Bronwynne Brent – Undercover
Self Released – 28 February 2020 (UK Release)
It’s been a long six years since Bronwynne Brent released her sophomore album, Stardust, with all manner of music business obstacles and hiccups conspiring to contribute to that long gap. However, her much-anticipated third collection is finally here and it brings with it something of an unexpected musical turn of events.
While the last album mingled rootsy Americana with the blues and backwoods folk, this time around she’s fully embraced those Peggy Lee, Amy Winehouse and Billie Holiday references for a far jazzier sound, the album-opening with the loose-limbed jazz cellar swing of I Know It’s Late with its organ, brass and producer Johnny Sangster on guitar. Dan Walker’s keys underpin the circling rhythm patterns of the equally fluid groove of Undercover itself, Brent on the prowl for a perfect lover when offers the sage advice that when “making love to a rattlesnake/You got to be bold”.
Dave Brubeck hints can be traced on Walking Relapse with its percussive chops, greasy organ and sultry Latin textures, easing back into a Fever-ish slink on finger-snapping rhythms and horns faithful version of the 1956 Chuck Willis number Whatcha Gonna Do When Your Baby Leaves You.
Someone That I Loved maintains that jazzy vibe but also introduces shades of French cabaret with its organ work and Brent singing her own backups before she switches to more familiar territory with the simply arranged, beguiling acoustic folksiness of the break-up Raincoat which sports some of the album’s best lyrics as she sings “I gave you my body/You gave me a raincoat/I didn’t know that I’d need it”, Brent breaking out into a brief burst of scat midway. Of course, if we’re talking break-up emotional angst, they don’t come much better than Jacques Brel’s If You Go Away, Brent taking on the Piaf torch classic with bristling confidence and fractured despair as the strings weep around her.
From Piaf, she moves to bluesier late-night bars side of Nancy Sinatra with a side helping of Jimmy Webb for the drinking alone misery of the brass-warmed You’ve Lost Your Way before returning to a more country feel with the cascading chords and shuffle of Big Talker (another number about an abusive lover, but where the pain is better than nothing) with what sounds like jangling 12-string guitar.
It’s back to the jazz club then with the acoustic guitar picking, organ and Lee-like (and perhaps a shade of Shirley Bassey) vocal slink of Lost In The Moonlight featuring Skerik on sax and Scott Morning’s trumpet
As befits the emotional desolation of the lyrics (“love sold me down the road”), the album’s sparsest moment comes with the slow lonely waltzing Empty Pot of Gold, her voice framed by muted acoustic guitar, a funereal drum beat and mournful strings on a song about “love without romance”.
It draws to a close in similarly muted musical mood with the strings caressed lost love lilt of River Lullaby, a song that could well have come from a particularly sad moment in some Judy Garland movie, and, finally, I Walked Away which opens as a brass-burnished slow march to mark the end of the affair before suddenly breaking out into a snappy swing rhythm as she leaves the deceit behind with dignity intact, head held high and never looking back. The cover has her looking a little anxious, she shouldn’t. This is terrific.
Bronwynne Brent UK Tour Dates
Wed 4 Mar – The Atkinson Theatre, Southport
Thu 5 Mar – Kitchen Garden Café, Kings Heath, Birmingham
Fri 6 Mar – Selby Town Hall, Selby
Sat 7 Mar – Fishery Wharf Café, Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead
Sun 8 Mar – Whitstable Sessions, Whitstable Umbrella Centre (St. Mary’s Hall), Whitstable, Kent
Tue 10 Mar – Green Note, Camden
Wed 11 Mar – Old Ship Inn, Lowdham
Thurs 12 Mar – Courtroom Sessions, Town Hall, Middlesbrough
Fri 13 Mar – Roots Music Club, Ukrainian Centre, Doncaster
Sun 15 Mar – The Live Room Caroline Club, Saltaire
Mon 16 Mar – Traverse Theatre Soundhouse Organization, Traverse Bar, Edinburgh
Tue 17 Mar – Craigdarroch Arms Hotel, Moniave, Thornhill
Wed 18 Mar – Performing Arts Centre Memorial Hall, Kilbarchan
Thurs 19 Mar – Acoustic Music Club, Kirkcaldy
Fri 20 Mar – Fallen Angels Club, Glad Café, Glasgow
Sat 21 Mar – Toll Gavel Methodist Church, Beverley
Sun 22 Mar – Top Secret Blues Festival, Scarborough Spa Complex, Scarborough
https://www.bronwynnebrent.com/
Bronwynne Brent features in Folk Radio’s Lost in Transmission Episode 53 alongside the likes of The Secret Sisters, Ned Roberts, Citizen Bravo (ft. Karine Polwart), Tami Neilson, Terry Allen & The Panhandle Mystery Band, Matt McGinn, The Bonny Men, Troda, Alden Patterson and Dashwood, Bonny Light Horseman, Sam Lee and lots more. You can listen here.