Tuesday, March 6, 7 p.m.
Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel, 304 East Third Street, Davenport IA
Described by NoDepression.com as an artist who “will charm the pants off you, even when he's bummed,” the alt-country rocker Cary Branan performs a March 6 Moeller Nights concert in support of his most recent album Adios, which inspired Pitchfork.com to write, “Branan's latest set of countrified rock tunes may be his best to date,” finding “the right balance between audacity and subtlety, between humor and heartbreak.”
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in the Memphis suburb of Southaven, Branan was surrounded by music from an early age, with his father Dallas playing drums in local bands, his grandfather a skilled guitarist, and his great-grandfather a violinist. By his teens, Branan was playing death metal and fronting a Black Sabbath cover band. But after earning a degree from the University of Memphis, he began to explore the music of John Prine, a move that led him to return to his guitar and start writing songs. In 2000, the Memphis chapter of NARAS awarded Branan the Phillips Award for Newcomer of the Year before he had even cut his debut album The Hell You Say, released in 2001.
After striking a deal with Madjack Records, the label reissued Branan's debut the following year, with the singer/songwriter's sophomore release 12 Songs landing in 2006. Years of touring performances led to 2012's Mutt – the title referring to the many styles and influences that inform Branan's songs – and his fourth album The No Hit Wonder included guest appearances from Jason Isbell and Craig Finn and Steve Selvidge of The Hold Steady, a work that Rolling Stone cited as one of the 40 best country albums of the Year. Described by the artist as a “loser's survival kit,” Adios finds Branan dealing with loss and disappointment in witty but incisive fashion, with Paste magazine praising the “sound that is cohesive in approach and unpredictabvle in expectation, as heartland rock mingles with New Wave agitations and swampy blues brushes shoulders with swinging waltzes.”
Cory Branan plays the Triple Crown Whiskey Bar & Raccoon Motel with an opening set by Two Cow Garage, tickets to the 7 p.m. concert are $15-20, and more information on the night is available by visiting MoellerNights.com.
