Album Notes

Where the Sweet Celery Grows...
Songs and Folk Mandolin from Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo, Michigan, once known as the Celery City, has been a center for roots and acoustic music for generations. These “Songs and Folk Mandolin from Kalamazoo,” capture musically in an eclectic amalgam of Americana and folk tunes from distant lands, the rustic sounds of immigrant traditions, abandoned factories, and the hope for a better tomorrow for this city in the heartland of the Great Lakes,Weaver, a fourth-generation Kalamazooan with multi-ethnic roots, creates a brand of folk rock, which reflects subtly on environmental and social justice issues and the development of hemispheric understanding. Using American folk Andean, and Irish-octave mandolins, he blends influences from diverse cultures which illustrate the eccentric heart of Kalamazoo.

Audio Engineering by Ian Gorman, with studio recording and mixing of tracks 8 and 11 by Ben Lau.
Proudly Recorded in Kalamazoo, MI.

All songs written and performed on mandolin by Brendan Weaver. Tracks 6 and 16 are adaptations of traditional folk tunes.
Al Rights Reserved 2008 by Brendan Weaver and MANDOcentric Records.

About Brendan Weaver:
Now a resident of Nashville, TN, Brendan has a strong history in music, studying piano from a very young age. He plays acoustic and electric, and standard and octave, mandolins and accompanies his music with vocals. Singing on several tracks in both English and Spanish, he evokes the pluralism which is at the heart of what it means to be an American. Brendan’s debut album, Mandocentric, was well received during his release party at Ravenwood Coffee in Kalamazoo in March of 2006.

Currently Brendan is a graduate student of historical anthropology at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN). Brendan also holds an MA and BA in anthropology from Western Michigan University. His research interest is in the archaeology of colonialism and focuses on labor in the rapidly changing Americas. Over the past few years he has had opportunities to conduct field work both in South America and the Caribbean, particularly Peru, Bolivia, and Barbados. Brendan sees his music and his career as an anthropologist as one in the same - using his music to express his values of social justice and cultural relativism and understanding.