Paul Brewster is used to working outside the spotlight. He’s made a career in bluegrass music helping make superstars sound good, and folks who follow our industry closely consider him as among the top current tenor singers in the business, where he’s always on “second fiddle.”
Growing up in Knoxville, TN, Brewster spent two years with The Knoxville Grass, a seminal modern bluegrass band in the 1970s whose driving sound influenced many groups who followed, like Lonesome River Band and IIIrd Tyme Out.
From there he spent 10 years playing guitar and singing harmony with The Osborne Bothers, and has been singing alongside Ricky Skaggs in Kentucky Thunder for the past 18 years. His time with Skaggs covers Ricky’s time as a country hit maker, and a bluegrass icon, and it’s the former’s influence that shows on Brewster’s soon-to-be-released solo project, 3 Minute Heartache.
The album, due September 10, finds the celebrated harmony singer out front on 11 new country songs he’s written, supported by a strong Nashville rhythm section. Unlike his previous record, Everybody’s Talkin’, which was bluegrass through-and-through, 3 Minute Heartache is a country project, with weepy pedal steel and a bit of rock n roll.
Bluegrass fans who enjoy country as well may want to give this a spin, as will those of us who have a special fondness for Brewster’s voice.
Pre-orders are enabled at Paul’s web site, and the first 250 will be autographed before shipping on the 10th.
