It’s a crowded room in the Underground Lounge and it’s definitely a mixed group ranging from a dude with 10 piercings or more to a crew of loud fraternity guys trying to out drink one another. The opener is a heavy metal band, talented, screaming their lyrics while the lead singer falls to his knees at the end of every other song. It’s an unusual opener for an introspective, singer/songwriter with only a guitar and a mic.
Brock takes the stage and the moment he sings “I know you’ve never waited for anything. I don’t expect you to wait for me…” he begins to claim the room for his own. By the time he belts out “I’ve been alone, I’ve been stone cold” he has a steady flow of people at his merch table, money in hand, ready to buy what he’s selling, because what he’s selling strikes a cord.
Brock’s first full-length album “Where I’ve Always Been” lays out 12 songs of the more than 70 he’s written. They range from rock to raw acoustic, but the core element in every song is the search for truth, for the real part of him and in turn, us. When you listen to his songs, they resonate in their humanness, their pain, their hope, and their admission that the road we are all on is hard, but meaningful, and if you keep asking the rights questions, a lot of fun.
Brock is part rocker, part philosopher, part romantic, and part comedian. He gives all of himself to the search for what’s real; when you hear his songs, live or in your car, you feel like he’s truckin’ down the road with you, a fellow traveler. And it’s good. We can all use some company along the way.
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