Chris Brokaw

What's the opposite of the drummers on the World's Fastest Drummer circuit?

That's right. A drummer that also plays guitar, sings, writes songs and puts out his own solo albums. Basically, a true musician rather than a "freak of finger tapping".

Chris Brokaw is that true musician. In addition to being the drummer for The New Year, Brokaw has fronted the early 90's band Come, played drums for Codeine and just released his third full-length solo album, Incredible Love.

Brokaw plays acoustically on Incredible Love but the album doesn't sound like typical acoustic singer-songwriter fare. It rocks a lot more and indulges in a wider variety of sounds. His guitar isn't necessarily standing out in front on every song. It's a more blended sound.

I wish I had known about him a year ago when he played in Montpelier at the Langdon Street Cafe. However, he seems to tour endlessly and particularly throughout New England. So, hopefully, he'll come around again. I know I saw Come back in the 90's when they opened for Pavement (In fact, I think Spoon was also on that bill) but I wasn't taken with their sound that night. I guess my tastes have changed enough over time to now appreciate his stuff.

Right now, Brokaw is playing a few shows in NYC, IL and MA before heading off for a month-long tour through Italy, England and Ireland. Hey, he'll be in Italy on 2/12 for the Inter-Juventus match. That's certainly better than being in Boston on that day.

Bradley's Almanac posted the mp3 files from Brokaw's concert at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston back in October. There is also a live video of Brokaw performing at the 2002 SXSW festival on his label's site (12xu).

Chris Brokaw - Move