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![]() The Mulligan Brothers (from the album Songs for the Living and Otherwise, self-released) Simple pleasures stretch to make “The Deal”, the opening cut on Songs for the Living and Otherwise, The Mulligan Brothers picking moments from the past to frame a picture of what is in their heart in the present. The ability to capture audio snapshots of daily life turns the tunes on Songs for the Living and Otherwise like diary pages. A personal relationship expands into a worldview for “Divine Design”, the story admitting ‘it’s not okay and that’s alright, whatever gets you through the night’ while The Mulligan Brothers call out for “Roseanne” on a rhythmic rumble for a front-of-the-stage lip sync chick, confess “Loving You is Easy” with heartfelt gratitude and ruminate on a dreamy soundscape with “Possession in G Minor”. The album is number two for The Mulligan Brothers, the group finding no need to cash in the second chance promised in the Mobile, Alabama-based band’s moniker. The Mulligan Brothers found the freedom to express themselves as a band in the converted second floor of songwriter Ross Newell’s (vocals) downtown Mobile home, recording Songs for the Living and Otherwise at in the makeshift studio with Trina Shoemaker mixing at Dauphin Street Sound. An upbringing with an addict father is addressed in “I Know That Man”, the story clearly describing the abuse and the tough decisions made to handle the problem as the issues of the southern family as a community battle in “Great Grandaddy’s War” and small-town life trips on a jazz-inflected groove as it wanders through “Ghost Town”. An echoed beat matches the ‘ambient glow of the dashboard light’ as Songs for the Living and Otherwise makes a break, hitting the open road as The Mulligan Brothers join in the chorus of “I Need to Get Out”. Listen and buy the music of The Mulligan Brothers from the band’s website https://www.themulliganbrothers.com/store
1 Comment
James Newell
7/30/2018 01:08:59 pm
This is great music!
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