Blake Brown & The American Dust Choir - Don't Look Back (2022)

Blake Brown & The American Dust Choir come up with a sophisticated and assured set of five Americana tunes. Insiders and die-hard Americana fans have probably heard Blake Brown’s name mentioned in the context of a number of Americana-oriented bands. Whether that was enough for them to focus in on this artist from Colorado/Nashville is not that important at the moment, as ‘Don’t Look Back,’ Brown’s solo 5-song EP outing with The American Dust Choir, should do that quite nicely, thank you.

You get the idea both where Brown is coming from (and where he is heading to) by just looking at the list of people involved in this project – it was produced by Ken Coomer (Uncle Tupelo/Wilco) and includes his wife Tiffany Brown on keys/piano/vocals, Ken Coomer on drums, Sam Wilson on guitars and Scotty Huff on Bass.

The result is a set of sophisticated and assured Americana songs, dominated not only by the easy-flowing playing of Brown and the rest of the cast, but by Brown’s more than assured songwriting and dual vocal harmonies that he shares with his wife Tiffany. As with quite a number of current Americana artists, Brown doesn’t stick to the core genre itself but seamlessly blends in folk, singer-songwriter style, as well as the usual staples of classic rock and indie.

It’s probably a very smart move to come out with only five songs that are fully crafted, enticing potential listeners to more releases to come. And they certainly do.