Biography
Before they were The Bros. Landreth, Joey and Dave were only looking for a good excuse to spend a little more time together. They had spent their respective early years backing up other artists and travelling as hired musicians until one particularly long and challenging tour prompted Joey to call his older brother with a simple proposal, “When I get home, let’s sit down and make some music together” That phone call would be the turning point – seeing them focus on their own roots-rock sound that went on to be celebrated on their acclaimed debut album, Let It Lie.
Originally released independently in 2013, Let It Lie was re-released in 2015 after signing a record deal with Nashville-based Slate Creek Records. The album received widespread acclaim, won multiple awards including a JUNO, and propelled the band to play over 400 tour dates around the world. A Rolling Stone review praised the band’s “quiet storm of slide guitar solos, blue notes, three part harmonies”. Lifelong musical hero, Bonnie Raitt, was equally impressed after catching the band’s set, saying “I haven’t liked a band as much as The Bros. Landreth in a long time. To hear this kind of funky, southern style rock played with such originality and soul will knock you out.”
After three years of non-stop touring, the band went on a hiatus and Joey moved from Winnipeg to Toronto. The break afforded Joey the opportunity to release and extensively tour both his debut solo album Whiskey in 2017, and his follow-up album, Hindsight, early in 2019. These records further cemented Joey’s reputation for being a first-rate guitar slinger, songwriter, and performer in his own right. His growing solo career might have delayed the timeline for the brothers, yet they never stopped writing. Those songs would eventually be recorded for their long awaited, follow-up release, ’87, titled after the year that Joey was born. “The time off that we took between touring Let It Lie and coming back together to make the next album was really difficult.” Dave says. “It was tough, but we needed it. Being away from each other gave us some really valuable perspective. It reminded us of just how important it is that we keep making this music together.”
Teaming up in studio with drummer Ryan Voth, guitarist Ariel Posen, and longtime producer Murray Pulver, their sophomore release, ’87, was an exciting evolution of the band’s sound, honed by thousands of hours on stage and filtered through the lens of years on the road. The songs on the album are still intimate and personal, but broader in scope and theme; a reflection of the long wait between the first and second album, and the changes in their personal lives. Both are now sober. Both are married. Dave became a dad. The stories represent that maturity, and speak from the perspectives of a wider supporting cast of characters.
Between albums, the brothers participated in some high profile collaborations: a concert with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, played to a sold-out crowd at The Centennial Concert Hall in 2018, and Next of Kin, a ballet choreographed by Philippe Larouche entirely to music by The Bros. Landreth. The ballet was performed by the internationally acclaimed Royal Winnipeg Ballet, with the band live on stage, playing and interacting with the dancers. In early 2020, the brothers released two songs with Mariel Buckley. Goodbye was a co-write between the brothers and Mariel and When I Call Your Name is a cover of Vince Gill’s lonesome country ballad. The EP was meant to launch a season of touring behind ’87, with Mariel Buckley as support, but the Covid-19 pandemic quickly changed the touring landscape for artists across the world.
Dave and Joey are currently making the good use of this unexpected down-time to write for their third studio album.
