The Earl Brothers – Bio It's been twelve years since The Earl Brothers started working on a style that has become their unique trademark, “Outlaw Hillbilly Music”. The Earl Brothers have received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from music-lovers far and wide. In the October, 2010 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited, a feature article named band leader Robert Earl Davis “The Hillbilly Hero”. In the 1970s, The Ramones tore Rock and Roll down to its primitive components and built it back up again to make a raw, urgent, original music. The Earl Brothers have done the same with Bluegrass. Their gritty, mournful songs recall ancient honky-tonks, and Southern back roads with a unique edgy directness. Their music forgoes the softer contemporary acoustic sound of many modern day Bluegrass bands. The band’s “less is more” approach to songwriting, singing, and musicianship is, direct, simple, and yet somehow different from everything else. The Earl Brothers, based in San Francisco and led by banjo master Robert Earl Davis, have been delving into the dark side of bluegrass for more than a decade now, and their fifth and latest album, Outlaw Hillbilly, takes them further down that rough road with songs like "Troubles," "Cold and Lonesome," and "When the Lovin's All Over," and grisly lines like "I stabbed her dear brother and cut off his head, and buried him deep so I knew he was dead." They're not a good time bluegrass band -- they're more interested in exploring the really bad times -- but their music, like the blues, has that paradoxical effect of taking you so deep into the mire that you come out feeling a little better than you did before. "Their music is bare-bones bluegrass, without even the hint of anything more modern than 1965! These guys are very talented musicians, vocalists, and songwriters, but their sound is raw," says the website Country Standard Time, which praises their "terrific new album" as "jarring in its intensity" and "simply the next step in the steady progression of a band that continues to gain ground within the bluegrass community." The band features James Touzel on bass and vocals, Tom Lucas on fiddle and vocals, Thomas Wille on guitar and vocals, and Robert Earl davis on banjo and vocals. Their raw and ravaged sound brings to mind Ralph Stanley at his bleakest -- and that's a good thing! The Earl Brothers- press "THE EARL BROTHERS HAVE GOT THE SOUL AND THE SONGS AND THE ATTITUDE THAT BROUGHT US ALL INTO BLUEGRASS MUSIC IN THE FIRST PLACE. THEIR SONGS CRY OF THE MOUNTAINS, OF THE PEOPLE AND OF THE TRADITIONS DOWN THROUGH THE AGES. BLUEGRASS IS ALIVE AND WELL." Chris Hillman Pioneer of the genre known as “Country Rock”. Worked with such notable bands as The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers and the Desert Rose Band. “It's always a big event in my neck of the woods when a new Earl Brothers CD appears. I usually take the day off from work and stay at home--grilling red meat, drinking beer and blasting a few rounds through my .45. I think they are on to something that's so primeval, insistent, dark, old-time and thrilling that it just about defies description. I find myself completely mesmerized by their gothic Stanley Brothers sound. It just doesn't get anymore tough-edged and raw than tunes like "Going Walking," "Hell on the Highway," the title track and "Life Full of Trouble," which, if my ears aren't deceiving me sounds like it stays on just one chord throughout the piece. And what a chord it is!” Dave Higgs Nashville Public Radio Bluegrass Breakdown I really enjoy their [The Earl Brothers] music.......it harkens back to Bluegrass when it was really music of the people..... Tom Henderson "This Is Bluegrass" Now In It's 38th Year Of Syndication 88.5 WMNF-FM - Tampa, FL "The only thing to say about traditional bluegrass at it's best is.... The Earl Brothers. Their modern writing style is combined with their traditional vocals and music. They have captured, in my opinion, the best sound bluegrass can offer. As soon as we started playing their music on WDVX, they went straight to #1 on our play