Brody Buster -- Brody Buster's One Man Band

Brody Buster is still pretty young--he's 32--but his music is advanced far beyond those years. Originally a harp prodigy from Paola Kansas, Brody played on The Tonight Show and played several times with BB King, but he didn't really actively pursue his music--it was just for fun. Things began to take a more serious turn away from Blues Rock in late 2015 when Brody began developing himself as a One Man Band (solo voice, drums, guitar and harp) at a weekly gig at the Westport Saloon in Kansas City. After that effort earned him a second finish at the 2016 IBC in the solo/duo competition, and Brody won "Best Harmonica" honors, he released this One Man Band cd last July.

At the outset I want to say that I liked this release. There are eight tracks here, three originals and five covers. The originals are "Into The Wind," "Working For The Devil," and "2029." These are all interesting, and feature strong harp and guitar work, along with generally good singing. At times Brody seems to hurry through the lyrics to get to the next guitar part or the next harp part. I liked "Into The Wind" the best of the originals. The covers include four non-blues songs--"I'm On Fire" (Bruce Springsteen), "New Speedway Boogie" (Grateful Dead), "Nothing Compares 2 U" (Prince), and "Get Back" (The Beatles). The sole bluesy cover is "Get Out Of My Life" (Eugene Smiley Sr). The Beatles and Springsteen covers are sweet but lightweight, and the Prince cover is ok, but the Grateful Dead song is strong and the Eugene Smiley Sr song is quite good--IMO the best on the cd.

Brody Buster has created an interesting artistic turn with this release, and I think he has a huge upside ahead doing this One Man Band style. He also continues to perform around Kansas City in the Brody Buster Band. What is sure is that he can sure play harp and guitar and drums, and his singing and songwriting will continue to develop.       

You can buy this cd from Brody's website: http://www.brodybuster.com/