Brother Wiley. Clockwise from left: Todd Mincks, Brett Miller, Dallas Jones, Kenny Wirt and Jessica Gray (seated).
It’s reasonable to expect to have some kinks to work out in your first concert as a group, but to play a set two-and-a-half times as long as you’re scheduled for at the most nerve-wracking local show of the year is another matter altogether. But that’s how local earthy-pop group Brother Wiley got its start at the Spokane Songwriters Festival in 2001, an invitation-only event with some of the region’s best songwriters playing to a field full of their peers under the sun. ”It was horrible!” singer and guitarist Brett Miller says. “We played ten songs, first of all, which is insane–everybody plays four, or maybe five–and told stories. We listened to the recording of our set and we were like, dear God!”
Back then the group consisted of longtime friends Miller and guitarist Todd Mincks and it performed as an acoustic duo, as it would continue to do (with its name changed to Mincks & Miller) until 2007. Since then the group added Jessica Gray on bass, Kenny Wirt on drums and Dallas Jones on banjo, reverted back to the name Brother Wiley, released a brand-new album called Up the Ghost and returned to Spokane for its just-the-right-length set last weekend. A lot happened to bring them back there.
First, the lineup. Mincks and Miller recorded their first album, Life After All, on MayApple Records with Wirt on drums and Jones on bass, but Jones’s other obligations wouldn’t allow him to commit to the expanded band full-time. Gray was brought into the group in February 2007 on Wirt’s suggestion. “What Jess may not know is that we had a gentlemen’s agreement that if she sucked she would only last one practice, ” Mincks says. Gray didn’t suck, and before long she was playing her first gig with the band at Harlow’s–for more than four hours. Both men agree that Gray’s presence brought a new energy to the band’s sound, and the expanded lineup brought a more collaborative approach to songwriting as opposed to Mincks and Miller working on their songs separately.
The band’s songs may have been tighter than ever, but it still didn’t prepare the members for the experience of recording with Jonathan James of Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin for the new album. Miller describes James as someone interested more in making bands sound better than in just doing the job and collecting a check. Gray says she feels as though all of the band members have become better musicians after working with James. He’s also not one to dole out praise quickly, Miller says. “For about two-thirds of the album Jonathan was very supportive, but I was conscious of the face that he never said, ‘I really like this song,’” Miller says. That sort of talk came when recording was closer to completion… after nine months, 16 days and three recording studios. This is not a band that likes to hurry through anything.
If the glowing faces of Miller, Mincks and Gray are any indication, it was worth the wait. Up the Ghost, named that way because of the album’s multiple references to ghosts in its songs, is 14 tracks long and is already getting attention outside of SGF; the first track, “Drive,” was listed last week as the lead featured track on the NoDepression website, a leading authority in Americana and roots-rock music. After its official CD release party at Lindberg’s this Saturday, Brother Wiley intends to book and play shows extensively through the summer, as Mincks and Miller’s schedules (both work in the education field) are favorable for short road trips at that time of year. You can expect their sets to be of a reasonable time, though; they’ve learned a lot in nine years.
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