Bright Brown and Buzz

Music, boozy coffee drinks, and donuts for a Sunday afternoon.
Performances by Bright Brown and special guest, Glenn Echo.

Alex Nahas loves limits. That may seem odd coming from Brooklyn N.Y.’s singer / multi- instrumentalist who plays the Chapman Stick and harbors a deep affinity for the likes of Peter Gabriel and Talk Talk, but Nahas’s solo project Bright Brown is a case study in how to wring more from less. As Bright Brown has evolved over the course of three LPs, two EPs and, most recently, the new full length, "Where The Ocean Once Was", reflecting the post 2020 world seen through his dark but hopeful lens, Nahas has carved out a niche that slots into the same lineage as David Byrne, David Bowie, Daniel Lanois and Elvis Costello: all one-of-a-kind artists who shoehorned unorthodox approaches into highly digestible pop music. There’s the unmistakable common thread of a seasoned songwriter with a flair for mood, texture and atmosphere.Thoughtful and reflective with a knack for rendering outside-world concerns in the landscape of the personal, Bright Brown continues to venture into new frontiers, casting the Stick in a fresh light as a songwriter’s instrument with each successive song.

Formed in 2015, under the moniker Glenn Echo, a nod to the street he grew up on, the alt-folk project by multi-instrumentalist Matt Gaydar has a deceptively intricate way of spinning acoustic guitar melodies, cozy vocal harmonies, and introspective lyrics. There’s a professional quality to Glenn Echo’s music that’s typically reserved for seasoned musicians, and listening to his debut LP, it’s easy to picture him sharing the stage with those very luminaries. After all, over the span of 12 songs, Fixed Memory plays out like a pastoral soundscape that could easily be mistaken for the work of Big Thief, Keaton Henson, or José González. The project’s first single, "Overwhelm", was featured on Spotify's Fresh Finds playlist and "Moon Seems Lost" was featured on Coffeehouse and New Acoustic Indie Folk (2020) by Indie Folk Central, and is a part of Mahogany's Chilled Acoustic compilation.