Patrick John Brayer is an American singer-songwriter within the

Inland Empire The Inland Empire (commonly abbreviated as the IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County and Or ...

music scene.

Early life and education

Brayer is the son of Raplh W. and Eleanore Brayer. In 1958, his family relocated to rural

Fontana, California Fontana is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Founded by Azariel Blanchard Miller in 1913, it remained essentially rural until World War II, when entrepreneur Henry J. Kaiser built a large steel mill in the area. It ...

, where they operated an egg ranch, and where Brayer attended Fontana High School. Brayer's elder brother, Michael Brayer, also sings.

Career

In the 1970s, Brayer played in bands including Lost Highway, which he formed with Walden Dahl and Dave Dickey, the Town and Country Boys, also with Dahl, and the High Window Boys. Brayer plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin and other stringed instruments, and has collaborated with bluegrass, country, and folk artists including

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Ben Harper Benjamin Charles Harper (born October 28, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae, and rock music, and he is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, liv ...

, and

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. In the early 1980s, Brayer founded Starvation Cafe in Fontana, as a

coffeehouse A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

with scheduled musicians and open mic sessions. Performers included

Mike McClellan Mike McClellan (born 24 August 1945) is an Australian folk pop singer-songwriter and musician who was performed since the late 1960s. Biography McClellan began performing in the late 1960s and in 1972, released his debut album, titled simply ' ...

, Blind Joe Hill and John York. In a forward to the book ''Always a Song'', Ben Harper noted that a performance at the Starvation Café served to solidify his decision to transition from playing as a band member for Taj Mahal to becoming a signed solo artist. Brayer also hosted a radio program, Starvation Café Radio Archives, from the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

, and was the first signing on Ben Harper's ''Inland Emperor Records'' label. Three of his songs were recorded by

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was f ...

records as part of the Fast Folk Magazine, including ''Bourbon as a Second Language'' (2002), ''Straight Life, No Chaser'', and ''Funeral Town'' (1995). Brayer co-wrote the song ''So Long, So Wrong'' with Walden Dahl, which was covered by Alison Krauss on the album of the same name in 1997. His song ''Lonely Moon'' was covered by

in 1992 and by Northern Lights on their album ''

New Moon In astronomy, the new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude. At this phase, the lunar disk is not visible to the naked eye, except when it is silhouetted against the Sun during a solar eclipse. ...

'' in 2005. He also wrote the song, (''Good) Imitation of the Blues'', which was covered by Larry Sparks & the Lonesome Ramblers in 1983,

John Doe John Doe (male) and Jane Doe (female) are multiple-use placeholder names that are used in the British, Canadian, and American legal systems, when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. In the context of law ...

in 1990,

Chris Darrow Christopher Lloyd Darrow (July 30, 1944 – January 15, 2020) was an American multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. He was considered to be a pioneer of country rock music in the late-1960s and performed and recorded with numerous groups, ...

on ''Slide On In'' in 2002, Orville Johnson in 2004 and Alan Jackson in 2006 on the album '' Like Red on a Rose.'' The album went Gold in 2007. Brayer released a series of cassettes and CDs, entitled ''The Secret Hits of Patrick Brayer'' some of the songs were recorded in the kitchen of

Dennis Hopper Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. He was considered one of the key figures of New Hollywood. He earned prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Internatio ...

. In providing guidance to aspiring song-writers, Jeffery Pepper Rodgers of Acoustic Guitar magazine described Brayer's underground song-writing and production style in this series as one way to focus on the process and work of songwriting rather than final products.

Discography

* 1979 - ''Cold Feelings'', reissued 1993 by Eye of the Scarecrow Records * 2000 - ''Sinner Songwriter'', AIM * 2001 - ''Catholic And Western Fabuli'', Inland Emperor Records * 2022 - ''Cabbage and Kings: an Inland Shrimpire Anthology'',

Shrimper Records Shrimper Records is an independent record label based in Upland, California. It was founded in 1990 by Dennis Callaci. Roster * Ah Bus * Amps for Christ * The Aum Rifle * Azuza Plane * The Babies * Lou Barlow * Bingo Trappers * Bloated ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brayer, Patrick Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American singer-songwriters Inland Empire American folk musicians Alternative country musicians Musicians from San Bernardino, California People from Fontana, California Living people