Reckless Kelly

04.26.2005 -- Feature by: Susan M. Hatch

{mosimage}
Most of us know the story - Brothers and fellow band members Cody and
Willy Braun grew up in Idaho and, along with their two younger
brothers, Gary and Micky (both of Micky and The Motorcars), played in a
family band lead by their father, Muzzie Braun, as Muzzie Braun &
The Boys. They released a few records and traveled the country
performing at fairs and festivals, and on such popular stages as that
of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

The older boys started a band in high school and later moved to Oregon
where they met a drummer that became the third (and last ‘original’)
band member, Jay Nazz (Jazz). The three then adopted Casey
Pollock on guitar and Chris Schelske on bass and started Reckless Kelly
- named after a fearless Australian outlaw and bankrobber that met his
fate with a round of gunfire in 1880.

In 1997, the band relocated to Austin, Texas, and recorded their first
record, Millican, with its famed "hick rock" sound. In 2000, they
put out their only live record, Live at Stubb’s, and, after replacing
Casey Pollock with guitarist David Abeyta, put out their third record,
The Day. By 2003, the line-up had been revised a second time with
Jimmy McFeeley (Jam) replacing Chris Schelske on bass. The fourth
Reckless Kelly record, Under the Table and Above the Sun, was released,
this time under the Sugarhill label. The band has been touring
relentlessly since the release of the fourth record, performing live
across the United States and in Europe, and even at the two most recent
presidential inaugurations.

So what are these hick rockers doing nowadays?

{mosimage}
On February 8, 2005, Reckless Kelly released their fifth record (number
two under the Sugarhill label), Wicked Twisted Road. The title
track, which was written about four years ago, has sat on the shelf,
appearing only intermittently to a few lucky fans… until now. The
much-anticipated release has been a huge success thus far, with a video
for its first single, Stick Around, soon to appear on CMT, and Wretched
Again being used as theme music for CMT’s Wide Open Country.

For their release party on February 18, the band performed at Austin’s
own Antones. When the guys bumped into John Popper,
singer/songwriter for Blues Traveler, the night before the release
party at a local lounge, he gladly agreed to join them on stage for a
few songs. Now, not only was the record receiving rave reviews,
but the record release party was, too!

{mospagebreak title="Page 2"}

The new record is filled with admittedly strong songs with complex
lyrical content (such as Wicked Twisted Road, Stick Around, and Baby’s
Gotta Whole Lot More) that make you think in order to get the whole
story, providing more of an inspiration to deep thought than a
bottom-line lesson in the hardships of love. When asked what song
on the record was the weakest, Willy expressed some mixed feelings over
the lyrics to Wretched Again, which was rewritten multiple times.
"I kept trying to make it smarter… Every time I did that it
seemed to take away from the tune in kind of an anti-stones kind of
way. The simpler, almost more stock / generic lyrics were working
a lot better than anything too complex. … I really like the way
it rocks but then some times I think it could have been a little
stronger lyrically if we had worked on it a little longer."

Two of my favorite songs on the record are Sixgun and Wicked Twisted
Road Reprise. With the fated bankrobber getaway story reminiscent of
the band’s namesake (Sixgun) and a song that provides whatever it is
the listener is looking for (Wicked Twisted Road Reprise), I wondered
why it was decided to give these two powerful songs what I considered
to be an anti-climactic fade-away ending. Willy said that for
Wicked Twisted Road Reprise, the fade-away lets you ride "off into the
sunset," giving the listener the sense that it’s not really over.
If folks like to listen to the record twice in a row, it provides a
"constant looping feel" like the record doesn’t end. With Sixgun,
they knew they "wanted to have a long extended jam" on the end of
it. Willy thought, "We’ll rock it out until it falls apart and
then fade away where we feel like it loses momentum." That leaves
them open to a pretty intense jam at their discretion during live
performances.

{mosimage}
Because Sixgun is "still really fresh" and leaves a lot of room to
explore, it is Willy’s favorite song to perform right now.
"Sixgun is a lot of fun" he smiled (alright, I couldn’t see him but I
could hear it in his voice). They’ve been opening their live
performances with it and, as long as the crowd is into it (what?!) and
the venue allows it, they’ll do a several-hour-long set, kicking the
excitement off with an eight- or 10-minute jam at the end of Sixgun.

Although the rock shows are a lot of fun, many songs on Wicked Twisted
Road lend themselves to an acoustic performance, and the band has been
doing some of those in the smaller rooms. "[It is] tougher to
fill a big room with an acoustic show, plus we like to rock out [when
we have a big stage]." Some of the songs on this record are not
classic Reckless Kelly rock or acoustic stylings. This record
shows some of their style variation, as do their live performances.

With all the rockin’ shows, intimate acoustic sets, and variation in
classic Reckless Kelly style, why not broaden the skill set of those
that may otherwise have been pigeon-holed? David has recently
been singing the Texas Tornado song, Guacamole. Willy says they
might leave this one in the show for a while and, although David has
written a few tunes with Willy, we’ll have to wait and see "how
adventurous he gets" in his role as a singer…

The latest and greatest is that the guys just finished filming the
video for Stick Around, the new record’s first single. Filming
took place in a Georgetown prison and some scenes were a knock-off from
the classic western movie, Cool Hand Luke. The video has an
overall "prison escape vibe" and should begin rotation on CMT in the
next week or two. Willy recalls that during the making of the
video he had to run through a muddy creek five or six times to get the
ideal shot. They also had to act like they were digging on a
chain gang for about three or four hours in the hot sun. When it
came time for the scene with the chick, they shot it twice and "the
whole thing was over in five minutes. I was like damn, ya
know? I spent five or six hours running though a muddy creek,
four or five hours on the road digging in the hot sun, and five minutes
with the girl. Next time we’re going to work on the schedule a
little bit."

Speaking of schedule, the guys are swamped with live shows, public
appearances, radio spots, interviews, filming, traveling, etc.
They are maximizing their time and doing everything that they can
possibly fit it. So we’re all wondering what’s next, and if we
can expect to see more publicity (e.g., in the form of videos) and less
live shows. "No, not so far… Rock touring is our bread and
butter and I don’t see the end of that any time soon." He
explained that, although it might be nice to be able to schedule a
little more time off, he is just happy to be working because not a lot
of people have the opportunity to work as much as they do.
They’re busier than they’ve ever been and the future will likely hold
more of the same with some additional highlights, such as performances
with Dwight Yoakam in Las Vegas this July. Their tour schedule
and booking agent can be accessed through their website:
http://www.recklesskelly.com. From their site you can also get the
hottest news on the band, buy merchandise, check out the Club Millican
message board, and enjoy rktv, the latest in independent short skits.

{mospagebreak title="Page 3"}

For those of you that are new to Reckless Kelly, Willy suggests
starting on the ground floor and buying Millican. That’s where it
all began, and what a beginning it was. Millican is still one of
my favorite records. Once you have your fill of it (not likely),
you can collect the other four (just buy them all at once!).

There is a secret phrase on Wicked Twisted Road, a secret word on Under
the Table and Above the Sun, a secret song on Live at Stubb’s, and a
bonus track on Millican. I assumed that the secret phraseology
was part of their plan for world domination so when I asked Willy if
there was a secret something on The Day that I was missing, his reply
surprised me. "I don’t think so; nothing that we intended to put
on there anyway. The secret word on Under the Table is totally
just off the mic and none of us knew it was going to be there… We
didn’t notice until somebody pointed it out on the website." For
all you Red Sox fans out there, you’ll be happy to hear the secret
phrase (recorded backwards) on the new record was "Reverse the
Curse." Willy is happy to have contributed to the breaking of
such a long-standing oppression.

{mosimage}
… which brings me to a political question. As previously
mentioned, Reckless Kelly performed this year at the inaugural
celebration for President Bush (they also performed in the same
capacity after the last presidential election). Although David
was sporting a pro-Kerry button last fall, and most of the band members
seem to err on the side of liberalism (versus conservatism), Willy is
"not too politically-inclined on the stage. When people come to
see us play I’d rather they just be able to come watch a rock and roll
show and not have to worry about any political bullshit. We’ll
play for anyone who wants us to play. We’d have played for Kerry,
too, if he’d [won the election and] asked us."

And last but not least - Although Willy doesn’t know about "settling
down," he hopes that if all goes well he will "definitely end up back
in Idaho one of these days." In fact, if he weren’t blessed with
the amazing talent and skills that keep him gainfully employed in the
music industry, he would probably live in Idaho and "fall back on"
building log homes. "I like to build stuff." If music
wasn’t his main, time-consuming passion and he didn’t need to support
himself, he would undoubtedly be spending his days skiing and
golfing. As wonderful as the aforementioned livelihood and
hobbies sound, I think we are all thankful that the members of Reckless
Kelly have the talent and drive to pursue their passion, following it
wherever it takes them in contrast to leading a nine-to-five
lifestyle. We should all be so reckless!

Thanks to Willy for the honest interview, and thanks to David, Cody, Willy, Jimmy, and Jay for letting the fans name that van!!