North Hollywood Skyline EP

"Outstanding follow up to 2003's “Lone Star” album bridging the divide between country and the Beatles." (Rated 9 on a scale of 10) -Mark Whitfield, AMERICANA-UK (www.american-uk.com)

Praise for North Hollywood Sklyine:

Outstanding follow up to 2003's “Lone Star” album bridging the divide between country and the Beatles.

Texas born Brady Harris has been around for a while now, garnering critical acclaim and winning awards for his last three records from various quarters. Now based in LA, it’s the inbetween years of Harris’ adventures in Europe which often appear to have had the greatest impact on his music, giving him a unique hybrid sound of classic Americana tacked to a much more anglo-cised sound, and in particular the Beatles. And yeah, every other band can claim to be influenced by Lennon and McCartney but few do it with such conviction as Harris, partly because he doesn’t just sound like them but he often writes like them too. “North Hollywood Skyline” is undeniably Americana but the songs themselves are so strong and Beatles-esque at times that you do have to check the credits to reassure yourself the tunes haven’t been nicked. Tracks like the opener “Get the Losers Out” and “Come Along and Thrill Us” contain gentle lilting melodies, almost sardonic lyrics and really memorable hooks. The dichotomy between the various angles of his sound are wryly explored on “We’re Alt Country (& Yer Not)” (which should give record shop owners some genre based categorisation headaches) but there are some genuinely sublime country ballads here too – the arrangement on “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” in particular can make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck without any difficulty at all, and “Westward Heaven” takes an almost blues based riff and turns it into something more developed and creative which builds beautifully. Harris’ voice throughout is one of the most distinctive on the current Americana scene with echoes of Elton John and Lennon himself, and pedal steel provided by the Minus 5’s Tucker Jackson provides a quality backdrop for many of the songs. At the end of the day, for all the excitement the album generates in its studio form as released, you know that alone with a guitar and Harris’ voice, the songs could speak for themselves quite easily unhindered by production. Unique and definitely worth exploring.
(Rated 9 on a scale of 10)
-Mark Whitfield, AMERICANA-UK (www.americana-uk.com)