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Bosque Brown
Stephenville, Texas is where three of my favorite back roads in Texas -- Hyws. 377, 281, and 67 all meet up. It's a pretty big town for that part of North Texas (about 70 miles from Ft. Worth) -- about 15,000 souls, all told. As it's the county seat, there's a pretty limestone courthouse in the town square. It is also the home of Mara Lee Miller, the voice and songwriter behind Bosque Brown.
My history with Bosque Brown is one of too many near misses. As in, I've missed Mara and her band (which includes her sister Gina, on backing vocals and piano) play at least three times that I know of, most recently of which was when Bosque Brown opened for John Vanderslice and The National in Denton a few months back.
But I digress. Mara Lee Miller's voice is the kind that can only come from Texas. If I'm feeling charitable, I might acquiesce that such a voice could come from anywhere in the South, but pride in my home state makes me wary to make such a claim. Her voice and delivery and songwriting lie somewhere between June Carter Cash and The Baptist Generals and Cat Power and Townes Van Zant (no, really!) -- stridently delivered, strangely beautiful, rough-hewn bluesy folk songs that make me think of all the drives I've ever taken across the great state of Texas and all the beautiful, bleak places I've seen -- from the stark deserts of West Texas to the heartbreaking rural poverty of the bayous way out east by the Louisiana state line, and everything in between.
There's already enough mythology built up around Bosque Brown that's a prerequisite of becoming an iconic Texas singer/songwriter type: Damien Jurado, after hearing a demo handed to him by Mara's husband Ryan, invited Mara up to Seattle to record her album before she'd ever played a show. And as beautiful and haunting as that album is, it's no replacement for seeing Bosque Brown live. Or so I've heard. So here's hoping I catch Mara and her band at SXSW, and maybe I'll see you there.
Bosque Brown - Texas (live)
Bosque Brown - Hwy. 377 (live)
Bosque Brown - Fine Lines (live)
(all tracks above recorded at The Cavern in Dallas, 1/16/06)
(n.b. -- you can hear two album tracks at Bosque Brown's MySpace page)
Bosque Brown's official site. Buy Bosque Brown Plays Mara Lee Miller at Amazon or the iTunes Music Store.
Shadows tags: bosquebrown.
Posted by Little Miss Rock'n'Roll at 01.20.06 at 3:28 AM
Comments
The mp3s are down, but they're available (if you dig around) at http://gorillavsbear.blogspot.com.
Posted by: Sam M. at 02.03.06 at 3:15 PM
Sam M., just FYI, we only keep files up for about a week. Sometimes less.
Posted by: Queen of the Front Row at 02.03.06 at 9:32 PM
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