Brad Creel & the Reel Deal (support To Be Announced)

Before Brad Creel began creating smart and funny folk music, he was churning out smart and funny cartoons. Like the music he would later write, Brad's comics have a friendly immediacy, a punch-in-the shoulder freshness and a big dose of self-deprecation. Brad's songs will make you laugh, shed a tear, and be glad to be where you are.Heartbreak drove Brad to turn to the uncharted waters of songwriting in 2000. Coping with a tough divorce, he found new meaning in the work of classic tears-in-your-beer country singers like Tom T. Hall, Merle Haggard, and Conway Twitty.
He was moved by the way classic country songwriters tempered their sorrows with upbeat melodies, creating what he calls "dark music with a happy sound".
Inspired, Brad began hosting acoustic jam sessions and devouring the Portland Public Library's collection of Americana music. He developed a body of narrative-based country, bluegrass and folk songs, balancing tongue-in-cheek lyrical fun with an undertone of complexity and raw emotion. As his listening expanded beyond his honky-tonk heroes, Brad's music took on an additional, whimsical flavor reminiscent of cosmic jokers like John Prine, Loudon Wainwright III, and Todd Snider.
Through his bustling musical social life, Creel found friends in the worlds of sound engineering and music production, and a team was born. Work began in 2004 on his debut record. Creel's music attracted some of the best musicians in Portland to contribute, including session maven Tim Ellis on guitar, Three Leg Torso's Béla Balogh on fiddle, local legend Peter Schwimmer on banjo, Eric West on pedal steel and Higher Ground leader Alan Glickenhaus on mandolin. Producer Vicki Ambinder also enlisted fiddle legend Darol Anger (Yonder Mountain, Tony Rice, Bela Fleck).
Creel released his follow-up CD in 2008 and currently performs as a solo act, a duo, and with "The Reel Deel" a band whose members include Lincoln Crockett, Chris Kokesh, and Andy Lohr. Brad and his band will be performing in venues throughout the Northwest.
www.bradcreel.com
www.myspace.com/bradcreel