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Frost Farm Gallery is pleased to welcome Brad Hooper as our resident "Troubador for Hire" for our 2009 First Friday gallery openings. Brad Hooper, long time member and lead vocalist for the Ball Brothers Band, has just released his first solo album Midnight at the Hilltop Hotel.
The disc is comprised of songs that have been played in kitchens and places around the area for as long as twenty years. Hooper's company, Squintwood Productions, recently released the CD full of songs that reference the small town working man's stories in an edgy, often brutally honest venue.
“The Hilltop Hotel was a place where we gathered to make music in Bryant Pond,” says the singer songwriter. “We would party and jam sometimes for days! The Hilltop was really an attitude and a feeling more than a place. Those who were there will know what it was all about and those who listen to the lyrics and tales will understand better afterwards.”
Reviews have compared Hooper's talking-blues style to artists such as John Prine, Arlo Guthrie, Steve Earl and Bob Dylan. As a singer and songwriter, Hooper is quite humbled by being compared too such greats. “John Prine is my hero. To be spoken of in the same sentence as John is a greater honor than you can imagine. I have traveled as far as Teluride, Colorado to see John play,” says Hooper. “If I can draw a single tear or make someone laugh out loud, like he does to me, then I have done my job.”
Brad Hooper may not have been born with a guitar in his hand and a harmonica in his mouth as Arlo Guthrie may claim, but he sings of laughter and loss with all of his heart and from the depth of his soul.
“I starting singing, probably by the age of six,” says the artist. “I was raised on country; back when country was Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Kitty Wells. I would lie in bed and put my finger in the air like the stem of a record player. My brother, Jeff, would choose the 'next song' and I would sing it. I sang him to sleep many nights.”
I have known Brad for many years, and I couldn't be more pleased that he has agreed to play these gigs. This is a very intimate and personal set of shows, and Brad will be selling and signing CDs after the show for anyone who wishes.
Thanks, man.........Bruce
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