Sundilla is pleased to welcome Bronwynne Brent to the stage on Friday, June 12. Showtime at the AUUF is 7:30, and admission at the door is $12, though $10 advance tickets are available at Spicer’s Music, Mama Mocha’s Coffee, Blooming Colors, and online at www.sundillamusic.com.
Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, American roots song- writer Bronwynne Brent has the kind of voice that sounds like Southern sunshine. It is impossible to speak of Bronwynne without mentioning her voice. It has been called a “stop you dead in your tracks voice,” and likened to Billie Holliday, Joni Mitchell, Shirley Bassey, Buffy Sainte Marie, Amy Winehouse, Nina Simone and others who are instantly recognizable. Her voice can be a fragile sounding instrument which packs an unexpected punch, and her ability to draw the listener in through her staggering range of vocals and nail a song has been called “both a rarity and a delight.”
But at Sundilla, there has to be more than a good voice, and Bronwynne delivers. Were she not such a good songwriter, her vocals alone should ensure a rewarding future, but her poetic, deep, thoughtful songwriting is of such quality that even at this relatively early career stage it is easy to see that she is the complete package. She not only sings well, but she writes good songs to sing.
And what songs! Brent’s songs have a heavy weight on their shoulders. Battered women, defeated lovers, devilish characters, highway ghosts, and lonesome wanderers populate her songs. Her voice sounds aged beyond its years, brittle and fragile, almost as if it might shatter into razor-sharp fragments under too much pressure. But underneath everything there’s a steel spine to this music, a thoroughly grounded foundation in American roots music that allows Brent to build her songs to greater heights than you might expect.
There’s a hint of Delta blues behind the ache in her songs, a glimpse of honky-tonk twang, an echo of riverboat can-cans, a whiff of Morricone, and an atmosphere of the darker side of country songwriting. Harkening back to the glory days of Lee Hazlewood and Gram Parsons, Brent’s songs tap into the dark undercurrent of country that starts with old Appalachian murder ballads and continues to today’s current crop of psychedelic country songwriters. Like a Juke Joint Nancy Sinatra, Bronwynne Brent unites all the best elements of Southern American roots music, and ties these many different influences into a sound that’s comforting and refreshing.
Bronwynne Brent is tiny and shy and unassuming, and when she steps onto the stage you’ll still be wondering what all the fuss is about. And then she’ll start to sing her songs, and you’ll understand… and you’ll be her newest fan.
Bronwynne Brent will be appearing at Sundilla on Friday, June 12, at 7:30 PM. Admission at the door will be $12, but $10 advance tickets are available at Spicer’s Music, Mama Mocha’s Coffee, Blooming Colors, and online at www.sundillamusic.com. At every Sundilla concert you’ll find free coffee, tea, water and food, though you are always welcome to bring whatever food or beverage you prefer.