Poet Rocker

JOHN BRANNEN PRESS

 "John Brannen is a stupendously special singer/songwriter.  This wholly original artist sounds like he's got real red blood in his veins, real brains in his head and real music in his heart."
Robert K. Oermann, DiscClaimer


"Every inch the rock'n'roll romantic, Brannen could be a 19th century buccaneer or a Parisian poet.  His background is almost as colorful." 
Robert K. Oerman, The Tennessean - Nashville

"A major force both as a writer and a performer"
 Tony  Kiss, Asheville Citizen Times


 "John Brannen is one of America’s most literate and soulful poet rockers at the height of his creative powers. He has built a career crafting the intimate turning points of life and love into compelling and universal art. There is, within the well-crafted lyrics and the rasp and passion of that unique voice, along with his other gifts - the rocker’s stance, the poet’s ear, the diarist’s honesty - a nod to dogged determination amid the chaos of tough economic and political times. Like all Brannen’s music, it captures compellingly the grit that has always defined the South and leavened the American psyche."  CNN


"Brannen is one of the great talents on the current musical scene. His songs are haunting.  Most are meditative, rather somber pieces in minor keys, and they evoke mythic cowboy life and a "rootless road" existence.  I love his singing.  His voice ranges from a high pitched tenor howl to a consoling sonic syrup-like cactus-and-honey, maybe with a little sagebrush dusted over it.  It evokes wide skies, empty fields, lonely porches and solemn sunsets.  It hankers for lost love.  Brannen is the real thing".
Robert T. Jones, Charleston Post and Courier


"The Good Thief is in fact a travelogue through settings as specific as Savannah, Georgia, where "Beauties in the back streets and Southside debutantes" are "stealing hearts in the moonlight from the boys who stand and stare."  It journeys as well to nameless places, where what you see is more important than where you are.  It is not easy in today's fragmented market to find a place for a record as versatile and rewarding as The Good Thief, but Brannen's expressive songs dig deep.  One listen to "Summer in Savannah" and you will be soaked from the humidity.  Though his well-traveled voice can recall Steve Earle of Springsteen, at times Brannen will jump an octave and reach for the soaring romanticism of Roy Orbison."
John Shelton Ivany, Syndicated Wire/Columnist New York Times


"Brannen has a ravenous following which is rapidly approaching cult status."
 L.A. Times, Entertainment Today