Jackson Free Press

The rootsy, country-rock quintet Reckless Kelly is releasing their second Sugar Hill Records album Wicked Twisted Road on February 8. The record has echoes of both the Eagles and .38 Special within its tracks, but it mostly bristles with the muscular, idiosyncratic energy and inventiveness that has led them to become one of Austin, Texas' most dynamic and relentlessly entertaining live acts. The band will be touring heavily to support the release.

As was the case with their previous album, Under the Table & Above the Sun, Reckless Kelly journeyed to Nashville for another collaboration with producer Ray Kennedy (whose credits include albums by Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams among others.) The 2003 release brought them to the national spotlight, with a popular video, a Budweiser sponsorship, and two tracks with Steve Earle on critically acclaimed tribute albums for Warren Zevon and Alejandro Escovedo.

Wicked Twisted Road documents the melding of the band's disparate influences. "There is a lot of the most country stuff and a lot of the most rock stuff we've ever done on this record," said guitarist and songwriter Willy Braun. "We were trying to make a record that went from country to country-rock and back to country, with maybe some classic rock in the center," added Willy's brother Cody Braun, a triple threat on fiddle, mandolin and vocals.

The band, whose fanatical following grew out of Austin, Texas, released two albums under their own steam prior to joining Sugar Hill Records. Joe Ely lauds them as "My kind of band: Hell-raising, hard playing, kick-ass songwriting, feet firmly in the present but with an amazing knowledge of where it has all come from. What," he asked, "else is there?"

Willy and Cody Braun were raised as heirs to a musical tradition. They grew up touring and playing with their father's band, "Muzzie Braun and the Boys," across the Big Sky country of Idaho and Montana. They opened for the likes of Merle Haggard, played the Grand Ole Opry and even appeared twice on The Tonight Show in the Johnny Carson era.

"Dad's lyrics were always real and down to earth, day-to-day language," recalled Willy, "and I learned a lot about songwriting from him. And growing up on the road, he taught us pretty much everything we know—how to play, how to sing harmonies, taught us all about the business."