Kershaw sessions, the

BRENDAN CROKER

Birth Name: Brendan Christopher Croker
Born: August 15, 1953
Genres: Rock, Pop, Blues, Folk, World, Country, Electronic, Funk / Soul

Member of: Brendan Croker & The 5 O'Clock Shadows, Brendan Croker & The Serious Offenders, The Drifting Cowgirls, The Notting Hillbilllies

basic information

musicians

tracks

notes

1) date of session 25.07.88

taken from the booklet:

Liner Notes:

I've been listening to the incomparable Jimmy Reed lately and thinking how like Brendan he sounded and how much the great man must have been an influence on my pal. But there have been so many - Croker had raked through much of the roots music of America black and white, before we met in Leeds in the mid-seventies.

At the time I was teamed up musically with Steve Phillips and attending 3 Newport Mount, Headingley as a sort of University of the Blues and getting my first taste of real guitars - Nationals, Gibsons and old, old Martins. I was delighted by Brendan - his love for the music, his formidable knowledge of songs and his marvellous voice, sometimes a howling blues shout and other times a husky, gentle roll-your-own. He looked like a footplateman, which as it turned out, he had been. Here was my first singing brakeman, sounding as though he had been performing this music for thirty years. One of the first things I did was lend him an old Fender Concert amp which I didn't see again for years afterwards. I got my favourite acoustic guitar, one of the gorgeous few that Steve made, through Brendan. He and I are 'kit men' and we like to supply each other with 'kit' when required or not. We like old Case penknives, proper tailors and good guitar capos. Mind you, Bren, I'm still not exactly sure what I'm to do with those black suede chaps you gave me... Fuelled by coffee, nicotine and plenty of beer, (Brendan was always, regrettably, a lager lout, though now, thanks to me, is more civilised and a convert to wine) we spent some time singing and picking before he took my place alongside Steve when I left town. He was already using his vast trove of roots music as a means to inspire his own writing, which went from strength to strength, as did his experience in fronting his own hot little band, the 5 o'Clock Shadows, 'The Shads' as we'd refer to them.

I've realised that one of the great joys of my life is introducing my friends to each other and seeing them get on. So it has been with Bren - he hits it off with Chet Atkins in Nashville or an old school pal from Northumberland with equal ease and is quickly a part of their lives, his music ringing out in their homes up and down the country and all across the world.

Don't be deceived by the determinedly uncomplicated Croker approach to people and music. The lad's been to college and he's quite crafty tha' knows. He's got deep roots, so he can put down new ones all the times.



MARK KNOPFLER - August 1st 1995

last update of this webpage: 10.11.2008

additional album with Brendan C.: the great indoors