Cory Branan (full band) w/ Ryan Sobb
March 2, 2017 8:30 pm CST
$10.00
Cory Branan
  • "The first time I heard ["The No-Hit Wonder"] I thought, 'Wow, that’s the best song Jay Farrar has written in years.' Now I think, 'Jay Farrar needs to write more Cory Branan songs.'"

    — Grantland

  • With one foot planted in the blue-collar alt-country of Steve Earle and the other in the ragged folk-punk of Chuck Ragan's Revival Tour, he stretches his songs to their near-breaking points. 

    — Rolling Stone

  • Left-leaning roots music that owes more to the rhythmic whiplash of Memphis' Sun Records than the poppy, polished twang of Nashville's Music Row.

    — Rolling Stone

  • He’s a powerful songwriter, a world-class guitar player, a singer with enough melody and grit to please the ear and stick to bones. He crafts complex songs, toying with structures and characters in ways most songwriters never consider, let alone have the guts to commit to record.

    — Noisey / VICE

  • Like all good country music, Cory Branan is hard, if not impossible, to define.

    — PopMatters

  • Cory Branan’s new album is wryly titled The No-Hit Wonder, but despite the self-inflicted jab, the Memphis-bred roots-rocker is at the crest of the new wave of Americana.

    — CMT Edge

  • The No-Hit Wonder is brimming with vivid and infectious songwriting. It’s a breath of fresh country air in an otherwise stale market.

    — Consequence of Sound

  • I get heartily sick of people saying they don’t write country songs the way they used to – open your eyes and ears; they do and Cory Branan is one of the best, even if he doesn’t wear a Stetson.

    — No Depression

  • A country boy with a punk-rock heart, Cory Branan fires twin barrels of barroom boogie woogie and honky-tonk twang.

    — Rolling Stone

  • "The first time I heard ["The No-Hit Wonder"] I thought, 'Wow, that’s the best song Jay Farrar has written in years.' Now I think, 'Jay Farrar needs to write more Cory Branan songs.'"

    — Grantland

  • With one foot planted in the blue-collar alt-country of Steve Earle and the other in the ragged folk-punk of Chuck Ragan's Revival Tour, he stretches his songs to their near-breaking points. 

    — Rolling Stone

ADIOS is Cory Branan's death record. Not the cheeriest of openings, but like all of Branan's mercurial work it's probably not what you think. As funny and defiant as it is touching and sad, this self-dubbed "loser's survival kit" doesn't spare its subjects or the listener.

Not even Branan's deceased father is let off the hook. In the tender homage "The Vow" he drolly cites his father's favorite banality, "that's what you get for thinking," as "probably not the best lesson for kids." For most songwriters, that would be the punchline, but Branan pushes through words and, in his father's actions, finds a kind of "genius in the effortless way he just 'did'."

Not all the death on ADIOS is literal mortality. "Imogene" is sung from the wreckage of a love that once "poked fun at the pain, stoked the sun in the rain" but ends with the urgent call to "act on the embers, ash won't remember the way back to fire."

The trademark lyrical agility is mirrored sonically. Never a genre loyalist, ADIOS finds Branan (much like his musically restless heroes Elvis Costello and Tom Waits) coloring outside the lines in sometimes jarring shades of fuzz and twang. While unafraid to play it arrow-straight when called for (“the Vow”, “Equinox”, “Don't Go”), ADIOS veers wildly from the Buddy Holly-esque rave up "I Only Know" (sung with punk notables Laura Jane Grace and Dave Hause), through the swampy "Walls, MS" to the Costello-like new wave of "Visiting Hours." The blistering punk of "Another Nightmare in America" bops along daring listeners to "Look away, look away, move along, nothing to see here" (the song is from the point of view of a racist killer cop). And as the mourning singer on "Cold Blue Moonlight" shifts from paralysis to panic, the song's jazzy drone shifts to an almost Sabbath furyThe tonal shifts are always deliberateand not just simple genre hopping; while the turns can be jarring, you can trust Branan to take you somewhere unexpected. 

The 14-song album was self-produced and recorded in the spring of 2016 at Tweed Studios in Oxford, MS with a tight three piece: Branan on lead vocals and guitar (both electric and acoustic); Robbie Crowell of Deer Tick on drums and percussion, keys, and horns; and James “Haggs” Haggerty on bass. Additionally, Amanda Shires contributes on fiddle and vocals, and Laura Jane Grace (of Against Me!) and Dave Hause provide guest vocals.

Cory Branan has four previous full-length releases: The Hell You Say (2002, Madjack Records), 12 Songs (2006, Madjack), Mutt (2012, Bloodshot Records), and The No-Hit Wonder (2014, Bloodshot). His music has received critical praise from the likes of Rolling StoneNPR All Things ConsideredVICE/NoiseyThe Wall Street JournalPaste MagazineOxford AmericanConsequence of SoundSouthern Living, and many others.

Ryan Sobb

Ryan Sobb is an independent musician from the Chicagoland area by way of Birmingham, AL. Currently, Ryan resides and records in Birmingham. Ryan fits loosely into the alt-country bringing a bit of a midwestern story-teller's voice and a sound rooted in heartland rock. 

Ryan pursued a life in music  after graduating and moving to Birmingham to study guitar and songwriting. Between touring, Ryan performs with friends in Birmingham and central Alabama.