{"id":12080,"date":"2017-01-19T05:30:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T10:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=12080"},"modified":"2016-12-23T14:48:57","modified_gmt":"2016-12-23T19:48:57","slug":"kyle-travers-brothership-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2017\/01\/19\/kyle-travers-brothership-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Travers’ Brothership Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twin brothers Kyle<\/strong> and Eric Travers<\/strong> have been making music together since they were young. In 2012 the Black Mountain, NC residents put together a seven-piece band, Travers Brothership<\/strong>, initially as a vehicle for the original songs they were writing. After some reorganization and re-thinking of their direction, the band finally recorded and released their first full-length album, A Way to Survive<\/i>, in August. The band \u2013 named by Mountain Xpress<\/i> readers in 2016 as #1 Alternative Band in WNC \u2013 scheduled a hometown date, November 26, to celebrate the album’s release.<\/p>\n

A Way to Survive<\/i> opens with \u201cHold My Name,\u201d a strong tune that straddles the classic southern soul of Stax Records and Muscle Shoals Studio with the modern style of the Black Keys<\/strong>. \u201cSoul music has an organic touch that people can often relate to,\u201d says Kyle Travers. \u201cYou can feel the vibes the musicians are putting out.\u201d Tasked with explaining how he came to appreciate soul, Travers searches at length for the right words, eventually offering this: \u201cEveryone experiences love; everyone experiences heartbreak at one point or another. You can almost feel that yearning in the music. And that’s soul; they definitely named it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"travers_broship\"<\/p>\n

Kyle and brother Eric were immersed in music from an early age; their father is \u201cHurricane Bob\u201d Travers<\/strong>, a guitarist who became well known regionally for his work with the Magdaddy’s<\/strong> (sic). \u201cI remember being 5 years old,\u201d Kyle recalls. \u201cHe was playing in that swing band. Watching his energetic performance and seeing how people responded \u2013 they danced and smiled and laughed \u2013 really connected with me.\u201d He credits those experiences with leading him eventually to become a musician. \u201cAnd that was even before I even fell in love with the music,\u201d Kyle adds.<\/p>\n

Travers Brothership’s new album displays an array of styles. There are Appalachian Americana-flavored stomps (\u201cThe Road Interlude\u201d), funkier, jam-leaning numbers like \u201cTime Will Slip Away,\u201d brief a cappella<\/i> tunes like \u201cO’ Magnolia\u201d and kinetic rockers like \u201cLike it Or Not.\u201d The last-named song features energetic electric piano and organ supporting soulful vocals and robust horn section work. The group cut the collection of ten varied tunes at Matt Williams<\/strong>‘ Eagle Room in Weaverville, North Carolina. But that wasn’t Travers Brothership’s first experience in the recording studio.<\/p>\n

A February 2014 Asheville Citizen-Times<\/i> feature covered the band’s plans to record an album with Grammy-winning producer Juan “Pericles” Covaz<\/strong> at the studio on the campus of Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. But the material they recorded there remain unreleased. Travers isn’t enthusiastic to discuss that chapter in the band’s history, instead summing it up in as few words as possible. Characterizing that period as a time during which the band \u201cstarted evolving,\u201d he explains that he and Eric \u201cheld back and waited patiently while lineup [changes] took their course.\u201d<\/p>\n