His early life reads like a Southern Gothic novel. John Brannen’s parents met in China, when his mother was working for the American consulate. His father was a cotton broker who died unexpectedly and under strange circumstances in Brazil just before John was born. John’s mother moved them to the South Carolina coast. It was through his maternal grandfather that he got turned on to classic poets like Tennyson and Longfellow. And that kindled the flame for the words that were to be woven into John’s path as a singer/songwriter. Coupled with that was a heavy dose of wanderlust. By eighteen, he had already hitchhiked across the United States, surfed extensively in Hawaii, and sailed the West Indies. Enter music, which bit him hard enough for him to only do a bit of college before he left to follow his heart.
“Just Restless.” I relate. I know where I been, but I don’t know what is around the corner. And I am willing to throw the dice and take the chance. Something in John Brannen’s music lit me up a long time ago. I didn’t know then that he was a fellow seeker, a traveler like me. But now that I think about his lyrics, it is really no wonder. The day he came to see us at the Americana Fest in September, he had had one of those days, which included blowing his voice out some. The passion, the intensity, it is all there anyway. This song can be found on the 2006 "Twilight Tattoo" CD. This here is the Music Fog solo take.
- Jessie Scott
