Thirty years ago in a wide-spot-in-the-road Idaho town 300 miles west of Yellowstone, Willy and Cody Braun formed their first band. As the sons and grandsons of professional musicians, their knowledge about how to do that was ahead of most of their garage band peers. One of their first decisions was to relocate to Austin. As Cody tells it, “We were too country for LA and too rock n roll for Nashville. The Austin, TX scene was a good home for bands like us.” Taking the name, Reckless Kelly, of a rumored Chicago gangster and adding drummer Jay Nazz to their line-up they quickly landed a record deal.
As an early favorite in the emerging alt-country and Americana music scene, the band performed in Austin’s most-fabled venues, like the Continental Club, Saxon Pub, Stubbs and Antones. They also released new albums every couple of years on increasingly well-known record labels. By the late 00’s music fans would certainly have assumed the band had the music industry tiger by the tail. Even the group’s inspiration for their name had matured, from a non-existent Chicago mobster to an Australian outlaw, Ned Kelly, who some thought of as a folk hero symbolizing resistance against authority.
Behind the scenes, however, business dealings with their record labels had become tense. Although they mostly allowed the band to make the records they wanted to make, the music companies owned the masters and deals were structured so the band’s financial upside was limited. In addition, licensing was at the sole discretion of the label. Cody notes, “We learn how to play our instruments, write the songs, spend our lives on the highway touring, and at the end of the day, some guy in a suit takes home most of the money.”
By 2011, with the release of Good Luck & True Love, the group had formed their own record label so at least moving forward they were their own guy in the suit. That still left them without rights to their earlier music, many songs of which had become fan favorites and linchpins of live performances. In the years since then, those record companies have been sold to other record companies which have in turn been sold to yet other labels. Those corporations have such enormous inventories that the back catalog of even a successful outlaw country band doesn’t show up to the left of the decimal point. Conversations about purchase of their old masters have gone nowhere. Not content to just let things lay, the brothers and Nazz have taken things into their own hands, re-recording many of those fan favorites on a new album on their own label, appropriately titled Alternate Routes(out May 15th).
As you can imagine, with decades of performance under their belt and new band members Geoffrey Queen and Joe Miller adding their own touches, the songs have evolved. Wicked Twisted Road’s title track has substituted harmonica to convey a weariness that the original’s mandolin accents missed. Seven Nights In Eire still has the unmistakable lilt, but interwoven mandolin and fiddle riffs add a nice complexity to the tune. The twin Telecaster leads on Nobody’s Girl are still there, but with the mix bringing them more front and center, and is one of the sounds I personally attach to Reckless Kelly. American Blood is another number that’s benefitted from a newer mix with the band sounding less muddled. Overall, when you go back and listen to the first recordings versus the Alternate Routes version what strikes you is the increased dynamic and stylistic range the group has developed over the years.
Ultimately, I think that idea of a wider range to work in is what this new album is all about. The band has not just gotten better and more comfortable with their own capabilities, they have a strong desire to give fans what they’re asking for without an accountant getting in the middle of things. Cody stated that as, “My advice to anyone wanting to try their hand at music and the business is that you really need to learn how to do both really well, or be willing to give someone all your money and let them tell you what to sing, what to wear, how to act, and who to be.” There’s a lesson in personal responsibility for all of us in that.
If you’re even the slightest fan of Reckless Kelly (and if you aren’t, you should be), Alternate Routes is a win-win record. You get to hear some great new, and yet also familiar, music and the band gets to take a little more control over making the music they love.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.