Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus
Upcoming show: Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus will perform songs from their new release, Big Red Gibson, at NewWorldDeli on Saturday, January 20, 2024, with Ron Flynt playing keyboards, Cordy Lavery on guitar, and Charlie Irwin on bass. The Julie Lowery Quartet shares the bill.
“The tunes float in a folky manner but are edgy & rockier than previous efforts. This 11-cut, 32-minute CD, Big Red Gibson (Berkalin Records), is Patton and Brokus’ 7th collection. Songs have a more Byrds/Tom Petty soundscape.”
-Americana Highways
Berkalin Records is pleased to announce the 2023 release of Big Red Gibson, the new album from Austin's folk-rock duo Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus, their seventh release on the Houston label in fourteen years. Since their first meeting, Patton & Brokus have sung together and been partners in music and life for 40 years. Big Red Gibson represents a return to the rock side of Patton & Brokus' folk-rock origins for the first time since 2005 when they put their band Edge City ”on hiatus.” The band on Big Red Gibson plays with a Tom Petty/Byrds influence, led by Cordy Lavery's electric 12-string guitar.
Patton brought a batch of 20 songs to longtime producer Ron Flynt that called for a harder edge than the mostly acoustic sounds of Going the Distance, their 2022 CD that spent 20 weeks on the Americana chart. The characters in Patton's new songs feel an urgency toward getting away from their city, their past, and a way of life that Patton and producer Flynt felt needed to be represented in the music. Flynt has played bass and keyboards, sung harmonies, and produced Patton & Brokus since 2008. Drummer Steve McCarthy and Patton bonded over their love of old Kinks records. Longtime friend BettySoo again fills in on the high parts that used to be Brokus' while Brokus concentrates on her lower range. Brokus' voice, ravaged in 2019 by allergies, is on the road to recovery. She has no damage to her vocal cords, but it may take another year and a half for her to sing fully again. She has already cut a lead vocal for the next album, which they've already started to record.
The musicians on Big Red Gibson are Jim Patton (vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar),Sherry Brokus (vocals), Ron Flynt (rhythm guitar, keyboards, bass, background vocals), Steve McCarthy (drums), BettySoo (vocals), Cordy Lavery ( lead six and 12 string guitars,Eric Hisaw (lead electric guitar on “Janey Has a Locket”). The album was engineered and produced by Ron Flynt at Jumping Dog Studios, Austin, and mastered by Jerry Tubb at Terra Nova Mastering, Austin.
They have recorded with Lloyd Maines, the guru of Texas record producers, and have played with a cast of prominent Austin musicians. Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus released Collection 2008-2018 on Berkalin Records in North America, including songs from four previously released acoustic albums produced by Ron Flynt over ten years. The songs are infused with a wall of sound harmonies, fiddles, mandolins, and acoustic guitars passionately playing The Byrds and The Band roots-style music. The previous albums the songs were taken from include Plans Gang Aft Agley, as Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus, in 2008, broke into the top 30 on the Folk charts. Their next CD, Ray of Hope, made the top 100 on the Americana charts. They made two more albums in the next decade, The Hard Part of Flying and The Great Unknown. The Great Unknown was named one of the Top 100 CDs of the Year by music critic Geoffrey Himes in Paste Magazine.
Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus will perform shows in Austin and select tour dates in the U.S. in 2023 and 2024.
Reviews for Big Red Gibson:
https://americanahighways.org/2023/10/09/review-jim-patton-sherry-brokus-big-red-gibson/
https://steemit.com/music/@willphoenix/now-playing-jim-patton-and-sherry-brokus-big-red-gibson
Quotes for Going the Distance:
“Like The Rooftop Singers, there’s a mystique between the male-female vocal mix. The material stands up in a nice flow, folky but not campy. Jim Patton (lead vocals/acoustic guitar) has a laid-back old-world folky voice. Its tone embodies the lyrics' authenticity, and Sherry Brokus (harmonies) adds many colors.”
-John Apice, Americana Highways
“Going the Distance is already one of the absolute top hits of 2022 for me. Just another wonderful example of top Americana reaching us from Austin, Texas.”
-Fred Schmale, Real Roots Cafe - The Netherlands
"After Warren Hood's fiddle-powered "Golden Boy," that sharp guitar is back in "Brand New Love" and in the Brooks-written rocking "Austin Night," Patton goes back to the early days of his fascination with music, "I'm not rich or famous, but I'm doing alright; I'm still making music on an Austin night." With that positive attitude, we can expect something from this duo."
-Cis van Looy, Written in Music
“Jim Patton, with his breathy, ‘lived in’ singing style, takes the lead with Sherry Brokus providing shadowy harmonies; in the way Emmylou made famous alongside Gram.”
-Alan Magpie, The Rocking Magpie
"What is good must not (or should not) be changed. We are still huge fans of the eleven songs Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus have selected for their fifth studio record, Going The Distance. As usual, we hear interesting storytelling folk songs presented by this duo on catchy and heartwarming music."
-Rootstime
Links:
Website: www.pattonbrokus.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jimpattonsherrybrokus
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPvjJ_cuR5XtE5qmPO4fGYQ
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/artist/5HuKZ8gVDx0FKpbBncHTZH
