ELIOT BRONSON

On his new album, Milwaukee, Eliot Bronson sings, “My odds are just no good / Even my evens don’t add up the way they should.” The song is “Longshot,” one of eleven superbly crafted gems that are at turns dark and witty, weary and tuneful. After a decade of songwriting, accolades, almost “big breaks” and shoestrings tours, the Atlanta songwriter is clearly at the top of his game. For the new album Eliot recruited some of Atlanta’s finest musicians to form the band Yonder Orphans. The outfit includes Bret Hartley, a founding member of the hit country act, Sugarland, on electric guitar and lap steel; as well as Kevin Leahy of the BoDeans and Shawn Mullins, on drums. The swampy Americana of Milwaukee follows nicely on the heels of Bronson’s 2011 solo album Blackbirds, which garnered praise from Paste Magazine, No Depression, Georgia Music Magazine and was named “one of the Top 10 Albums Of The Year By A Georgia Artist,” by INsite Magazine. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Eliot Bronson began playing at local coffeehouses and was dubbed a "folk singing wunderkind" by The Baltimore Sun, before moving to Atlanta and forming The Brilliant Inventions with fellow songwriter Josh Lamkin.The band quickly became a staple of the Atlanta music scene, winning several local and national music awards and gaining a substantial fan following. In 2010 the band split up and Bronson has since continued on solo. As Bret Love of INsite magazine remark, “If Blackbirds, his debut solo LP, is any indication, it was the best thing that could’ve happened to him." Milwaukee is further proof of that astute prediction.