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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