After spending the first decade of their music careers playing as sidemen for prairie bands like Doc Walker and Imaginary Cities, brothers David and Joey Landreth joined forces to start their own alt-country project called The Bros. Landreth.
Initially the Winnipeggers thought it would just be a small side project. Nothing too serious. But since releasing their debut album this past September and hitting the road to promote it, the brothers have little time for anything else.
“It’s like a real aggressive weed,” joked David. “There’s a lot that goes into creating an album and getting it out for people to hear. Things we didn’t have to think about when we were just playing other people’s stuff.”
Both brothers have been musicians for as long as they can remember. Their father, Wally Landreth, is known in the Winnipeg music scene as a songwriter and sideman, and he always had a lot of instruments around the house for his sons to play.
David took up bass, while his younger brother Joey played guitar. By the time they reached their early teenage years, they were already picking up gigs as freelance musicians. Soon different bands were hiring them to join their tours around the world.
David played for Romi Mayes, Chris Carmichael, and Imaginary Cities, while Joey was out on the road with One More Girl, The Wyrd Sisters, Dallas Smith, Deric Ruttan, Steve Bell, and Doc Walker.
Until one day they decided it was time to get together and focus on a project of their own for a change.
“[Joey] had just gotten off a particularly arduous stretch of touring as a side man and was feeling a little bunt out,” David recalled. “He called me up and said, ‘hey it would be really great if we could put something together that gives us an opportunity to pour some creative juice into our own thing.'”
They called up childhood friend, Ryan Voth, who agreed to play drums for them, and later Alex Campbell came on board to add piano, harmonica, and vocals.
They released their debut album Let It Lie to much critical acclaim, toured across the country twice, and received significant radio airplay nationally on CBC, Galaxie and college radio.
They’re currently on tour with Montreal’s Mark Berube and will be opening up for him at an early show on Friday, February 28 at Spiritbar. Doors open at 7 p.m. and The Bros. Landreth will take the stage at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10.
