Baltimore singer/songwriter Timothy Bracken gets around. You may have seen him before without realizing it — he plays guitar in June Star, he performs with a wedding band and for the past decade or so he’s been releasing solo albums.
Bracken’s latest, “Parti-Color,” rocks harder than anything he’s done before. Songs like the fiery “Lose Your Head” and slow-burning “Go Back Down” are among the highlights. On this week’s episode, which re-airs at 4 p.m. Sunday, Bracken shared his “everything-in-a-month” songwriting process and also his strategy for dealing with drunk wedding guests.
We also debuted a soulful new blues track from Ernesto J. Ponce, who plays horns in Fake Flowers, Real Dirt; and one from Outer Spaces, produced by Chester Endersby Gwazda, who also produces Dan Deacon.
The Reason was this week’s Baltimore Backtrack. They were a group of Baltimore City Paper writers including Craig Hankin and Tom Chalkley, who would later record “Bruce Springstone: Live at Bedrock,” and music writer J.D. Considine, who later wrote for The Baltimore Sun, Rolling Stone and MTV. The song was “She Don’t Like Boys,” about a man who falls in love with a woman who doesn’t like men.
Here’s the playlist:
Ernesto J. Ponce – “The Dream is Gone”
Jordan Sokel – “My People”
Timothy Bracken – “Lose Your Head” (live in studio)
June Star – “Dirt and Sparks”
Petticoat Tea Room – “Today (I Awoke)”
Soft Cat – “Goldmines”
Evan Merkel and Tucker Foltz – “Holiday”
Timothy Bracken – “Livin’ In the Past” (live in studio)
Baltimore Backtrack: The Reason – “She Don’t Like Boys”
Timothy Bracken – “Lady Machine” (live in studio)
Outer Spaces – “I Was Divided”
Super City – “Find You”
Skribe – “Great Unknown”
Timothy Bracken – “Go Back Down”
Outro music: Mel Atonin and the Mood Swings – “Lake Totem Nah-too”