INFLUENTIAL ALBUM: Big Brutus Talks Jeff Buckley's 'Grace'

It’s been a big year for Big Brutus, aka – singer-songwriter Sean Bryant. Last March, Big Brutus released their second album The Odd Willow with the single “Louise” reaching high milestones with almost 350K plays on Spotify. In late spring, Sean then took a bicycle tour up the East Coast, raising money for the International Rescue Committee, which brought about his third album as Big Brutus, America Circa, released last October, and his second album of 2017. While Big Brutus’ first two albums were full of wistful folk and indie rock stylings about love, loss, death, and purpose, on America Circa, Bryant’s songwriting evolved with the current political landscape to cover racism, oppression, and political corruption, providing some of Big Brutus’ best work yet. A few months ago, Bryant packed up in his hometown of Atlanta, and headed out to Brooklyn to further pursue the dream in New York. The momentum is gaining steam for Big Brutus, who has been playing shows all around the East Coast and beyond, and it’s well deserved.

Tonight, Big Brutus returns to Atlanta to play a show at The EARL in EAV with Butch Parnell, Poison Coats, and Custardory. Finishing up Big Brutus’s small east coast tour with Butch Parnell (including a show with Tall Tall Trees) in his hometown is sure to be a special reunion full of friends and family. To celebrate Big Brutus return, we asked Sean Bryant about an album that’s had a major influence on him. Sean was nice enough to meet up with Bryce Center in Brooklyn a while back to talk about his influential album and take a portrait with his pick, Jeff Buckley’s Grace. Back in November at The West in Brooklyn, Sean showed his appreciation of the album by doing a stunning A capella cover of Jeff Buckley’s version of “Corpus Christi Carol”, listen above.

INFLUENTIAL ALBUM: Big Brutus Talks Jeff Buckley's 'Grace'

Photo by Bryce Center

**Read what Sean Bryant of Big Brutus had to say about why Jeff Buckley’s Grace has such an impact on him:**

Grace might possibly be one of the most beautiful albums ever made. When seen through the perspective that it was Jeff Buckley’s only finished work while he was alive, it should rightfully be regarded as a masterpiece.

I remember hearing it for the first time and being confused at the dynamic range of the work. I was going through a phase of listening to only quieter music, so when songs like “Eternal Life” or the title track started, my first instinct was to be afraid… of what, I’m not sure. Perhaps the idea that a different sort of feeling was provoked? The idea that anger and fear of the unknown could not just rock, but could cut just as deeply as the quietest confessional, distorted my reality. All of a sudden the whole world of music was opened.

But the album went further than that. Most people know Jeff Buckley because of his haunting voice and his cover of “Hallelujah”, which has become a mainstay at weddings and late night telecasts for natural disasters. What most people don’t know is that Jeff Buckley hid this quality of himself for years, and focused on his guitar playing. You can hear his genius in the way his guitar work shines through on “Lover, You Should Have Come Over”, or to go deep, his live cut of “Strange Fruit” off the “Live at Sin-é” album.

Listen to the way the strings are arranged in “Last Goodbye”. His ideas were miles removed from his contemporaries, and music at the time in general. In an age of grunge and industrial music, Jeff Buckley released a work of pure beauty; something to really sit and listen to over a broken heart and a glass of wine. His unfinished work is honestly as equally spectacular (listen to “Everybody Here Wants You”), but Grace holds a special place because it was simply all him… all his eccentricities and goofball behavior, wrapped in the knowledge of a true music lover given the chance to create freely. All his hurt, pain, love, and life are right there in the wax, waiting to give grace to anyone who needs a friend. (Pun intended).