Folkadelphia Session: Brian Carpenter and the Confessions

Photo by Heather Byington.
I think it is telling that upon listening to Brian Carpenter and the Confessions, my audio engineer, Clark Conner and I starting naming a slew of diverse musicians and artists that the band reminded us of. We through out names like Willy Nelson, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, David Lynch, Johnny Cash, and beyond. If you could take those names, those vibes, and imagine an audio landscape built by their hands, I believe you’d fall upon what the Confessions channel. It’s dusty, dark, sparse, but lovely and thoughtful – the pessimistic side of Americana, staring at the half empty beer bottle in front of you.

We first heard of Brian Carpenter as the leader of the ensemble jazz group Ghost Train Orchestra, as well as Beat Circus, but his latest outfit with the Confessions has us sighing and swinging in all the right ways. Last year, the full band visited us to record a handful of these righteous songs.