Sometimes when you listen to a musician play music, it’s hard to tell just what his personal music influences are. And then, sometimes you run into someone who seems to wear his influences on his sleeve, making it totally obvious what has had the biggest influence on them. For the artist who calls himself Brown Kid, all you have to do is put on one of his most recent songs that were published and you can tell who gave him the most inspiration.
Brown Kid, a man who now makes his home down in Auburn, Alabama, was not born here. He and his family made their way to the United States from their home in Peru. And while the Peruvian culture easily could have been a major influence to Brown Kid (whose real first name is Eduardo), he turned to the American singer-songwriter Jack Johnson as a major musical influence. And if you play just one of the songs from Brown Kid, that fact becomes all-too-obvious. In fact, the laidback, groove-laden feel of Jack Johnson’s music influences a large amount of the music that makes up Brown Kid’s new EP entitled Rusty Strings.
While Brown Kid already has two albums in his discography, the new release called Rusty Strings contains only six tracks. On top of that, the included songs on the EP only combine to create a total of just over sixteen minutes. Those sixteen minutes go by rather fast, making the release a rather quick listen.
Rusty Strings, the new release from Brown Kid, begins with the track “Welcome to My Funeral”. The track begins with a light musical delivery that will remind many of something from Jack Johnson. Now only does the music delivery say Jack Johnson, so does Brown Kid’s vocal delivery. But the tone of the lyrics is where the two songwriters part ways, composing-wise. Where Johnson usually writes light, fun lyrics, Brown Kid’s lyrics about attending a funeral are done as upbeat as possible, though the idea is still rather dark.
Brown Kid continues his new EP with the track “La Farra”. Taking some of the feel from the previous track, Brown Kid adds a slightly stronger Hip-Hop beat to the music to create a track with a stronger dance feel. That dance approach works well for a track about going out to meets some girls and have a good time. The acoustic feel of the track makes one wonder just how strong this track would be if the track had been created in an electrified setting.
The pace of the music slows down a little bit with the track “Hole in the Wall”. The track features an Acoustic Rock feel that is closer to the first track of the EP than the second track. The slow, low-key song comes complete with lyrics about going out to have a few drinks at a small neighborhood location. Those lyrics show off a little bit of the humorous side to Brown Kid’s personality.
With the next track, the listener gets an even deeper example of the sense of humor that showed up in “Hole in the Wall”. “Jamaicamecrazy” is an ode to the land of Reggae music. Brown Kid sings of the many things that make Jamaica so wonderful. The use of wordplay on the track produces some groans because of really bad puns that seem to flow through the track.
As Brown Kid (first name of Eduardo) came to the United States from Peru, he decided to write a song about that experience. That track, entitled “Rusty Strings,” is the title track of the release and seems like a good fit for the album. “Rusty Strings” deals with the hardships that come with moving to a new country, dealing with new ways to doing things and learning new traditions. The song’s lyrics feel like a story set to music, which is basically what it is. And like the previous tracks that appear on the EP, the track feels like a Jack Johnson song with some Hip Hop elements thrown in and some effects added in for extra depth.
Brown Kid brings his new EP to an end with the track “Complacency”. With this track, he slows the pace down and adds an easy feel to the music, adding a slight Island-like feel to the track. Like with several other tracks on the release, “Complacency” contains lyrics that feel more like words to a song set to music. That set of lyrics deals with people who never seem to be satisfied with the way things are.
Rusty Strings, the new release from Brown Kid contains six tracks that blend together rather easily, which makes for a release that seems to be over even faster than the sixteen minutes would suggest. But sometimes, a fast release means that you enjoy the album so much that you don’t realize just how quickly the playtime of the album has gone by until the music comes to an end.
For more information, check out Brown Kid’s PR firm of Whiplash PR & Management by clicking on the logo for the company.
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