Travers Brothership celebrates its debut album release

TIME WILL SLIP AWAY: It took more than four years together as a band before Travers Brothership recorded and released its debut full-length album, “A Way to Survive.” But taking the time meant the band got the album it really wanted. Photo by Tate McQueen

Twin brothers Kyle and Eric Travers have been making music together since they were young. In 2012, the Black Mountain residents put together the seven-piece Travers Brothership, initially as a vehicle for the original songs they were writing. After some reorganization and rethinking of its direction, the band finally recorded and released its first full-length album, A Way to Survive, in August. The group — named No. 1 Alternative Band in WNC by Xpress readers this year — has scheduled a hometown show at the Salvage Station on Saturday, Nov. 26, to celebrate the album’s release.

A Way to Survive opens with “Hold My Name,” a strong tune that straddles the classic Southern soul of Stax Records and the Muscle Shoals Studio with the modern style of the Black Keys. “Soul music has an organic touch that people can often relate to,” says Kyle. “You can feel the vibes the musicians are putting out.”

Tasked with explaining how he came to appreciate soul, Travers searches at length for the right words, eventually offering this: “Everyone experiences love; everyone experiences heartbreak at one point or another. You can almost feel that yearning in the music. And that’s soul. They definitely named it properly.”

Kyle and his brother Eric were immersed in music from an early age; their father is “Hurricane Bob” Travers, a guitarist known regionally for his work with The Magdaddy’s. “I remember being 5 years old,” Kyle recalls. “He was playing in that swing band. Watching his energetic performance and seeing how people responded — they danced and smiled and laughed — really connected with me.”

He credits those experiences with leading him eventually to become a musician, adding, “And that was even before I even fell in love with the music.”

Travers Brothership’s new album displays an array of styles. There are Appalachian Americana-flavored stomps (“The Road Interlude”), funkier, jam-leaning numbers like “Time Will Slip Away,” brief a cappella tunes like “O’ Magnolia” and kinetic rockers such as “Like It or Not.” The latter features energetic electric piano and organ supporting soulful vocals and robust horn section work. The group cut the collection of 10 varied tunes at Matt Williams’ Eagle Room in Weaverville — but that wasn’t Travers Brothership’s first experience in the recording studio.

A February 2014 Asheville Citizen-Times feature covered the band’s plans to make an album with Grammy-winning producer Juan “Pericles” Covaz at the studio on the campus of Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla. But the material the group recorded there remains unreleased. Kyle isn’t enthusiastic to discuss that chapter in the band’s history. Instead, he sums it up in as few words as possible. Characterizing that period as a time during which the band “started evolving,” he explains that he and Eric “held back and waited patiently while lineup [changes] took their course.”

Travers Brothership also decided that making the album its members really wanted would require additional resources. “We decided we wanted to raise more money,” Kyle explains, “so we could make a recording that sounds like it’s on a professional level.” After a stopgap release — a 2015 EP called I Don’t Mind — the group organized a crowdfunding campaign. With that successfully concluded, the new lineup of Travers Brothership connected with Williams and scheduled studio time to cut A Way to Survive.

The new album — like the EP before it — was released independently. Travers Brothership isn’t on a record label and is self-managed. Kyle sums up the reason for those decisions in two words: creative freedom. He explains that several years ago, the band attracted the interest of music industry executives at a Nashville showcase. But that interest wasn’t mutual. The label representatives’ plan was to record an album on which all the songs would stay under the three-minute mark. “We didn’t go for it,” says Kyle.

He believes that one of the distinctive qualities of A Way to Survive is in how it presents “seven different genres on one album,” yet still “sounds like one flowing piece.” Holding onto their autonomy, working on their own terms and waiting until the band settled into a stable lineup, the musicians of Travers Brothership made the album they wanted to make.

WHO: Travers Brothership with Electric Soul Pandemic
WHERE: Salvage Station, 468 Riverside Drive, salvagestation.com
WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 26, 9 p.m. $7 advance/$10 day of show

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About Bill Kopp
Author, music journalist, historian, collector, and musician. His first book, "Reinventing Pink Floyd: From Syd Barrett to The Dark Side of the Moon," published by Rowman & Littlefield, is available now. Follow me @the_musoscribe

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7 thoughts on “Travers Brothership celebrates its debut album release

  1. Justsayin'

    And hopefully someday their musical ability will catch up to their incredibly large egos.

    • boatrocker

      Classy, dude- if that is the case I’ll bet they’re the only ones in this town guilty of that, right?

    • voltron

      Name one legendary musician that doesn’t have an ego..
      You can’t because that’s what it takes to be the front man of a great band..
      If you know music you would know this.
      All aboard the brothership :)
      They’re #1 because they deserve it..

      • boatrocker

        Front man/men don’t matter. A good rhythm section does. Do you honestly think most folks even know AC/DC replaced their first singer?
        Maybe you’re thinking of confidence as opposed to arrogance?

        To answer your question, Willie Nelson and Keith both strike me as pretty chill folks you could sip a cold one with for reading both their autobiographies, but your’e free to believe all musicians are raving prima donnas.

        I don’t find that the case with this band, because I’ve seen many older folks at their shows who remind them they weren’t born when certain songs were on the radio for band and audience having certain music tastes in common.

  2. Hatersbehatin'

    Of course when a local band gets some recognition and praise someone (sadly quite often another local musician) has to be a troll and say some bologna like that out of spite or envy. “justsayin” these guys aren’t bad folks at all, and they worked hard to be where they’re at. Their musical abilities are adequate enough to be “named No. 1 Alternative Band in WNC by Xpress readers this year” just saying…

    • boatrocker

      ‘Recognition’ and being voted #1 by any Mtn X echo chamber social media popularity contest means nothing unless you’re addicted to your phone.
      Those same types will sneak by a doorman collecting a cover and later steal your album online without paying for it.

      Putting on quality shows night after night does and I will say they deliver.

  3. soundandsun

    I’ve worked with and known musicians with much bigger egos. The Travers Brothers have always been cool headed and easy to work with. I’m proud of them, and I think their album sounds great.

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