly where the rest of the ‘family’ fit in but, however they do it, the results sing and sparkle for themselves.
God damn it I love pedal steel guitar! Two instruments possess the possibility to emulate drunkenness, the first is the pedal steel guitar, and the second is the violin. If only there were a band that had both of these instruments…oh wait, how about Brothers and Sisters from Austin? Yes that’s right, a violin, pedal steel, and lyrics about booze and loss. Plus I should mention that the violinist on the full length is none other than Conrad Keely from ...Trail of the Dead. With a new release on Calla Lily/I Eat Records, you can get your 70’s era country fix with a little of that “alt” sprinkled in there as well. Brothers and Sisters, as the name suggests, contains an actual brother and a sister, oh and gents, incidentally, the sister plays an autoharp. No, you’re not mistaken, that is a wet spot on your jeans, and a desire in your heart to drink Lone Star and commiserate with Brothers and Sisters live. The sound strikes me as similar to just about anything Gram Parsons was involved in (Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers) but there is a bit of The Kinks’ Muswell Hillbillies in there as well. However, I should warn you that listening to Brothers and Sisters will make you grow a beard and wonder why you ever called your
Brothers and Sisters' local debut isn't perfect: the harmonies aren't always in key, the vocals sound raw at times, and guitars go in and out of tune. That's what makes it a true repeat listen. Those imperfections grow on you, like opener "New Life," which trots along under keys, tambourine, and Will Courtney's dusty West Coast drawl. "One Night" sounds like a Carly Simon/James Taylor jam with more twang and less sexual tension: "Come on baby, gimme one night. I know it's crazy but it just feels so right." The pedal steeliness of "Los Angeles" turns anthemic as the whole family gets on the wagon and screams "L.A.!" over a burning guitar solo. The plaintive "Without You" expands like the spawn of the Mamas and the Papas, riding a gentle wave of guitar pitter-patter into a wall of vocals featuring sisters Marie Butcher and Lily Courtney, whose harmonies are especially striking. "Lost and Found" screams Beach Boys, with its Wilson-esque chorus, and "Old Age" cranks like Rust Never Sleeps era-Neil. There's no kitsch here, only charm.
"Will Courtney On His Family Affair" The story of Will Courtney's Brothers and Sisters starts like so many other Hollywood rock 'n' roll tales – but it's in reverse; For once, something starts in Los Angeles and ends in Texas. "I was this guy with a beard wearing boots, driving a truck in LA. I looked like a Texan. I started to wonder why the hell I was in LA. Why didn't I get back to where it all started, back to where country music really happened? So I moved back to Texas." Will Courtney sat back and lit up his Camel Light. Stroking his beard he let me in on the "played out game" called LA, what makes Austin's music scene perfect, and the origin of the sound that would later make and help define his band, one of the most talked about bands on the Austin music scene, Brothers and Sisters. "My sister, Lily Courtney, and I were sitting on the couch one day and she got the tambourine out, and we just started jamming. Originally we were going to be called Brother and Sister, do a duet thing. But then we realized that we gotta get some more people on this, it was too good of an idea to pass up." Thanks to the modern marvels of the Internet, Will placed an advertisement on one of the most infamous websites known to date: Craigslist. "In the subject line I put all these band names and said you have to know and love all these bands." Those bands ranged from Neil Young to The Byrds. The album was already recorded and produced, but what Will and Lily needed were musicians. Not just any musicians, musicians who were keen on the sound Will Courtney was trying to lay down. "I'm a huge fan of the West Coast sound. I wanted country music mixed with the Beach Boys. I wanted that California, 60's sounding pop band mixed with country. California country Beach Boys meets Gram Parsons." After a few member rotations, the lineup was complete. Marie Butcher, Will and Lily Courtney, Greg McArthur, Dave Morgan, James Olsen, Dan Wilcox and most recently - the addition of And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead's own Conrad Keely, were now "Brothers and Sisters." After a few rehearsals, Will knew the Brothers and Sisters was set. "We'll have band rehearsals and at the end we'll all be smiling... just smiling knowing that it's good. That it feels right." It would seem like having a band with eight members would be more than one could handle, but luckily that isn't the case for this band. Headstrong and focused, Will didn't lose any sleep over such a "petty" idea. "I wanted a band where it's not me telling everybody what to do. It's the first time I've found a band where everybody is on the same page. We've got the same idea." Obviously it is a great idea. The first show the group played was packed and since then, the last three have sold out. Along with sold out shows, the band has a video under their belt. Brothers and Sisters recorded a video for "One Night," which is in heavy rotation on Central Texas' Music Entertainment Television, or ME TV, and is ready to start recording a second one for "Sunday Living." If you just happened to be out and about during SXSW this year, you probably stumbled across Brothers and Sisters who were dominating the scene playing a total of seven shows. Currently labels are scoping them out and it wouldn't be a surprise if they had a couple offers on the table. That's how things work in this reverse Hollywood story; California talent scouts come running to get the Texas artists. When asked what makes the music scene in Austin so great, Will responds with a grin and states, "the camaraderie." He follows up, "The music scene in Austin is so diverse. You have all these bands that are totally different, but come out and support each others' bands. That's what's cool about Austin. In LA it seems to be genre specific, here it's a camaraderie. That's what I've noticed and that's what I like." Will seems optimistic about Brothers and Sisters' future, and why not? Four months into the new year, things are looking oh so good. Videos are up and more shows are in the works. "Everything fell into place. I've been following this same path for five years. I've been focused on doing it and it just happened. I've been very aware of how lucky I am." All in all, the self-titled album captured everything Will had set out to do. What's done is done, and it was done well. Brothers and Sisters will be playing a series of shows throughout May. Visit their website for dates and to hear tracks from their album. There isn't a doubt that this CD will be the soundtrack for the summer nights to come – in Texas, California and the rest of the union. - Brandace Chatman, ATX Magazine
RECOMMENDED (05/10/06 @ The Parish) RECOMMENDED (02/18/06 @ Longbranch Inn) RECOMMENDED (02/03/06 @ Beerland)
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