I was introduced to the music of Brenn on April 18th and it only cost me 4 hours of driving.
For this one, I took my concert-loving daughter and her friend on a road trip to Amherst, MA to a tiny venue called The Drake for a sold out show. The Drake is a small little place, non-profit for the arts, that holds maybe 400 people.
While not my preferred style of music, I was able to watch, listen, and enjoy. He performs his music the old fashioned way…with an actual band, while Brenn himself sings and plays guitar. I didn’t know how to classify his genre beyond “kinda wussy” and since that doesn’t count, I went to the ole interwebs for an assist. Here’s what it told me and now I get it:
Brenn! (Brennan Keller) is a rising Alabama-based singer-songwriter primarily known for folk-pop, Americana, and indie-folk, often characterized by acoustic, “stomp and holler” styles similar to Noah Kahan or The Lumineers.
The girl has seen The Lumineers and is dying to see Noah Kahan, so it all makes sense now why she likes Brenn’s music. Will he rise to the fame level of either? I guess time will tell. While he has a couple EPs and some singles out, it doesn’t appear he’s yet released a full length album. Though he did play Amateur At Best, the title track from his upcoming album. So he has one on the way.
For his performance, I liked that he talked to the fans, acknowledged signs people brought, took selfies with some, and even recorded a video message for someone’s brother who was unable to attend.
The crowd definitely knew his songs including the one he says no one likes, I Wanna Be the One that Saves You (iwbtotsy). A few other notable songs that the peeps seemed to love were Jesus Song, Upstate, Rearview, Revival, Days on End, and 4Runner. For those willing to stay after the show, he also hung around at the merch booth to meet fans. Pretty cool since most acts these days only give that access when you pay for VIP.
His opener, Hudson Ingram, had a similar style and performed as a guitar duo. Any drums or background sounds were performed on a laptop that they played along with. He had a solid voice and they made good use of the electric guitar to thicken up the sound. In addition to several originals he also performed an MGMT song. He had good crowd interaction and also hung around the merch booth after his set to meet any fans. Overall, not a bad show. If it’s a style you like, check it out. Maybe he’ll play huge venues one day and you can say you saw him when he was still playing clubs.
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