A.K
AND THE
BROTHERHOOD
It is americana, or swedicana, in a way you’ve never heard it before, and it is yet another proof that A.K & The Brotherhood is not just another country band. They’re for real and they’re here to stay.
Sail On, Cowboy - good gig
The new single, also the title track from the new album, is a totally different beast. "Sail On, Cowboy - Good Gig" is an epic, almost six minutes long americana tour de force, with both key and time changes, an almost progressive rock flourish, a haunting melody and melancholy lyrics that serves both as a tribute to life and a celebration of that same life coming to an end.
music
Sail On Cowboy, Good Gig (2023)
My Old Ways (2022)
Lost In You (2021)
Oh Sedona (2019)
The Outlaw Americana Sessions (2017)
about
It’s that time of the night.
Your loved ones are fast asleep, the phone has stopped ringing, and your records sound different somehow. Closer. More poignant.
Maybe you’ve had a few, in order to wind down. You put on ”Sail On Cowboy - Good Gig”, and all of a sudden Life, in all its glory and sadness, washes over you. Feelings, images and words from your past appear, seemingly out of nowhere. The choices you’ve made: good ones, bad ones, and mistakes that turned out to be the best ones you ever made.
Childhood, school days, work days, crazy days, in between days, and time-to-settle-down days. Love, loss, friendship and music. The things that matter. It all comes back during the course of the album.
According to Alo Karlsson, A.K & the Brotherhood’s lead singer, chief songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, this is also what he had intended, and hoped for, when writing the album.
The bulk of the material was written around and after his 50th birthday - as logical a time as any for summation and taking stock.A.K & the Brotherhood started out as a country band,
and soon won the Swedish Country Awards. Initially inspired by the American neo-country wave referred to as No Depression, they went on to create their own form of outlaw country, managing to shun its clichés, while retaining its warmth and wisdom.
Since then, they’ve branched out, and people started to refer to their music as Americana, rather than country music. Lately, many other of Alo’s earlier influences have also started to (re-)surface.
Early Elton. Jackson Browne. The Blue Nile. Frank Sinatra. Another important ingredient is that ever-present Scandinavian melancholy. The one that subtly makes you question your life, even when everything feels great. Am I allowed to be this content, or does my happiness imply that I have ignored all warning signs? Is the next catastrophe lurking just around the corner?A. K & the Brotherhood are just what the name implies;
a band of brothers: friends, musicians, and kindred spirits spread out across a few towns and villages in the Småland and Blekinge regions in the south of Sweden. They’re all the kind of musicians whose collective groove, and individual solo flights, make it all sound effortless, like anyone could do it. As most of us already know, this is the true sign sign of a great musician, and this band has no weak links. They have been around long enough to know what it’s all about: serving the song. And what songs they are. They sound like they’ve always been around, it’s just that no one has heard them before. Together, they create a conceptual vibe, a musical photo album whose musical snapshots form a much bigger story. Maybe it’s quite simply the story of what it’s like to be human.Since their victory
in Swedish Country Music Awards in 2017, A.K & The Brotherhood have constantly been covering new, exciting musical territory. From the self-explanatory title of debut The Outlaw Americana Sessions (2017), to the cosmic Americana of the internationally acclaimed follow-up Oh Sedona, they have proved that they are a band that refuses to stand still.
On the upcoming album Sail On, Cowboy - Good Gig, this will be even more evident, as it is a sprawling double album that not only infuses influences of such diverse artists as Elton John, Jackson Browne, The Blue Nile and Frank Sinatra - it is also a concept album.A.K & The Brotherhood
was formed in 2015, based around the stellar songwriting of frontman Alo Karlsson, and they are just what the name implies; a band of brothers: friends, musicians, and kindred spirits spread out across a few towns and villages in the Småland and Blekinge regions in the south of Sweden.
They're all the kind of musicians whose collective groove, and individual solo flights, make it all sound effortless, like anyone could do it. As most of us already know, this is the true sign sign of a great musician, and this band has no weak links. They have been around long enough to know what it's all about: serving the song.The Brotherhood consists of:
Alo Karlsson - Lead vocal, acoustic guitar
Daniel Uhlas - Drums, vocals
Mattias Schertell - Electric and upright bass
Johan Glössner - Electric guitar, vocals
Mikael Strömqvist - Electric guitar, vocals
Ola af Trampe - Keyboards, vocals
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credits for all images BJÖRN LINDGREN
