Friday, March 07, 2008

Tim Brooks & The Alien Sharecroppers - Live In Germany



I saw Tim Brooks with his brother Gregg back in 1994 in a small joint. They were performing as The Brothers Brooks, promoting their first (and as it would turn out, only) CD. After the dreadful 80's, this was basically the first time I watched a southern rock band playing actual southern rock. It was like a timewarp back to the 70's. And boy, could these guys play.
They were similar to The Allman Brothers Band. Not in the least due to the fact that Gregg Broooks was a dead ringer for Gregg Allman. Vocally.
5 years later Brothers Brooks were no more. But Tim continued with Tim Brooks & The Alien Sharecroppers. About Tim, from his own site:

"Tim is a veteran who among other honors, had a single, "Boating Down the Ocmulgee" picked in Bill Gavin's report in BILLBOARD MAGAZINE as a sure hit, only to have his record company go bankrupt, leading to a dead end, (so common in this business!), and leading to the breakup of his band at the time. But probably, his most distinct honor was winning the slide guitar category, then the overall Grand Prize in GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE's 25th Anniversay ULTIMATE GUITAR COMPETITION out of thousands of world-wide entrants. In addition to the gear he won as a result of this, he and his wife Denise were flown to San Francisco, where they were given the "5-star treatment", as Tim played a concert at the GRATEFUL DEAD'S legendary venue, the WARFIELD THEATRE. Tim shared the stage that night with Gregg Allman, Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter, Adrian Belew, Harvey Mandel, Steve Morse, Ry Cooder, John Lee Hooker, and a host of other big-name guitarists, where he performed a standing ovation - earning version of the late DUANE ALLMAN'S signature tune, "Statesboro Blues", that really brought the house down."

From his site I took these live recordings. These were loose songs that did not belong together in any order. They ended abruptly and were not meant to be played back to back. They are still on the site: http://www.timbrooksband.com/music.html
I took the liberty of editing somewhat and joining them to something that sounds like a little show. Easier on the ears and a nice introduction to the band. Check out, if you can, their two cd's: "See Rock City" and "Back In The Game". As for now...

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