In casual conversation, Brian Wheat is a man who pauses occasionally, carefully pondering each exchanged word before responding. Similarly, his songwriting demonstrates fascinating detail that surpasses simple storytelling, and delves into patient studies of the emotional context surrounding a moment. It is clear that the strong sense of community that exists in Buffalo, NY, his current roost, has manifested itself in the themes of home and human connection that pervade his work.
In his youngest years Wheat spent his childhood in a small Upstate New York town where he yearned for a broader scope and greater diversity, but also developed a deep admiration for the tradition and intimacy of a close-knit community. However, despite learning the virtue of being rooted, Brian has not been one to stand still. Somewhere in between he has performed at Moroccan festivals, busked in Spain, played for room and board at Australian hostels, shared folk songs with Fijian natives, earned degrees in biology and education, and perfected the art of the falafel as a short-order cook. Wheat’s desire to combine mobility and exploration versus a need for intimate connection rings clear throughout his continually growing body of work.
Fortified with a dynamic, evocative voice and songs that float with both a secular religion of home and the architecture of ghostly pasts, Wheat blends the immediately tangible with an elusive sense of the enduring. Being influenced by the distinctive songwriting of groups like Cake, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Iron and Wine, and Neil Young, there is a refreshing reality to Wheat’s music; revealing layered continuums of experience, rather than clean, simplified absolutes. You can expect to be carefully ushered through a place suspended somewhere between modernity and bygone eras, without the risk of being trapped in either of the two.
Wheat also has developed an extraordinary ability to combine his impressive guitar, banjo, and harmonica chops with a keen knowledge of how and when (and when not) to employ them in service of a song. Accompanying this subtle phrasing is his band Groggy Darlin’, an all-star cast of Western New York music veterans. Bassist Peter Williams, multi-instrumentalist Peter Gerace, and drummer Mark Longolucco map out the peaks and valleys that define the music’s weathered landscapes and consistently complement Wheat’s rare ability to bring a crowded room to an attentive silence. Together, they create music that is at once earthy, refined, organic, melodic, and perfectly suited for the time-honored format and progressive delivery that is characteristic of Wheat’s songwriting.
After much anticipation, Brian Wheat and Groggy Darlin’ present their debut full-length release Where You Have Been, on Wheat’s own Half Little Hold Records. This meticulously crafted album, a follow up to Wheat’s 2006 eponymous debut EP, was recorded at Harvest Sum Studios in Orchard Park, NY and mastered at Studio B, Ltd. in Omaha, NE by Doug Van Sloun (Bright Eyes, Damien Jurado, Songs: Ohia). The disc packaging features artwork by Wheat’s old time friend, Caitlin Clifford, and layout/hand-letterpress work by Shelly Bronson of French Press in Buffalo. These hand-assembled and hand-numbered albums, limited to a first run of only five hundred copies, show a standard of quality that is obviously upheld by Wheat in any and all of his works.
The band’s moving live performances, as well as Wheat’s solo works, have garnered him a diverse and expansive fan base, as well as support positions for some of today’s most exciting national and international acoustic artists, including Band of Horses (SupPop), Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon), Hamell on Trial (Righteous Babe Records), David Dondero (Team Love), Oakley Hall (Brah Records), Olde Tyme Relijun (K Records), Rachel Ries (Waterbug), Robert Blake (Same Room Records), and Ember Swift (Few’ll Ignite).
-Peter Burakowski, Dissertation Productions
Hungry IPod? Buy the album [digitally] here:
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