Category Archives: BREWERS DROOP
BREWERS DROOP The Booze Brothers
Brewers Droop had something of a revolving door of members, and Mark Knopfler had a brief pre-Dire Straits sojourn with them, long enough to appear on three of the tracks, but sparkling only on one: the aforementioned ‘Where Are You Tonight’ Original DS drummer David ‘Pick’ Withers also passed their way, appearing on two of the tracks. The involvement of Dave Edmunds was as co-Producer of the album at Rockfield Studios but also plays (various instruments) on the sublime ‘Dreaming’.
This album evokes history for me, but lovers of early 70s rock will find much to enjoy here…
Fireworks magazine – Paul Jerome Smith
Edmunds’ harmonica banjo spice up the delicately countrified “Dreaming” which flies spacewards, yet glances are cast backwards here, to the early ’60s whence “Sugar Baby” comes, while the accordion-wrapped “Louise” betrays DROOP’s Cajun kicks.
And if “Rock Steady Woman”, licked by Steve Darrington’s lush organ and female backing, packs a seductive punch, that Sultanic twang notwithstanding, blues “Midnight Special” (not Leadbelly’s one) sways proudly in its own right.
Among the four bonuses expanding this reissue hides translucent ballad “Real”, and that’s where the genuine heart of the group lay. A pity that they stopped brewing.
***1/2
DME Music Site
Though Knopfler didn’t write any of the songs on this album, you can hear the young player putting into focus his fluid style of guitar playing that would later become the trademark of the band Dire Straits.
The Booze Brothers does have a dated sound in many ways…but the early 1970s sound is appealing in a strange way. In addition to the tracks that were found on the original album, this reissue also features four bonus tracks (“Bite The Bullet,” “Real,” “You Don’t Want Me Tonight,” and “Cajun Girl”).
A must for Dire Straits fans…as well as anyone interested in slightly obscure bands from the past…
www.babysue.com (October 2012)
There are some rocking and Cajun-style tracks here…with some unmistakable Marc Knopfler guitar licks.
Bev Bevan, Sunday Mercury (October 2012)
Forty years on, it is definitely a period piece: it’s of most interest to those who remember the heyday of Radio London and that shadow time before punk broke…
Record Collector, (November 2012)