Stream The New Album From Elliot Brown - Road To Destruction

Northland singer-songwriter Elliot Brown released his second album late last month, following up his debut Delerium Tremens released in 2009. The new album, titled Road To Destruction, spells an end of an era for Brown as he looks to put his well documented boozing days behind him. It's good honest folk music, a bit hill billy in parts and a bit Shane MacGowan in others. You can listen to the whole thing below but first we asked Brown to tell us a bit about the album and life in between releases....

The album is a sample of a heap of different recording sessions I've done with various people. Most of the songs were taken from a collection of similar recordings not included on the album but which can be found via the internet, e.g. Youtube. The most recent songs on the album were taken from a night spent recording at York Street Studios with Campbell Duncan (producer), Dave Khan (whom I believe to be New Zealand's top country musician), Hariet Ellis (lead vocals), Fred Renata (bass, vocals), Jackson Hobbs (percussion, vocals). Hariet, Fred, Jacko and I performed earlier this year at Northland's Selective Soundz festival and were lucky enough to have the brilliant young producer Campbell Duncan in the audience who decided to try to capture a live studio performance of the same songs he heard us play at the festival. We managed to record at York Street for free, and everyone who played did so without pay, so of course I am very grateful for everyone's input. This album contains my first attempts to record with a female vocalist. I met Dave Khan when we were both busking in the Albany shopping centre. Dave had a busking sign that read: ''Savin' up to pay momma's bail''. I knew we'd be friends right there. Busking, speaking of which, is one of the only themes this album has, with a number of the songs having been written while busking on Queen Street and Cuba Street.

What have I been up to since my last release? Since the release of my first solo album Delirium Tremens I have been fully engaged in a continuous and dedicated drinking session uninterrupted by the tedium of sobriety at any point. I am, however, (and only because of stern doctors' orders) beginning an experiment with sobriety which has prompted me to release Road To Destruction just to sort of...tie up some loose ends before I release my next album which, naturally, will not deal so much with debauchery. The album is certainly not a ''concept album'' however and not a compilation either. It is intended as only a sample of songs I have recorded since Delirium Tremens. As mentioned before, many more recordings I've made can be found on the internet which I have not included on the album simply because I have been advised that twelve tracks is a good number. Each song, therefore, represents a style of songwriting -more examples of which can be found on my website www.elliotbrownmusic.com should the style appeal to anyone.

I have, in the last year, devoted more of my time to recording rather than performing live, and this is partly thanks to donations of recording gear which have been made to me by various generous supporters and partly because performing live is also not economically viable anymore as it costs money (that I don't have) to get to venues and as a general rule musicians such as I am don't get payed. This is the truth and anyone willing to dispute this claim is invited to prove me wrong by paying me a substantial sum of money.

Three of the songs ("Banjer Pickin' Man", "Soldier's Joy", and "Billy The Kid") are a tribute to my favourite songwriter Jimmie Driftwood who is famous for writing "The Battle Of New Orleans" and "Tennessee Stud". Driftwood wrote Banjer Pickin' Man, and wrote the words for the old traditional "Soldier's Joy", and he did what I believe to be the best version of "Billy The Kid". I don't think Driftwood ever got the true recognition he deserved so I have decided to spread his music however I can. A lot of Driftwood's music is suited to being played live, especially in the company of people drinking.

And with that, here is the album...