Henry Brooke, a 17 year old, one-ear-deaf, shell-shocked veteran of the Civil War founded the Smythe County Mongrels Society in 1861.
Their purpose?
“the joyful promotion, through song and rhythmic utterances, of a unified moral code for all creatures.”
With the book of Psalms in hand and a jug of hard cider on the floor beside them, the group improvised melodies while pulling their lyrics from the verses found inside the book.
Henry’s great-great-grandson, Haynes, has brought this 148 year old band back to life as the New Mongrels and their upcoming album Raised Incorruptible is an opus for the acoustic, roots, folk-rock genres.
Spanning 7 cities, this band originally began in a rented house on the Rogue River in Oregon. Working with Ken Palmer, Brooke produced a collection of lofi demo recordings in Los Angeles.
The demos were sent to mongrel members across North America to go through this collective’s feedback and review procedures. Trips to gather key musical contributions were made and then Henry set up recording headquarters in his garage. As the members of the New Mongrels traveled through L.A., they would make a stop to add their contributions to the project.
Members of this collective include:
- Haynes Brooke (actor and playwright): guitar, vocals, mandolin, piano, ukelele, percussion
- Katie Green: vocals, violin
- Kubilay Uner (film composer): bass, keyboards
- Jeff Mosier: drums, vocals
- Michael Lorant: vocals
- Michelle Malone (Grammy nominated touring artist): vocals, guitar
- Amy Ray (from the Indigo Girls): vocals
- Laura Hall (house musician for TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway): vocals, accordion
- Rick Hall: vocals
- Lucy Brooke: vocals
- Mike Moynihan: trumpet, vocals
- Ken Palmer: drums, vocals, harmonica
- Nicolas Green: guitar
Production duties were handled by Brooke and Kubilay Uner. The album was mixed by Uner at Dissonanz in L.A. and mastered by Stephen Marsh at Marsh Mastering.
Brooke’s lays the foundation with his songs, words, and music while the rest of this pack of roaming modern minstrels provides their top notch talents to take this record through the stratosphere.
Fans of the Lumineers, Blind Pilot, Decemberists, or Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros will want to grab this album for their collection.
This album drops on January 14th, 2014 but you can stream it on Bandcamp or Soundcloud.
Learn more about the New Mongrels on their website, then connect on Facebook.
