On Monday, March 7, 2011 – I caught a tasty double bill at the Rockwood Music Hall with Middle Brother & Lissie. Middle Brother, whose debut self titled album came out earlier this month, served up a rootsy, spirited set rooted in but not chained to a folk aesthetic. As their name suggests, Middle Brother is not the top priority of the musicians who comprise it. The three principles in MB have ‘day jobs’ already fronting Deer Tick, Dawes, and Delta Spirit but like a married man with a hall pass they played with a sense of freedom and abandon that was compelling and entertaining. All talented singers; they hit some striking pockets of harmony…
You’ve heard of outfielders who have ‘guns’ for arms? Lissie has a gun of a voice; Powerful pipes in that young woman!
Her bass man Lewis Tilley played drums with his feet (snare as well as bass drum) and her guitarist Eric Sullivan turned in a wicked lead on In Sleep off her debut album Catching a Tiger.
