Hailing from the fertile music scene of Winnipeg, MB, Brandy Zdan & Dave Quanbury met in 2002 at the Trout Forest Music Festival in Ontario. The sparks flew in a fever, and they realized the power of combining their talents. Twilight Hotel have been compared to such memorable folk duos as Ian and Sylvia and Johnny and June because they radiate that certain elusive chemistry that can only come from two people in love singing together. Couples that make music together rarely find harmony in their relationships; Zdan and Quanbury are hoping to buck the trend with their personal and musical partnership in Twilight Hotel. .
Constant touring in the U.S. and Canada continue to bolster the duo\'s profile. In 2006/2007 they played over 200 North American tour dates and showcased at the 2007 and 2008 North American Folk Alliance as well as other regional showcases in the U.S. and Canada. Their first European tour started July 1, 2008, in the open air, 8PM, at Trafalgar Square in the heart of London at the celebration of Canada Day. Germany and the Netherlands were next.
For \"Highway Prayer\" Twilight Hotel teamed up with producer Colin Linden to record, Highway Prayer. It is the follow up album to their critically acclaimed 2006 release Bethune (nominated Best Americana Album at the 2007 American Independent Music Awards). Highway Prayer continues the duo’s provocative love story showcasing their characteristic dark twang and noir cabaret all the while centered around their rich vocal harmonies. Recorded in Nashville, TN, Highway Prayer, features prolific guest musicians including the late Richard Bell (Janis Joplin, The Band), Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits), and Dave Roe (Johnny Cash).
The 12 original songs run the gamut from the opening rockabilly jump manifesto, Viva la Vinyl, the street busker feel of Shadow of a Man, to the heartbreaking confessional closer Sand in your Eyes. Their repertoire combines songs inspired by their off stage life together on the road and are informed by their uniquely Canadian sensibilities.
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Here\'s the first UK review of the Corazong Records European release of \"Highway Prayer\" by Peter J Brown at www.toxicpete.co.uk
\'Highway Prayer\' by Twilight Hotel is a piece of country-folk-blues the like of which you don\'t get to hear too often nowadays! Twilight Hotel are a duo from Winnipeg, Canada and their beautifully grounded take on the genre is as fresh as it is intoxicating and as polished as it is honest. Twilight Hotel deliver their dark edged story-telling blues with a near-unique blend of down-home charm, bar-room grit and mature sophistication.
\'Highway Prayer\' gets to parts that other albums fail to reach; this is a no pretensions album that just gets down to business and deals all the right cards with slick professionalism and earthy reality. Twilight Hotel comprises Brandy Zdan and Dave Quanbury, a couple that show sublime creative sensitivity to this understated genre and make no attempt to join in with the \'big solos\' blues generation. Twilight Hotel tell it simply but give it undivided attention as they pour their hearts out with believable passion and stylish aplomb. From bass-slappin\' stylish rockabilly to slippin\' and slidin\' delta, Twilight Hotel run the full gamut of blues nuances with slick familiarity. Their no-fuss, band in a subway, approach relies heavily on stunningly worked vocal harmony set against a relatively sparse but empathetic instrumental backdrop - Twilight Hotel feel the pain and make sure you feel it too! Whether givin\' it out with gravel throated balls or honey-drenched harmony Twilight Hotel are quite obviously, plainly and simply, two like-minded souls singing from the same hymn-sheet; both feel it, both live it and both certainly deliver it!!.
Twilight Hotel\'s contagious blues style is beautifully bolstered here by a handful of guest musicians that ensure their inclusion is an augmentation rather than take-over but these songs would work equally well totally stripped back and laid bare. Twilight Hotel deliver blues with heart and soul and although \'Highway Prayer\' is simplistic in form it\'s performed with great attention to detail and absolute belief. \'Highway Prayer\' by Twilight Hotel is captivating and rewarding - a superb trip into blues country that\'s as contemporary as it is old-school, accessible to the point of being near-tangible and lets you feel the blues without needing to feel blue - a beautifully understated yet perfectly balanced album rammed full of earthy musical poetry, worldly sentiment and honest grit - superb!!
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Live Review from Pegasus News (Fort Worth, Texas) by Ron Dempesmeier:
Twilight Hotel consists of two blond, wholesome looking, yet tattooed, young musicians: Brandy Zdan (vocals, guitars, and accordion) and Dave Quanbury (vocals, guitars). Both switched playing acoustic and electric guitars with Quanbury playing left-handed so that he had to flip both over as they switched. Zdan played some excellent slide licks and will probably be compared to Bonnie Raitt too many times just for being a female player. Their songs had plenty of spunky attitude, bluesy vocals and solid playing.
Zdan switched to accordion when they played a moving song about a brother and sister who came to America illegally from Mexico and their travails called “The Ballad of Salvador and Isabelle”. They also performed a song about a female who was trying to make a career as a coal miner in “No Place for a Woman”. One of Twilight Hotel’s best songs of the evening was their salute to old-fashioned records called “Viva La Vinyl”. Quanbury took their beat up looking acoustic with its single pickup and coaxed out controlled, moaning feedback from his 1950’s vintage Gibson amplifier. It was very neatly done and capped off a very nice opening set.
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A quote from Rich Warren of WFMT Chicago and Host of the Midnight Special & Folk Stage: \"Twilight Hotel, a most winning pair. Dave and Brandy are not only musically talented and engaging, but they are innovative, fresh and original. They somehow manage to blend a Parisian cabaret sound, vintage rock, country and their original style into one cohesive, highly entertaining sound. I doubt they\'ll be playing small clubs much longer.\"
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from Highway Fidelity in the Calgary Herald by Mary Christa O\'Keefe
Twilight Hotel is the stage name of Brandy Zdan and Dave Quanbury, Winnipeg multi-instrumentalists whose latest album Highway Prayer plays like a haunted jukebox in a deserted roadhouse, somewhere deep in the South where time has held its breath for the past 50 years. The duo travelled to Nashville to craft their eerily exquisite celebration of Americana that embraces rockabilly, strutting bluesy rags, doo-wop, spooky honky-tonk, Mexicana, and sorrowful rootsy folk. You could say the resulting collection of all-original (but genre-faithful) songs owes some of its charm to vintage production by veteran Colin Linden and contributions by old-timers who\'ve played with Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, and The Band, but laurels ultimately belong to the longtime off-stage couple. Quanbury\'s silky plaintive croon pairs perfectly with Zdan\'s smoky, broken-angel wail as they traverse the southern-gothic aural landscape, but the contentment they radiate makes one suspect all their darkness must be channeled into music.
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Review-Plato Mania (the Netherlands) by Marco van Ravenhorst
Her en der worden ze al vergeleken met Johnny en June en persoonlijk doet Twilight Hotel me ook wel een beetje denken aan Buddy & Julie Miller. Het moge duidelijk zijn: we hebben het hier over een country/americana liefdeskoppel. Twilight Hotel bestaat uit Dave Quanbury en Brandy Zdan, afkomstig uit Winnipeg, Canada. Natuurlijk is het niet vreemd dat in een situatie als deze de namen van Johnny Cash & June Carter en, waarom ook niet, Gram & Emmylou vallen, maar muzikaal heeft Twilight Hotel zeker zoveel weg van een band als Calexico als van voornaamde duo’s. En, nu ik er verder over nadenk, misschien is de vergelijking met dat andere muzikale koppel, Chris & Carla, nog wel beter op zijn plaats. Highway Prayer heeft namelijk net zo’n landerige woestijnsfeer als de eerste duo-platen (Life Full Of Holes bijvoorbeeld) van de beide Walkabouts. Hoe het ook zij, de uitbundige lof die Twilight Hotel in andere recensies al ten deel viel, is meer dan terecht, want Highway Prayer is een zeer fraaie plaat!
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