With their debut album, The Brothers Reed have created an absorbing collection of Americana about life, love, and the diversity of the human experience. From dark ballads and bluegrass numbers, to laid back alt-country and punk-infused indie pop, "Sick as Folk," is a collection of well-crafted songs for fans of artists such as Simon and Garfunkel, Avett Brothers, and Beck. Despite touching on numerous musical elements the album remains extremely cohesive, charming from the opening stanza with lush harmonies and bold instrumentation intended to soothe, captivate, and ultimately inspire it's listeners. By Josh Gross Rogue Valley Messenger April 2-16,2015 On the surface, the origin story of The Brothers Reed isn’t very bohemian. “Money,” says Philip Reed, the Phil half of the fraternal Americana duo. The Acoustic format allowed Philip and Aaron to busk for tips when the other members of their band Buckle Rash were unavailable for performances. But it didn’t take long after hitting the streets in July 2014 for the Reeds to realize their side-gig carried its own water as well. “Buckle Rash couldn’t get away with playing these kind of songs,” says Aaron Reed. The band’s reputation was for playing galeforce rock with no ball left unwalled. And while The Brothers Reed play a few of those speedball songs as well, its best moments were found in lover’s laments and harmonies crooned over cowboy waltzes. So the pair hit the studio in October and emerged with Sick As Folk, The Brothers Reed’s debut album. Sick As Folk was recorded and mixed by The Brothers Reed themselves, who scrapped the process and started over several times to get the sound just right. They even experimented with fuller band instrumentation, but decided to walk it back. “I played drums to ‘Hellfire Lake,’ (the album’s fourth song) but the sound of the drums was too harsh,” says Aaron Reed. “So we just stuck with the guitars and I like how it came out.” That work shows, as the album sounds great from start to finish, standing out from the glut of acoustic albums with flourishes of electric leads and light percussion that have enough rock or indie vibe to dodge the dreaded adult contemporary sound of many acoustic albums. One of Sick As Folk’s standout tracks is its opener, “Show After Show,” which starts off with a light touch of piano and an understated harmonica line. It’s comforting and gentle, with smooth vocal harmonies. But what makes it work so well is how that feel is balanced by the bitterness and anger of the lyrics, “Sometimes the things you say can be so stupid….every time you get drunk, I wish that you’d just shut up, but you can’t help always running your mouth.” It evokes the best of old country ballads, which plucked at heartstrings effectively as they vented rage at treacherous spouses, backstabbing friends and jobs that needed shoving. The two tracks that follow, western waltz “Black Blood,” and the arpeggiated shuffle of “Tennessee,” keep that up, the intoxicating sound a light in the darkness of the songcraft. Moving forward, the album changes a bit, embracing major keys and more aggressive strumming patterns. It’s far from bad, but the back half of Sick As Folk loses some of the magnetism of its opening because just as Buckle Rash is best fast and hard, The Brothers Reed are best slow and gruesome, without the sort of singalong element that makes Nashville hits, and steeped in hillfolk war stories. That vibe returns just in time for the album’s close, with the 10th track, “Give Up,” whose vocal harmonies manage to make the lyrics, “Blame it all on the world, blame it all on you,” seem almost buoyant. It’s true we’re not very deep into the new year yet, but the bottom line is that Sick As Folk is easily 2015’s best local album to date, and The Brothers Reed have set a pretty high bar for other local acts hitting the studio this year. That includes the brothers themselves, who are planning to jump back into the studio by summer for their next release, which they say will likely include a fuller instrumentation. Where that road will lead the band is yet to be determined, but where they’re at right now is sitting on a cherry of a new album. By Laurie Heuston Medford Mail Tribune April 10, 2015 Siblings Aaron and Philip Reed are on a roll. The guitar and vocal duo played in the final round of the Rising Stars music competition in late March and won Rocky-Tonk Saloon's Road to Nashville competition in late 2014. The Brothers Reed have performed together for less than a year yet they've already garnered a substantial fan base as well as a prolific catalog of original alt-folk and alt-pop music. Aaron Reed lists songwriters Elliot Smith, Joe Pug, Chris Isaak, Townes Van Zandt and Johnny Cash among his and his brother's musical influences. Their tight vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar riffs have evolved into vocal-driven harmonies with strong folk and pop sensibilities. Songwriting begins with rhythm guitar and is built from there. During live shows, the two exchange funny deprecation between songs. "Our shows balance pretty, serious songs about life and love with no cussing in the lyrics," Aaron Reed says. "But we can be fairly rough and tumble with our banter." "Hell Fire Lake," the fourth track on the album, is as rockin' as the duo gets, with a catchy rhyming chorus, Reed says. "Southern Oregonia" is an ode to the Rogue Valley; "Born to Lead" features an aesthetic guitar and harmonica instrumental done by Philip; and Aaron filled "Alex's Song" with percussive guitar riffs that give the song an upbeat country feel. "I put more time, effort and heart into this record than I have any other in my life, and I think that work is reflected on the album," Reed says. "This is my first go-round with fully producing and engineering. I was able to dive into the production side and try a lot of new things, experiment and work things out." "All You'll Ever Be," another song on "Sick as Folk," is a poignant, introspective look at a musical career that has sometimes been a battle to stay true to one's self, Reed adds. "So many of my songs are of that theme. This project is closest to where I want to be in my career. Musically, it's pretty much exactly where I want to be." Reed and his brother also are known as members of local punk rock band Buckle Rash. When other members of the band wanted to slow down, the Reed brothers made a natural transition into a duo, though their music has no resemblance to the band's. "We're much folkier," Reed says. "There's no punk element, unless you count our stage banter." To be sure, more success is always welcome, especially in the form of recognition and financial security. The duo will be touring through the end of 2015 in promotion of their debut release.