Brother Reverend Turns the Tables

Keith Xenos and Fletcher Liegerot both cut their teeth in a number of Atlanta bands (Xenos with The White Lights, Liegerot with Magic Bone, King-Kill/33° and Cat Power, among others), though they never crossed paths until guitarist Johnny Vignault (The White Lights, The Vendettas, The Lost Crusaders) introduced them years later after they’d both moved to New York City. Soon the three of them formed a band, Brother Reverend, releasing an EP and album before Vignault left the congregation.

Xenos and Liegerot have carried on with new bandmates (most prominently, guitarist Yona Prochnik), self-releasing a 7-inch in 2012 and now their second full-length Brother Reverend album, comprised of tracks recorded over the past half-dozen or so years, titled The Tables Turn Too Often. With Xenos’ amiable slacker drawl leading the way, the tunes could’ve been mined from that late ’60s/early ’70s period when R&B-inflected Brit-beat bands and garage-bred American power-poppers discovered country music while sparking up a fat late night doobie and decided to bring the easygoing twang of C&W into their rockin’ mix.

Photo by Lester Romilar.