Articles - About.com Artist Bio: The Brooklyn Cowboys

The Brooklyn Cowboys Bio
by Jennifer Webb

With the release of "Doin' Time on Planet Earth," The Brooklyn Cowboys pick up the torch Gram Parsons lit over thirty years ago. Uniting elements of the best country/rock sounds of the 60s with today's alt-country and Americana scenes, they make music that is both familiar and refreshingly new...melodic songs with cutting lyrics and a hard rockin' beat.

The band was born in 1996, when singer/writer/guitarist Walter Egan met writer/drummer Fredrough 'Fredro' Perry in America's original heartland, that hotbed of roots and alt-country known as Brooklyn, USA. Egan, best known for his five solo albums, his mega smash hit,

"Magnet & Steel," as well as his song, "Hearts on Fire," (recorded by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris), was engaged by Perry to help him record some of his award-winning songs. They were soon rehearsing weekly to prepare for public performances. When Egan jokingly suggested they call themselves the 'Flatbush Cowboys,' Fredro shot back: "No! The Brooklyn Cowboys!" Such is the stuff of which legends are born.

Soon, The Cowboys were making waves on the country/rock circuit throughout the northeast, with their newest member, Buddy Cage, legendary pedal steel player from The New Riders of the Purple Sage. Their rise to eminence was sort-circuited in the summer of '97, when Egan departed for Nashville. But these sounds were too strong to subside.

The Brooklyn Cowboys re-formed in Music City with an expanded lineup of all-stars. On bass guitar: Supe Granda of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils; on acoustic rhythm guitar and vocals: Joy Lynn White (#1 Americana CD, 'The Lucky Few'); on keyboards: Michael Webb, doing what he's done so well for the likes of Stacey Earle, Allison Moorer, Neal Coty, and Dead Set.

The Cowboys were joined in the recording studio (the same studio favored by Roy Orbison) by the consummate fiddle player, Vassar Clements; hot picker from Merle Haggard, Redd Volkaert; and stunning young vocalist from the 5 Bucks, Brian Waldschlager.

Capping this, Al Perkins--legendary player with The Burrito Bros., Gram Parsons, Manassas and the Rolling Stones--along with Egan and Perry, formed the production team. Included on their debut disc is the last song of Gram Parsons, patron saint of alt-country. It is a co-write between Parsons and Egan dating from the days just before Gram's death, called "Carolina Calypso." The buzz has already spread Internationally and will soon be coming to your town. Either be there or as The Brooklyn Cowboys say, "Fugeddaboudit, y'all."