In this time of separation and social distancing, there is one thing that can unite nearly all humans on the planet…music. In this week’s segment of Play Us a Tune, we hear from the Flagstaff-based band Viola and the Brakemen. Frontman Brian White talks about the relationship between words and music as he and his band perform their song Free Flowin’.
BW: Hello, my name is Brian White. You’re listening to my band Viola and the Brakemen. This song is called Free Flowin’. It’s about a little drive that you let your mind take when you want to think back to all the good memories you had growing up, showing up, letting the game come to you. This one here takes you back down memory lane, as you’ll hear right here in the lyrics. Nice instrumentation around this with the string band.
A lot of my songs come from wordsmithing and putting words together; they don’t always have to mean anything. Like Jerry Garcia said in a quote, “Words don’t have to mean anything, they just have to sound good with that music.” So those words there are kind of me, just in mid-thought and brain waves working.
Play Us a Tune is produced by KNAU's Gillan Ferris. If you are a gig musician sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic and would like to play us a tune, drop an email inquiry to Gillian.Ferris@nau.edu.
