The Broonzies - Together again!
The Broonzies - playing music from the places we've all been to...
THE BROONZIES – A LONG-AWAITED REUNION OF THE CLAN!
For those of us who find that family values are becoming more and more important in this day and age, the chance to hear music played by siblings and blood relatives, is a real treat. Those close-matching voices, that empathy between players, and that unspoken beat of understanding ’twixt heart and mind, has long brought joy to music-lovers the world over. The soul-drenched, keen-edged voices of ensembles like The Isleys, The Everleys, The Carter Family and The Louvin Brothers have shown no pity to the swaying souls of foot-tappers and chorus crooners down the decades. And so it is too, with a quirky quintet that is likely to be a new name to most of us, the North of England-based combo The Broonzies.
There are those who may still recall the days between the wars, when their grandfather Spencer Broonzie plied his trade as an oddjob vocalist and you-hum-it-I’ll-play-it musician-for-hire across the full length of these isles, with a repertoire of old-time good-time songs and tunes from a bottomless pit of styles and influences. A firm believer in family values himself, he sired several of them along the way...
But families being what they are, at some point a rift appeared that threatened to split this clan asunder. The cause – well, no-one ever speaks of it these days... and wounds heal, sleeping dogs snooze away, bygones are left as bygones...
And now, finally, these scattered cousins and blood-lined brothers have come together once more, to revive a family tradition that no-one, not even themselves, knew for sure existed.
It's an even more extended family these days - cousins come and go, and as the call of the open road and the warm fireside resonates through the clan, a couple of new faces have appeared to spice up the family mixture. It's a slow-burner - we can't expect a flurry of activity from a bunch of folks who have inherited a liking for living life at their own pace.
But now, with word of mouth firmly on the side of approval and encouragement, The Broonzies are gradually spreading their wings to ply their trade further afield and having a fine old time doing so, it must be said. Granpa Spencer Broonzy would no doubt be proud to see his offsprings continuing down the same path that he trod all those years ago, and doubly so, now they’ve chosen to tread that path together, in harmony and (usually) in shared strict tempo. They’re surely worth a listen, my friends, and are coming to a venue near you in the not too distant future.
For those of us who find that family values are becoming more and more important in this day and age, the chance to hear music played by siblings and blood relatives, is a real treat. Those close-matching voices, that empathy between players, and that unspoken beat of understanding ’twixt heart and mind, has long brought joy to music-lovers the world over. The soul-drenched, keen-edged voices of ensembles like The Isleys, The Everleys, The Carter Family and The Louvin Brothers have shown no pity to the swaying souls of foot-tappers and chorus crooners down the decades. And so it is too, with a quirky quintet that is likely to be a new name to most of us, the North of England-based combo The Broonzies.
There are those who may still recall the days between the wars, when their grandfather Spencer Broonzie plied his trade as an oddjob vocalist and you-hum-it-I’ll-play-it musician-for-hire across the full length of these isles, with a repertoire of old-time good-time songs and tunes from a bottomless pit of styles and influences. A firm believer in family values himself, he sired several of them along the way...
But families being what they are, at some point a rift appeared that threatened to split this clan asunder. The cause – well, no-one ever speaks of it these days... and wounds heal, sleeping dogs snooze away, bygones are left as bygones...
And now, finally, these scattered cousins and blood-lined brothers have come together once more, to revive a family tradition that no-one, not even themselves, knew for sure existed.
It's an even more extended family these days - cousins come and go, and as the call of the open road and the warm fireside resonates through the clan, a couple of new faces have appeared to spice up the family mixture. It's a slow-burner - we can't expect a flurry of activity from a bunch of folks who have inherited a liking for living life at their own pace.
But now, with word of mouth firmly on the side of approval and encouragement, The Broonzies are gradually spreading their wings to ply their trade further afield and having a fine old time doing so, it must be said. Granpa Spencer Broonzy would no doubt be proud to see his offsprings continuing down the same path that he trod all those years ago, and doubly so, now they’ve chosen to tread that path together, in harmony and (usually) in shared strict tempo. They’re surely worth a listen, my friends, and are coming to a venue near you in the not too distant future.