Idaho-born singer and songwriter Willy Braun grew up singing cowboy songs. From the time they could toddle onstage, he and his brothers helped their family make ends meet, traveling the Northwest and singing in their father's Western band.
Father Muzzy Braun introduced them not only to show business, but also to many a fine talent working the fairs, saloons and festivals alongside them. One of those was Pinto Bennett, a fellow Idahoan and a songwriter of note in cowboy circles.
Bennett and his band, the Famous Motel Cowboys, built their devoted following with such tunes as "Big in Winnemucca" and "I Hold the Bottle, You Hold the Wheel."
Though they return often to visit and play their Idaho home, the Braun boys now base out of the discerning Austin scene. Willy and Cody are the frontmen of Reckless Kelly, and little brothers Micky and Gary head up Micky and the Motorcars.
But the Brauns never forgot where they came from, nor the songs of Pinto Bennett.
"Somewhere in Time," the latest Reckless Kelly release, is an all-Bennett tribute, featuring his tunes. The band brings its take on Bennett to Salt Lake City in shows today and Saturday at The State Room in Salt Lake City.
"It is something we've been talking about doing for a long time -- about 10 years," said Willy Braun, calling from a tour stop in Milwaukee. "The timing was finally right, the record company said go, so away we went. We couldn't be happier about it."
Honky-tonkin'
Braun calls Bennett's music hard-core honky-tonk.
"We get to do a kind of return to the roots, back to when we started with those four-hour bar gigs. It is really fun for us to play this to our crowd now -- and they really seem to be digging it."
The band was pleased to produce the album, start to finish.
"It was fun to go in and man the wheel and do it our way," Braun said. "Plus, I usually do all the writing, so it took some of the pressure off me. I didn't have to worry about whether the songs were good, because I already knew they were. I could just sit back and sing a bunch of great music that, really, I had been singing my whole life."
Bennett was able to hang out in the studio with them while they recorded. Braun and Bennett even join voices in a duet called "Thelma," perhaps the album's most arresting moment.
"We also got a couple other guys who used to be in his band on this album. Mark Webb plays guitar. And an old fiddle player, Freddy Jones, played for us. We even used his (Bennett's) old engineer, Robby Matson. It felt really good to have those old Motel Cowboys involved."
They tapped the talent of Austin heavy hitters as well, like Joe Ely, Lloyd Maines and Brian Standefer, the cellist for Alejandro Escovedo's chamber rock band.
"I think we all said it was the most fun we've had in the studio," said Braun. "There simply were no big hang-ups or hassles like we've had on other records. This felt like family."
Pride in their work
Braun said he and his brother learned what matters from men like their father and Bennett.
"Dad and people like Pinto showed us the ropes, growing up like we did in the music business. They showed us they didn't need anyone from Nashville. They stayed up in Idaho and did it their own way, and that is how we did it, too."
And even when the time arrived for the Braun boys to fly the coop and aim for the big time, they headed, to a man, quite purposefully to Austin, rather than Nashville.
"Our strength is our live show, and Austin is a live-music town -- you have to be able to deliver that," said Braun. "Nashville is more of a recording town. In Austin, there is no way to hide behind studio tricks. You have to be able to play. And it's not about being the most popular band or that kind of thing. It is about making the best record you can, and putting on good live shows, and being proud of the music you are putting out there. I really wouldn't want to put my name on a lot of stuff coming out of Nashville.
"Plus, not many towns treat musicians as well as Austin." Braun laughed. "Hey, you can actually rent a house down there with 'musician' as your employment -- no embellishing, no jumping through hoops. They'll just let you move right on in."
Comments