Six months back, local radio personality Mr. Earl turned me on to country slash
rockabilly singer Marti Brom and her new cd Not For Nothin’. I was immediately hooked and can’t tell you how many times I’ve listened to it since. Now it’s your turn.
All 15 tracks on Not For Nothin’ are covers honoring the twang sounds of Washington DC – it’s songwriters, singers and musicans. Brom does the nation’s capitol justice. The album was recorded in DC at Ripsaw Records using local musicans including twang banger guitarist, Bill Kirchen. Brom, currently living in Portland, performed for many years in the DC area when her husband, an Air Force officer, was based there.
Start here:
http://youtu.be/2MeD0QQAOsw
Raised in St. Louis and New Orleans, Brom started listening to punk and new wave bands in the early 80′s and even went to London to seek her fortune as a singer. Introduced to Patsy Cline by then high school student Michael Stripe of REM, and enthralled by Billie Holiday, Brom headed back to St Louis to rediscover her musical roots and developed her own vocal style heavily influenced by those two singers. It was Brom’s officer husband who jumped started her career when he encouraged her to audition for a singing part in a musical and she got it. Her first single was “Crazy Fever” with the band High Noon released in 1992. For the last 12 years Brom has recorded three solo albums for Finland’s Goofin Records.
I also highly recommend Marti Brom’s 2005 album Heartache Numbers of classic country songs done in the Tammy/Patsy/Loretta style.
Here’s Brom and company at Austin’s Continental Club back in November, 2011 performing “Forbidden Fruit” which is featured on Not For Nothin’.
