BREN HOLMES Delivers New Album — Rooted in Rock and Americana

“When you listen to Bren Holmes, everything automatically feels okay.” – Americana Highways

“Sometimes it just takes one song to pull you into a record…“Can’t Stop Thinkin’'” is maybe the hookiest song I have heard this year. It’s a bright, upbeat, stroller. I played it five more times after the first run-through. It’ll leave you with an ear worm that you’ll find impossible to shake.” – Disciples Of Sound

“…you won’t be surprised to learn that he was born in Ireland and spent nearly 30 years playing bass with L.A.’s Young Dubliners. You can hear the influence of Celtic music on some of the tracks, and the instruments include uilleann pipes, bodhran (a shallow Irish drum), and whistle. Still, this album—whose songs mostly address love lost and found—is rooted in rock and Americana.” – BlogCritics

BREN HOLMES
Delivers EVERYTHING YOU NEVER WANTED and Leaves You With Everything You Will Forever Need.

Long-time Young Dubliners bassist announces first-ever solo album release showcase, set for Los Angeles on Oct. 17, 2020

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021 (Los Angeles, CA) – For thirty-plus years, Bren Holmes has been plying his craft as a musician, songwriter, and bandmate. As an original member of the beyond-beloved The Young Dubliners, this Los Angeles-by-way-of-Dublin bard has gigged all over the world–and lived to tell about it. With his debut solo album Everything You Never Wanted (released independently on September 17, 2021), he’s ready to relay those stories.

In the fall of 2019, Bren decided to part ways with the band in the pursuit of a solo career. After several months, he put together a list of songs he had written and got together with co-producer Bryan Dobbs to present Everything You Never Wanted. 

 “Looking forward to my album release gig at Bardot, Hollywood in October.  It’s been two years in the making, and I’m now finally able to safely play some of these songs in a live setting, for the first time,” says Holmes.  On October 17th, Los Angeles will be witness to Bren’s style of Celtic charm-injected folkpop when he celebrates the album’s release at Bardot at Avalon Hollywood (1737 Vine St. Hollywood, CA 90028. Doors at 4 p.m., 5 p.m. showtime. Free event.

While the music represents a departure of a fashion, Everything You Never Wanted delivers deeply rooted, gritty Americana, timeless rock ‘n’ roll, and stripped-down pop, while smacking a wee bit with a kind of Hibernian melancholy and Irish fighting spirit. 

“I don’t set out to write a particular song or music,” Holmes observes from the nice, warm, woodsy flat he’s spent quite a bit of time missing during his years on the road. “Whatever comes out, I just go with it,” he confides in the nice, warm brogue that he’s charmingly retained. “There’s no particular theme to the record, either. As a sort of an outsider looking in, I’d say it’s about loss and heartbreak over a long span of time.”

Bren himself is so naturally chummy and affable that it’s no wonder he’s got so many of his super-talented L.A. friends to make Everything You Never Wanted a reality. The album features contributions from Brett Anderson (The Donnas), Cindy Wasserman (Dead Rock West), Bassist Jayson Sites (Half Pint Jones), ace session drummer Dave Raven (Keith Richards, Nellie McKay, John Doe), violinist Rachel Grace (Foo Fighters, Usher, Annie Lennox), keyboardist Tim Boland, drummer Ward Poulos, as well as Holmes’ fellow Dublin ex-pat Pat D’Arcy on uilleann pipes, bodhran, and whistles.

TOUR DATES:
October 17  – Bardot, Los Angeles, CA (Album release show)

EVERYTHING YOU NEVER WANTED
Sweet Talkin’ Angel
You Say
Can’t Stop Thinkin’
No Return
Ugly
Love on Your Side (LC Blues)
SOS
Pieces
Take It All Away
Somewhere (Ode to Shane)

Everything You Never Wanted, like its clever (but not too much so, if you know what I mean) title, is an album that’s replete with a thoughtfulness that crescendos into loveliness. Holmes’s confident and inviting voice comes on like a lullaby with a bite.

Everything You Never Wanted was co-produced by Bryan Dobbs (Brett Anderson, Rattle The Knee) and was released on September 17, 2021.

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