I was lucky enough to see The Texas Gentlemen and Friends at Newport Folk Festival this year; they delivered one of my favorite sets of the Festival. The Gentlemen are a collaborative of Texas musicians, one of whom is guitarist Kirby Brown.

Kirby Brown (photo by Alex Justice)

I spoke with Kirby later that day and then ran into him and several other Gentlemen at the Americana Music Association Festival and Conference a couple of months later. I am now the lucky recipient of his new EP Out of Exile 1 and I love it!

This is a short (ten minutes) teaser of an album! The three songs leave me wanting much, much more. I cannot say it better than the press release for the new EP which follows. I plan to see him when he comes to Boston and intend to bring as many friends as possible to the show!

“Singer/songwriter Kirby Brown is at it again. Several years after the release of his début solo album Child of Calamity, Brown released Out of Exile 1 on Friday, October 28, 2016. This is the first in a series of three EPs set to release over the next few months.

“Out of Exile 1 weaves the tale of Brown’s journey to understand the world around him — growing up and searching for goodness in unexpected places (“Little Red Hen”), the pursuit of elusive love (“Joni”), and hoping for a silver lining when the repetition of every day life becomes mundane (“Mystery”).

Out Of Exile by Kirby Brown (photo by Alex Justice)

“In Brown’s own words: “My stories are not just mine… they are stories that we all share. We all struggle after the same things, ask the same questions. These songs come from a place of seeing myself as an active member of the bigger narrative, not just a man on an island. These songs are my way of using fiction as a way learn how to be a human in the habitable world.”

“Brown’s exposure to poetry during his formative years, combined with his idyllic hometown raising, became the bedrock for his artistry. A songsmith at his core, Brown is constantly writing and developing his narrative style. His ability to use attention to detail in a unique yet familiar way connects Brown’s personal stories to each and every one of us.  In “Joni,” Brown writes: “She tells me she’s an open book, that’s such a joke to me; it’s impossible to get her, the pages stick together so nobody can read,” expressing in a seemingly-simple metaphor the paradoxical desire to know and be known — all while protecting ourselves. He has a long relationship with the narrative tradition and counts John Prine, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan as influences, as well as writers and poets such as Donald Hall, John Steinbeck, James Wright, JD Salinger, and Walker Percy. Out of Exile 1 was recorded at the legendary FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama with the backing of luminary musical collective The Texas Gentlemen. In celebration of the release of Out of Exile 1, American Songwriter premiered Brown’s music video for “Joni”.