Bacon Brothers

For The Bacon Brothers, music is all about exploration. The siblings, Michael Bacon and Kevin Bacon, have spent the better part of three decades creating their own mix of folk, rock, soul, and country music. They call that diverse sound "forosoco," and it's taken them around the world, from headlining gigs in Japan to American performances at iconic venues like Carnegie Hall, the Grand Ole Opry and Gruene Hall.

The exploration continues with the band's twelfth release, "Ballad Of The Brothers." It's a record that highlights not only the similarities between Kevin Bacon (known worldwide as an A-list Hollywood actor) and Michael Bacon (celebrated as an Emmy-winning composer), but the differences, too. The two siblings may be bound together by blood and a mutual love of American roots music, but they've grown into sharp songwriters and cinematic storytellers with their own distinct approaches. Ballad Of The Brothers makes room for both of those approaches, offering a mix of edgy alt-rock ("Take Off This Tattoo"), Motown-inspired soul ("Put Your Hand Up"), fingerpicked folk ("Let That Be Enough"), and everything in between.

"We're two musicians who write songs very differently, and we've grown to really appreciate those differences," says Michael. "Whenever I go see a band play live, I'd much rather see them do a thousand things than just one thing. We take a similar approach to our albums."

While writing new material for Ballad Of The Brothers , the Bacons made several trips to Tennessee, where they teamed up with Nashville-area songwriters like Casey Beathard, Brett Tyler, and Kimberly Kelly. They continued to travel once it came time to record the album, too. "Live With The Lie" was tracked in New Jersey, where the band abandoned the use of a click track in favor of capturing a raw, real performance with their touring band. "Put Your Hand Up," a brassy soul song that splits the difference between Memphis grit and Motown groove, was recorded in Philadelphia. "Take Off This Tattoo" was produced in Los Angeles by Kevin's son, Travis Bacon. "It sounded like a country song when we wrote it," Michael remembers, "but once we decided to give it to Trav, who has more of a rock and electronic sensibility, it became something new." The band even added a fiddle solo to "Take Off This Tattoo" — an unexpected choice for a rock song, perhaps, but one that emphasizes the Bacon Brothers' willingness to break new ground. "We worked with fiddle player Brian Fitzgerald on that song," explains Kevin, "and the direction we gave him was: 'Imagine that you're playing an electric guitar, but it just looks like a fiddle.' He absolutely crushed it."