Many years removed from the intense musical collaboration known as Freedom Alley, a new journey began when two brothers decided to join forces and make music. Without a full complement of instruments and voices to round out a band sound, the Wallis Bros. had to rely on everything that had gotten them there and nothing more.
With a Martin D-28 direct from the mountains of North Carolina and a case of harmonicas blessed from above, these two wandering minstrels came upon a sound so true, so expressive…well, it only got better as time went on. Hasn’t been a duo on the folk scene as original as the Wallis Bros. for a long time and with what these two produced there’s no indication it could be repeated anytime soon.
The boys were mainly a live group…we just liked getting up and playing. Not many recordings of live shows as the Wallis Bros. exist. Practice sessions were real work sessions and we recorded mainly to see if we were getting it right. The second release, Ring Factory Sessions, is a rare listen to songs born of those practice sessions. We would do run-throughs of numbers and when the right mixture of delivery and magic blended, we hit the record button and played as best we knew how. Final as we could make them, we always wanted to go back and finalize these songs, but well, that didn’t happen.
Below are the Wallis Bros. releases. Select a cover to travel to the music. The first set of numbers, Now & Again, has been culled from low-fi recording devices and battery operated gizmos. We were just too occupied and having so much fun making music to slow down and record. As such, you’ll need to loosen your critical ear to feel the music coming through. What it lacks in quality recording it more than makes up for in a cosmic exploration of the storytellers and song stylists known as the Wallis Bros. If you’re lucky, the songs will wrap around you like a warm embrace.
Beyond that, somewhere in the vaults there lies a few recordings of live shows from the Wallis Bros., as well as even more recordings of the intriguing follow-on group, Wallis & Co.. When two became three, the numbers were magic, the stars aligned, and three spirits merged as one. Down the road, these shows will be presented in all their glory. For now, let’s just enjoy a little Wallis Bros.!
Click an image below to go to the music!
