“Decider—Los Angeles singer-songwriter Brian Whelan’s solo debut after making a couple of records with Brokedown (a.k.a. the Broken West) and playing in Dwight Yoakam’s touring band—is classicist guitar rock with country-rock and rockabilly shadings, confidently occupying similar musical space to guys like Brendan Benson and Marshall Crenshaw. The opening title track is a muscular, hooky […]
Category Archives: Reviews
“Brian Whelan, Decider (Three Moves Equals a Fire) This is good power pop, a 21st century version of the feel-good California pop music of the ’70’s. “High And Lonesome” is one of several spots Whelan and Ross Flournoy on guitar sound like Keith Richards and Brian Jones might if they’d grown up as West Coast […]
Decider, Brian Whelan (from the Three Moves Equals A Fire release Decider) Brian Whelan’s day gig is performing with Dwight Yoakam’s band but, left to his own devices, he is all power pop. That’s just the kind of guy we like handing around Twangville. While winter may be approaching Boston, all I need to do […]
What an overwhelming week of submissions. Really, we’re slammed with submissions for our Weekly Download, but we’re quite happy to not have fallen short by overloading and just not getting them up here. Many of the artist links below are to their Soundcloud accounts because… well, you’re in on the ground floor. These budding artists […]
An album that demands little but gives much in return, sometimes to get an understanding of what the artist is trying to create, sometimes in order to take in all of the details, sometimes because the song construction and lyrics demand it there’s a need to listen to albums several times to appreciate the ‘work’, […]
Mixin’ With Brian Whelan November 6, 2012 By Bryan Thomas A little over two years ago, When You Awake was one of the first music blogs to rave about a talented L.A. musician named Brian Whelan. At the time, Brian was calling his new band Wheelhouse, but more recently they’ve undergone a few personnel changes […]
Ears Wide Open: Brian Whelan November 6, 2012 By Kevin Bronson Brian Whelan makes everything sound so easy — crisp classic rock, tart-and-twangy country, bluesy swagger — that you’d think his first solo outing “Decider” just happened overnight. On the contrary. Whelan’s debut, finally out today via Three Moves Equals a Fire , is the […]
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