Enormous melodies dressed as fleeting staples of the Americana aesthetic confront us with formidable strength in “Sourwood Ridge.” The pressure gets turned down while the tempo gets twisted in “The Little Rosewood Casket.” Gary Brewer gets his ducks in a row in “Tom Rock Twist” with just as much passion as he showcases in the rich “White Horse Breakdown,” which stalks in the shadows only to pounce on us with even more of a push than that of “Foggy Mountain Top / Lonesome Road Blues.”
URL: https://www.brewgrass.com/
If “Southern Flavor” doesn’t envelop you in its ethereal guitar virtuosity, “Old Brown Case” and its romantic undertow almost definitely will. This is Gary Brewer’s House of Axes, the all-new album from guitarist Gary Brewer, and it’s been winning the favor of critics throughout the underground since its initial release this year – for good reason, I should point out. Gary Brewer’s House of Axes is an acoustic guitar lover’s dream incarnate, multifaceted with enormous melodies that could quake the ground beneath your stereo even at moderate volumes, and it’s an LP I would recommend to big Americana/roots music fans as much as I would occasional connoisseurs.
As much as the guitars are the undisputable star of Gary Brewer’s House of Axes, there are more than a couple of instances in which the structures presented to us in the album outshine even the most exuberant of solos. Other than “Little Brown Jug”, which plods along like a march into the conclusion of the tracklist, there isn’t a song here that doesn’t have a certain amount of provocative swing to it (including implied tension in “Southern Flavor”). Brewer proves he can compose with the best of them in “Old Brown Case,” pull back from the intensity with “Tom Rock Twist,” and slice up a modern roots music classic like nobody’s business in “White Horse Breakdown,” all the while bringing unique swagger to every melody he stamps his name on. Gary Brewer’s House of Axes doesn’t ask a whole lot out of its listeners in exchange for a treasure chest full of tonality, and if you’re expecting to hear the same kind of magic in a mainstream folk effort this June, I wouldn’t hold my breath for too long.
DEEZER: https://www.deezer.com/us/album/432895427
Those who didn’t already hear the juggernaut that is Gary Brewer’s all-new studio album need to make a point to do so before the summer has expired because the critical consensus is in – and it’s one of the more well-rounded instrumental discs of its kind out everywhere independent music is sold and streamed at the moment. Brewer doesn’t try to be anything other than an easygoing folk guitarist in this LP, and by sticking to a basic script, he cuts out all of the standardized nonsense that audiences often have to dig through in an almost lyric-less outing like this one. Gary Brewer’s House of Axes is a record that requires more than one listen to completely appreciate, but once it’s revealed its many colors to you, I think you’ll agree when I say it’s a more than worthwhile experience for any audiophile.
Troy Johnstone