Brett Dennen is back in the United States and is teaming up with Grace Potter and the Notcturnals for a nationwide tour. He is touring in support of full length album Hope for the Hopeless and a new EP called Brett Dennen: Live Session EP featuring Brazilian band Forró in the Dark available on his website.
Brett’s sincere lyrical style that waxes poetically with insightful and spiritual melodic looks at society is a big reason for his success. The EP includes reworked songs from Brett’s current album, Hope For The Hopeless, with hit single, “Make You Crazy” featuring Femi Kuti who is a Nigerian born award-winning artist and a big part of the afrobeat. There is the brand new song “Joan of Arc” on this live album.
Two of songs that also stand out in my mind, are “Ain’t Gonna Lose You”, which appeared on Hope For The Hopeless and “Blessed” off of Brett’s self titled first album Brett Dennen in 2004. These are diverse tracks dealing with totally different subject matters, but the same idea of us as individuals, often in our darkest hours we have to find resolve, we have to swim lest we sink and Brett is firm in his belief in the good of humanity as a whole and that most people are swimmers, but sometimes we must absolve in order to resolve. As he says in “Blessed”,
I dwell in the darkness
I let in the light
I sleep in the afternoon
and become the noise in the night
I trespass in temptation
suffered in sacrifice
but I awake each day with a new sunrise;Blessed is this life, oh
and I’m gonna celebrate being alive.
Both of these songs articulate further Brett’s talents that he brings to most all of the songs he has written and show the range of his intellect that is sadly missing with so much music that gets radio play.
Also on the EP is, the aesthetic duet “Long Road to Forgiveness”, a track Brett’s recorded with friend Jason Mraz.
As Brett told Billboard Magazine “I’m really excited about this tour because I think it’s going to be a little more rocking than tours I’ve done in the past.” He added, “Grace really knows how to rock it.”
I sure hope he does. I do not know yet if I will be going, it is looking doubtful, but herein is what makes Brett Dennen special “Ain’t No Reason”, what got me hooked quicker than William S. Burroughs on Christmas Eve finding a thousand and one doctors to heal more than cholera or whatever ails, it was these types of lyrics and this song that can be heard above and below,
There ain’t no reason things are this way.
Its how they always been and they intend to stay.
I can’t explain why we live this way, we do it everyday.
Preachers on the podium speakin’ of saints in seance,
Prophets on the sidewalk beggin’ for change,
Old ladies laughing from the fire escape, cursing my name.
I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same,
A window and a pigeon with a broken wing,
You can spend your whole life workin’ for something
Just to have it taken away.
People walk around pushing back their debts,
Wearing pay checks like necklaces and bracelets,
Talking ‘bout nothing, not thinking ‘bout death,
Every little heartbeat, every little breath.
People walk a tight rope on a razors edge
Carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons.
It could be a bomb or a bullet or a pen
Or a thought or a word or a sentence.There Ain’t no reason things are this way.
It’s how they always been and they intend to stay
I don’t know why I say the things I say, but I say them anyway.
But love will come set me free
Love will come set me free,I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set me free, yes.Prison walls still standing tall,
Some things never change at all.Keep on buildin’ prisons, gonna fill them all,
Keep on buildin’ bombs, gonna drop them all.
Working your fingers bear to the bone,
Breaking your back, make you sell your soul.
Like a lung that’s filled with coal, suffocatin’ slow.
The wind blows wild and I may move,
The politicians lie and I am not fooled.
You don’t need no reason or a three piece suit to argue the truth.
The air on my skin and the world under my toes,
Slavery stitched into the fabric of my clothes,
Chaos and commotion wherever I go, love I try to follow.Love will come set me free
Love will come set me free, I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set me free, yes.
There ain’t no reason things are this way
It’s how they always been and they intend to stay
I can’t explain why we live this way, we do it everyday.
Enjoy the tour those of you who get to go and those who cannot, try to enjoy the music here, it’s the subtle things, baby steps that’s all memories really are, I hope yours give you something nice today, if not again try the music – somewhere on this site there has to be music for you. – R.P.M.
BRETT DENNNEN LIVE
With Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Nov 13 Fri Cannery Nashville, TN
Nov 14 Sat Tabernacle Atlanta, GA
Nov 15 Sun Mountain Stage Charleston, WV
Nov 16 Mon Ramshead Live Baltimore, MD
Nov 17 Tue 9:30 Club Washington DC
Nov 19 Thu House Of Blues Boston, MA
Nov 20 Fri Terminal 5 New York, NY
Nov 21 Sat Trocadero Philadelphia, PA
Nov 23 Mon Guverment Toronto, ONT
Nov 24 Tue St Andrews Detroit, MI
Nov 25 Wed House Of Blues Cleveland, OH
Nov 27 Fri Pantages Theatre Minneapolis, MN
Nov 28 Sat House Of Blues Chicago, IL
Nov 30 Mon Turner Hall Milwaukee, WI
Dec 1 Tue Peoples Court Des Moines, IA
Dec 3 Thu Ogden Theatre Denver, CO
Dec 5 Sat Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR
Dec 6 Sun The Moore Seattle, WA
Dec 7 Mon Commodore Vancouver, BC
Dec 10 Thu House Of Blues San Diego, CA
Dec 11 Fri Marquee Theatre Phoenix, AZ
Dec 12 Sat The Wiltern Los Angeles, CA
Dec 31 Thu Fox Theatre Oakland, CA (special show f. Alo and Sambada)
Tickets are available at Brett Dennen’s Website along with his new single, “Heaven” featuring Natalie Merchant and his new EP Brett Dennen Live Session EP.
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