The Broken Prayers hail from Philadelphia, Pa. Described as American Gothic meets High Lonesome, The Broken Prayers add a little sorrow to an alt-country sound. If you like music by Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, The Handsom Family, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, Cat Power, Jim White, Neil Young, 16 Horsepower, The Gun Club and other bands of that ilk, I think you'll enjoy The Broken Prayers.
The Broken Prayers are Tony Bello, Brian Murray, Robbert Bell, Isaac Stanford and Pete Marshall. The Broken Prayers formed in 2005 when Pete asked Fred Stucky of the roots band Gas Money to join him in starting a new project. Over the years the Broken Prayers line-up has evolved a bit with Justin Kolb and Nathan Flemming both migrating to Austin, Tx to join Jesse Dayton. Fred went and had a few kids and now his guitar is getting a little rest. Other great players like Dave Doggett and Jim Callen come around and play once in a while. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for listening.
Here is one review from nine bullets:
Every Friday morning one of the first things I do is head to Miles of Music to check out the “It’s A Cracker” selections for the week. Every now and then there will be a band whose samples just jump up and and grab me and I have to buy the cd. Such was the case with The Broken Prayers. I was placing the order for their new cd, Crow, before the end of the first song.
There is very little information on the internet about Philadelphia’s The Broken Prayers, but they appear to be Pete Marshall and a revolving cast of players (a la Magnolia Elect. Co.) that consist of; Tony Bello Jr, Brian Murray, Fred Stucky Jr., Robert Bell, Jim Callen, Justin Colb, Tony Collins and Scott Danzer. I had thrown the album onto my iPod for the flight up to Boston, so when my flight left Tampa around 6:15 in the morning I qued up the cd for some listening while I slept. Much like when I heard the sound samples on M.O.M., I was immediately drawn into the sparse and minimal Gothic Americana sound the band possesses. Really wanting to capture my initial impressions of the cd, I scribbled the following into my notepad:
Lonely and sparse
Sounds like they set up a mic on one end of the room and played the songs on the other then mixed it with oodles of reverb….lo-fi as hell but it works for these songs.
It’s great! Check it out:
Read more...