(U-WIRE) STILLWATER, Okla. -- Richard Brannan's new album, "The Long Way Around and Other Short Stories," released on Post Script Records, shows the talent and experience Brannan has earned throughout the years. According to a press release from Post Script Records, Brannan is from Florida and earned the nickname Spady after a private eye Humphrey Bogart played in a classic movie. The talented guitar player, singer and songwriter dedicated his album to his three children. Brannon started touring in 1965 with The Curtis Brothers and has been involved with music ever since. He has toured with artists including Crystal Gayle, Buffy Saint-Marie and Reba McEntire. Brannan has recorded music with many country music stars such as Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings and Kenny Rogers. The musician is well known in Nashville, Tenn., for his writing ability, as well. Brannan has written hit songs for musicians including Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. The press release also says that Brannan was recognized for the song "Real Love" in 1985, when it won an ASCAP No. 1 Country Records Award. "Real Love" was co-written with David Malloy and recorded by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. Brannan has a great sound. The album's title comes from Brennan's life experiences. With songs like "Trouble With Words" and "The Reason I Breathe," listeners get the chance to see Brannan's romantic side. Brannan's tracks could be compared to Tom Petty or even John Mellencamp. Brannan has a variety of different sounding music, showing hints of soft rock, rock n' roll and blues. Lyrics include stories from everywhere in Brannan's life. Being in the music business for a long time has shown the musician many things and he tells about most of his best times and feelings in life. The album is great for easy listening, a romantic evening or just solid listening for the road. This album would be a great buy for anyone looking for new music.SPADY- THE LONG WAY AROUND AND OTHE SHORT STORIES- POST SCRIPT- Regular guy rock from Spady Brannan that’s totally pleasant . The guy is a good storyteller and knows his way around on a guitar.
The title tune to Spady Brannan’s new CD just sparkles. Acoustic guitar work, tasty percussion, electronic droning and soft, evocative singing draw you in expertly. Guests on the album include Lee Roy Parnell, Bekka Bramlett and Crystal Taliefero. Best known as a bass player or as the tunesmith behind such hits as “Real Love” and “Think About Love,” this collection demonstrates that he should be the front man more often.
-Robert Orman (Music Row)
You’re at the concert venue and your favorite band takes the stage … and you wonder, “Who the hell is that amazing guitarist – perhaps just a studio musician that is good enough to go on the road with top-notch arena rockers?” Well, Spady Brannan is one of those seasoned musicians that has been touring since 1965 with such artists as the Curtis Brothers, Buffy Saint-Marie, Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings, Kenny Rogers – and the list goes on and on. Spady is an official member of Who’s Who on the Nashville studio musician A-list! While filling in riffs for top country artists Spady, the dark horse songwriter turned out hits for Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Trisha Yearwood, to name just a few. Remember such tunes hits as Real Love, Think About Love and Once Burned Twice Shy? Yeah, well Spady was the guy that inked these and many other hits. Finally, Spady has taking a giant step forward to take the spotlight with his long awaited album titled Spady – the long way around and other short stories. The music veers toward rock, lightly spiced a with country vibe this time around, featuring Brannan’s versatile lyrics, unique guitar techniques, along with his hard, soft, smarmy and heartfelt vocals. Spady’s debut album is bound for the airwaves, which will arrive in the music stores on October 2006. His current endeavor contains 11 tracks, which is a book of personal short stories of his lifelong travels, relationships and memoirs. The CD opens with Trouble With Words – a Springsteen-ish rocker – a song that lays out a message for a special lady in his life. I predict Let It Go will be the single that takes the radio airwaves by storm. The closing track, a ballad filled with 30 years of touring, songwriting – and handed to the one he loves on a golden platter. Spady reflects, “I Did paints a pretty good picture of what’s been going on inside my head, and I didn’t want to wind up an old man with regret because … I didn’t.” I wanted to help celebrate this diary of songs with Spady, just because each and every song on his debut sincerely touched me. I look forward to seeing the guy that usually stands left stage for arena rockers, to step up and take center stage on his very own tour.
-Steve Triolo, Southern California freelance editor and music journalist
24/9/2006 4 Stars
MAVERICK
Spady
The Long Way Around And Other Short Stories
Post Script Records
A musical storybook, thirty years in the making, from one of the most sought after songwriters and musicians on Music Row.
Born Richard Brannan, he was nicknamed Spady after the character Sam Spade, immortalised by Humphrey Bogart in the classic film Maltese Falcon.
Since 1965 Spady Brannan has been building a name for himself within the music industry, and is now an official member of Who’s Who on the Nashville studio musician ‘A-list’. As a songwriter he has had more success with songs that he originally wrote for himself, he has penned hits for a great many artists including such names as Dolly Parton, Trisha Yearwood, Agnetha Faltskog from ABBA, Roy Orbison, Kenny Rogers and Don Williams.
This album is a collection of songs written by Spady and finally inspired by a very special relationship that lasted for three years. At the close of the on-off-on-off long distance love affair he decided that he still had more to say, thus this CD of short stories came to fruition. In his own words he explains further ‘It was a complicated and emotional relationship filled with love and pain and hope and despair…all incredible stimulators for a songwriter. I was in an intense and personal relationship with someone who not only inspired the songs but also inspired me to let them be heard in my voice. I fell in love and the songs fell out. There’s a lifetime of experience and emotion in this record that was unlocked by this relationship. We parted before I finished the record, but she was my muse. She unlocked the deep feelings that I poured into song’.
With a great supporting cast of musicians along with Spady’s great vocals and expertise on guitar he tells his story through each track. Trouble With Words is where they meet and he is immediately smitten, but then she leaves for the first time in Let It Go, and he begins to think that it is to be just a brief encounter.
But she comes back and Spady wants to spend all his time with her on the tender ballad Make You Weak. It doesn’t last and for a second time she leaves him with These Boxes full of both happy and sad memories. The thought provoking The Long Way Around has him reflecting on where they have been, ending up with Spady finding his true love again. The slightly bluesy rocker Smilin’ Eyes with its excellent guitar solos is about how he feels drawn to her, but he then finds himself trying to come to terms once again to losing her in Some Days, which has Glen Duncan adding some fine mandolin.
The magnificently brooding rocker Tryin’ To Hold The Wind has Spady finally wondering if he will ever be able to hang onto her, and then the fantastic voice of Bekka Bramlett adds great backing to his heartfelt vocals on The Reason I Breathe, as he tells his lover what she does to him and how he will make her realise what she means to him.
Lee Roy Parnell adds some amazingly atmospheric slide guitar on the wonderful FireFlies as Spady makes one last gasp attempt to try and make her leave her old world behind and start a new one with him. It doesn’t work, and he is left to reflect on all they went through in I Did. But, if given the chance, he would go through it all again!
A truly mesmerising storybook album of great songs, with great music and lyrics, told brilliantly through Spady’s heartfelt vocals. DK
Spady Brannan "The Long Way Around and Other Short Stories" (Postscript)
3 1/2 Stars
Longtime Nashville studio player steps out front
Brannan's a well-respected Nashville studio bassist and string player
who's toured behind Crystal Gayle and Reba McEntire, and recorded with
Tammy Wynette, Eddie Rabbit and Phil Vassar. He's penned hits for
Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers ("Real Love" "Think About Love"), Trisha
Yearwood ("I Did") and Highway 101 ("Despearate Road"). He even scored
a European hit for one time ABBA vocalist Agnetha Faltskog with "Once
Burned Twice Shy." As a fifty-something he's now converted on his original reason for
moving to Nashville: to release his own album. As writer or co-writer
of the album's eleven tracks, Brannan brings more blues, rock and soul
to his music than his pedigree would suggest. As a polished player he
makes a sophisticated co-producer, and his studio pals clearly enjoy
the opportunity to stretch beyond the current standard Nashville
sound. In fact, very few of these tracks sound like they came out of
Nashville. A few harken back to the '80s rock on Tom Petty and Bryan
Adams, but more often he's soulful in a Boz Scaggs vein. The mandolin
and dobro inflected "Some Days," for instance, is more Memphis than
Music City. Brannan's autobiographical song cycle chronicles the ups
and downs of a multiyear (and ultimately unrequited) relationship with
an openness that's will touch many listeners.
-Eli Messinger, Freelance Music Writer
SPADY BRANNAN/Long Way Around and Other Short Stories:
This guy could come up to you in a bar, give you one of those 'then-I-did' stories and you would probably buy him a drink to get rid of him, and that would be your mistake. One of the main behind-the-scenes cats in Nashville for the last 30 years, if he says he had a hand in plenty of major things, he isn't kidding, and now he's finally getting to make the debut record he came to town to do in the first place. A well-seasoned vet, this isn't something for the charts, it's something for the music fan that's looking for that meaty record that reaches out and speaks to him. Very much a "lived-in" recording that knows how to make it's point and get out in time to leave you wanting more, you don't have to be a country music fan to get into what Brannan has to offer. Quite the impressive outing, this really is the sound of what it's like to be in love with music.
-MIDWEST RECORD RECAP
Spady has just become my best friend and his CD is sitting on the very top of my most played choices. This highly respected songwriter takes us on a learning experience of how to execute brilliance in this collection of eleven songs. The song "Make You Weak" made me light-headed with a precisely painted picture of two lovers enjoying the moment. Lyrically Spady sets the standards of excellence and believe me that bar is pretty high. He has a Bob Dylan-like raspy voice that soothes and fires you up at the same time. It is hard to sit on one emotion as you go from one song to the next because he is celebratory and solemn, remorseful and unforgiving as you walk through the streets of his mind. The production is in good company with great vocals and storytelling lyrics. The music sets each song apart from the next to the point where these are no longer songs they are anthems of perfection. My favorite song on this CD is "Tryin’ To Hold The Wind." Spady out did himself on this one. I have never seen anyone describe a relationship that comes and goes the way he did in this rocking ballad. Not only was the story told with an original twist the guitar speaks a language all its own. This CD is a highly fine tuned instrument of greatness. Spady Brannon is a highly respected songwriter on Music Row and I can definitely see why after listening to this CD. With cuts from artists like Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Don Williams, and Roy Orbison he adds yet another historical contribution to music with his latest release. I give him 4 ¾ guitars for a job extremely well done!
www.musicnewsnashville.com
Reviewer: Sari N. Kent
The Daily Skiff, Texas Christian University
Spady Brannan's first albumn, "The Long Way Around and Other Short Stories" has been a long time coming for country music fans who have been listening to Brannan's music for years without even knowing it. For the past thirty years Brannan has been one of the pre-eminent songwriters, studio musicians and producers in Nashville, Tenn. He is an official member of "Who's Who" on the Nashville studio musicians A-list, has two No. 1 recordings, six chart toppers, and three country music awards to his name. Yet it was not until recently that Brannan set out to release an albumn of his own. This albumn will suprise people who dislike country due to the genres drawls because Brannan's vocals are as clear as any soft rock vocalist of northern upbringing-if not clearer. The albumn is extremely refined and there is evidence of someone of someone who has been involved in the music industry for years and has been on all sides of the sound board. Many of the songs sound like soft rock more than country and the track "Smilin Eyes" even throws in a blues flavor. The albumn sticks to a familiar country theme of love and loss, yet instead of a depressing tone it has an extremely positive outlook toward the future. The albumn was written after a relationship ended with a woman he calls his soulmate. Each track tells a different part of the relationship, ending with the track "I Did" with the notion that it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. The albumn as a whole has lyrical content that surpasses almost anything circulating on today's country radio stations. Brannan's latest release plays more like a classic rock albumn than a current country albumn. It is an extremely enjoyable listen, and everyone can find at least one song on the albumn that he or she can relate to.A good buy for fans of Tom Petty's "A Highway Companion" or Jimmy Buffets "Beach House on The Moon" or country music in general.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Spady, “The Long Way Around and Other Short Stories” (Post Script) — Richard “Spady” Brannan’s voice is raspy, and his pitch wobbles. But he shows a good ear for country-rock hooks and turns of phrase. He’s already written hits for Dolly Parton and Trisha Yearwood; this CD will provide plenty of other choice material to mine. A keeper: the soulful “The Reason I Breathe.” Grade: B+
Ron Warnick, www.havefunonline.net
Although this is his first solo album, Richard "Spady" Brannan's credits stretch back some thirty years. He has played bass for the likes of Crystal Gayle, Reba McEntire and Eddie Rabbit, while also having his tunes covered by such big-time performers as Kenny Rogers, Roy Orbison and Dolly Parton. His long-overdue debut, however, isn't filled with glossy Nashville numbers. Its warm, rootsy groove holds more in common with John Hiatt. In fact, he occasionally sounds a bit too much like Haitt. On Fireflies, for example, Brannan sings with a very Hiatt-like cadence while guest guitarist Lee Roy Parnell's slide work conjures up memories of Hiatt's sometime sideman Sonny Landreth. However, for the most part, Brannan delivers an impressive set of subdued and soulful originals. The best of the lot might be the leadoff track, Trouble With Words, which combines insightful lyrics ("I wanna say I love you but it's not enough…No matter how hard I try I always come up short/That's the trouble with words") with a gritty twang-rock sound. He stocked the disc entirely with songs dealing with love, apparently spurred by a particularly unforgettable love affair. The "up" side of this roller coaster relationship is chronicled on tunes like the romantic ballad Make You Weak and the heartfelt The Reason I Breathe. Meanwhile, the "down" side gets revealed on the bluesy rocker Smilin' Eyes and the compelling Let It Go. On These Boxes, Brannan smartly takes the simple image of moving boxes to show the emotional weight that memories carry. He closes the album with an especially tender rendition of I Did, a Brannan tune that Trisha Yearwood earlier recorded. Brannan enlisted a number of his Music City session mates (like Parnell, keyboardist John Jarvis, singer Bekka Bramlett, mandolinist Glen Duncan, guitarist Michael Spriggs) to help give this independent release a full sound that's neither too slick nor too raw. While his resume may mark him as a Nashville sideman, Brannan shows here that he's quite a skilled frontman too. And special thanks probably also should go to Brannan's muse for inspiring this memorable effort.
A spunky batch of songs from a gifted vocalist make up Spady’s “The Long Way Around and Other Short Stories.” “Trouble With Words” has side guitar work from Lee Roy Parnell, drum work from Lonnie Wilson and Tommy Hardin, along with Spady’s loving lyrics like, “When I see the first light of a brand new day…I wanna say I love you…but its not enough… that’s the trouble with words.” “Let It Go” has more drum play from Wilson and Hardin and organ work from John Jarvis. This song paints a graphic image in listeners' minds with lines like, “I keep seein’ your dark eyes, long hair, fingers down my back, holdin’ me close.” “Make You Weak” has Jimmy Nichols tickling the ivories and acoustic guitar work from Spady and Michael Spriggs. The lyrics talk about a surprise Spady is planning for his flame, with lines like, “Only got about an hour or more till you walk through that door, but that’s okay, I got it all worked out…I can’t wait to see the look in your eyes, you’re goin’ be surprised, tonight’s the night you can let your hair hang down.” Spady’s intuitive and heartfelt lyrics are a window into his soul and listeners are privileged to have a peek inside.
