Cowapunka!!!
Find the three fine releases from Earl Brooks and the Crop Circles here at JW Merc! Who’s Earl Brooks you say? He’s the finest American singer/songwriter you never heard of – THAT’S WHO!!!
I’ve heard it once said that ‘happy songs sell records and sad songs sell beer’. If that’s true then there is surely something for everyone within Earl’s great music and collaborations.
Having left Idaho for the Belltown district of Seattle in the mid-1980’s, Earl immediately began laying down tracks in his small studio (apartment) with neighborhood musicians and his first group “The Blood Of The Lamb Band”.
The Crop Circles was the next generation of guitar/vocal based music, having come together amidst the convergence/exploitation of grunge in Seattle - crossing lines of country, punk, rock and the ever-present cry-in-your-beer heartbreaker. Record stores were at a loss as to where to file the releases – one category was “Grange Rock” – and another (suggested by Earl) identified them as “Counter-Culture Country”
Crop Circles CD’s are available for $12.50 each (+$2.50 shipping/handling), any two selections for $24 (+$4.50 shipping/handling) or any combination of three for $33 (+$6.00 shipping/handling). Sorry – no sampling available at this time…
Available now:
#1) Crop Circles – “Born With A Bad Heart” (“I’ll give you this ORANGE, if you’ll let me eat lunch with you”) – featuring great duets and the opening rocker “I Won’t Tell”. The ‘Circles’ expertly cover the John Ramberg tune “Year Of The Sofa” and one of my personal favorites: Dave Leggs’ Room With A View”.
This release first came out in 1995, and there aren’t many left to share. Grab one for you and send one off to a friend!
#2) Crop Circles – “Crop Circles Sing The Songs Of Stinky Doolittle” (if you like dachsunds this is a MUST have) – as the story goes Earl came across some information on the songwriter Stinky Doolittle (hailing from South Carolina – writing and performing from 1953 to 1959) while doing some research on hillbilly/work songs. Turns out Stinky was a dog! How can this happen? – you’ll have to pick up a copy and decide for yourself…
My personal favs on this release are the good-time rythym packin’ “Broken Bones” and the harder-hitting “Dodi”. Released in 1997.
#3) Crop Circles – “Home Sweet Home” – released in late summer 2001, this great disc was quickly overshadowed by the events in September. By the way – the line ‘wanna bomb the BBC’ on one of my favorite tracks “Downtown” was not to be taken literally. (I think he meant he’d like to buy them all a few shots of whiskey and see if those stiff accents hold up). Also found on the CD is a song that I can’t play once –especially when I’m out on the road: “Things That I Could Tell You” will have you coming back time and again. “My Town” not only tests your danceable heart rate but features the dachshunds on background vocals (there’s that Stinky again!)
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