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The Broken Prayers : Crow
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High Lonesome meets American Gothic in The Broken Prayers beautifully bleak and wind-swept recording, Crow.
Genre: Country: Americana
Release Date: 2008
Crow
The Broken Prayers
Record Label: The Broken Prayers
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Preview Song Name Time Buy
1. Little Black Heart 5:02 + MP3 $0.99
2. Act Naturally 4:35 + MP3 $0.99
3. Long Life Stomp 2:38 + MP3 $0.99
4. Drunk In A Dry Town 3:03 + MP3 $0.99
5. Adrift On The Sea 3:22 + MP3 $0.99
6. Convalescent Man 4:26 + MP3 $0.99
7. Laurel Canyon 5:02 + MP3 $0.99
8. Wreckin' Ball 2:57 + MP3 $0.99
9. Sleeping Hollow 4:56 + MP3 $0.99
10. 1,000 Angels 5:08 + MP3 $0.99
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Album Notes

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:

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REVIEWS

author: Shinjak
                            
The Broken Prayers - Little Black Heart This is one of those aforementioned little tunes that I lifted from over at ninebullets.net (maybe if I mention his site enough, he’ll give me a linkback!) These guys hail from Philly in the PA. It’s really hard to pick the best song from these guys, because the whole damn album is good. But I’m really enjoying the lead vocalist and his solo on this tune. So head over to cdbaby or payplay and buy this one already.
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author: Scot Hesel
                            
A country band from South Philly. That sets off about a dozen red flags. Usually, inner-city country bands have all the best intentions but none of the chops. Luckily, The Broken Prayers have instrumental ability in spades, and the interplay between the rotating cast of musicians on this debut album is superb. Although country is the most applicable stylistic tag here, The Broken Players' brand is a more minor-key, darker variation of the genre that is swathed in reverb and the blues. In some ways, Crow resembles Neko Case's Blacklisted, or the works of Lee Hazlewood, but there's more aggression here. Pete Marshall's strong baritone is the anchor for the music, but the guitars really shine throughout the record, whether it's unexpected bursts of distortion, Spaghetti-Western baritone riffs, or most prominently, the fantastic work on Pedal Steel by Jim Callen. There's a nice call-and-response counterpoint between the guitars, and they are given plenty of room to breathe in the mix, especially on the last two songs of this album. The only real misstep here is "Drunk in a Dry Town", which seems to wear its genre cliches a little heavy on its sleeve. Otherwise, The Broken Prayers do an excellent job making you believe that you're listening to authentic roots music from the land of Frankie Avalon.
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