Hear the Piano do the Crying Now

From the opening notes of Green, it is surprising to learn that Brendan James self taught himself the piano. Not only that, but he did so by sneaking into hotel ballrooms to practice on their eighty-eight keys. Also a late bloom in the writing department, he never started taking down his lyrics until his sophomore year at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

This inexperience on the bench doesn’t shine threw on his debut album The Day Is Brave. There is grandeur about many of the songs that suggest a more seasoned artist. That is even if some of the songs do seem to blend together at some points. But the ones that stand out are striking. The Other Side (not to be confused with the great David Gray song) starts off like many of the others but quickly morphs into a bouncy fare on par with classic Elton John circa Captain Fantastic.

The other standout on the set is Hero’s Song. Where most songs about Iraq get bogged down in heavy-handed political statement that skimp on actual musicianship, the first person account in James’ song has a melancholy that pulls at the heart especially with lines like I cannot die this way.”

Elsewhere on the album the new songwriter does run into rookie mistakes like unneeded namedropping of Kurt Vonnegut, John, Paul, Ringo, George, and his parents whom both get mentioned multiple times. Maybe if James sneaks into a couple more ballroom, he may be able to nail out a classic in the near future.

Song to Download - The Other Side

The Day Is Brave gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.