Sounds of Summer
Southern grit on tour: Cory Branan brings bad boy story songs to Mohawk
Cory Branan wears the face of the unassuming singer-songwriter: simple, bearded, nonthreatening. But his vocals and lyrics are too real — too gruff and raw — for Branan to fit into a neat, lackluster catchall.
Fresh off Revival Tour (the punk-gone-acoustic brainchild of Hot Water Music’s Chuck Ragan that kicked off at SXSW), Branan returns to Austin this Saturday for a solo gig at Mohawk. And for Branan's unique, Memphis/Nashville bred sound, indie-heavy Red River is a fitting home.
Branan is the blue-collar bad boy with a pretty face whose story songs capture that intangible piece of Americana that restless twenty-somethings yearn for on hot summer nights.
When he takes stage, Branan’s persona is bigger than his thin frame, his performance gut-wrenchingly real. Full of passion and southern grit, Branan’s music is motorcycle boots stomping and broken guitar strings. His isn't a brand of simple songs meant to make girls swoon. But that doesn't mean they won't.
Branan is the blue-collar bad boy with a pretty face whose story songs capture that intangible piece of Americana that restless twenty-somethings yearn for on hot summer nights.
Branan's style, I'd dare say, is comparable to Nebraska-era Springsteen: undeniably young, desperate and intoxicating.
His latest album, 2012’s Mutt, is an immersive journey through time and space with highly identifiable subject matter riding shotgun. It's a perfect aural depiction of what's so intriguing about Branan's approach to music, too: as complicated — and difficult to categorize — as Branan himself.
As the title aptly suggests, Mutt is a cross-genre album that moves jarringly from folky-minded tunes like opening track “The Corner” into Memphis-influenced songs like “Survivor Blues," which drowns in Lucero-esque alt-punk tendencies.
In comparison, “Darken My Door” is a melodious anthem of heart and harmony (swoon-worthy on a summer night):
All the night lets lonely shine so clear/ Tonight my head is a chandelier/ Send the soft eclipse/ And the sweet sweet lips to me/ Send your heart like a dark red wine/ That's headlights through the window/ Headlights on the lawn/ The streets so bright with the city on/ What do they think the night is for/ Darken my door
The songs on Mutt, and those throughout Branan's decade-long catalog, vary greatly in style, but the constant is expert songwriting. He isn't afraid to play with cadence and rhyme, just as he isn't afraid to effortlessly — and expertly — navigate the waters of country, punk and classic rock n' roll. It’s no surprise that his words are reminiscent of John Prine, that he’s been likened to alt-country's modern hero Ryan Adams and that his work draws comparisons to Lucero, one of Branan's former label-mates.
Join Branan for a live trek through his Southern-soaked piece of Americana on Saturday night at Mohawk. He'll bring with him Revival Tour veteran, Audra Mae. Until then, have a listen to an intimate, bare bones (less alt-punk) version of Branan's "Survivor Blues," one of his latest releases.
---
Cory Branan plays inside at Mohawk on Saturday, July 14. Show starts at 10 p.m.
