A local radio station happened to play “Low Rider” while Damon Johnson was out driving around Nashville not long ago. Johnson started vibing on the congas that give that ‘70s funk classic by the band War its bloodshot shimmy.
Then it hit him. “Low Rider” is the same tempo as “Blinded By The Sun,” one of the first new songs in 25 years by Brother Cane, the Southern hard-rock band Johnson first made his name with.
Johnson passed an idea on to producer/cowriter Marti Fredricksen. In his Nashville studio, Fredricksen, whose resume includes hits with Aerosmith, Carrie Underwood and Buckcherry, then laid down the conga track that now opens “Blinded By The Sun,” which is powered by Johnson’s big, James Gang-style guitar riff.
Those snake-charmer congas grab the listener right from go. And an unintentional tip of the hat to one of Brother Cane’s biggest hits, “And Fools Shine On,” which topped the rock charts in 1995.
“I’m definitely at a place creatively where I refuse to deny my influences ever again,” Johnson says. “You know, it was tough in the ‘90s. Not only was it gonna make it hard for us to, you know, get radio airplay with what was happening around us, but it was almost like it wasn’t cool anymore to celebrate Bad Company, and the Doobie Brothers and the Allman Brothers and Skynyrd, these classic bands.
“I don’t know how to say it, bro. I just don’t give a shit anymore. If it’s something that gets me off, and if somebody connects the dots on the inspiration, instead of being afraid of that, I welcome that. I love that.”
Founded in Birmingham, Brother Cane defied the odds in the grunge/alternative dominated ‘90s to score big hits off their 1993 self-titled debut album. “Got No Shame,” a scorcher featuring harmonica from Birmingham local legend Topper Price, became a huge hit.
It also made Fredricksen, who cowrote with Johnson and coproduced with Guns N’ Roses recording engineer Jim Mitchell, an in-demand studio ace.
In addition to guitar slinger and freshly converted lead singer Johnson, Brother Cane’s original lineup featured bassist Glenn Maxey, drummer Scott Collier and rhythm guitarist Roman Glick.
Brother Cane’s debut produced more hits, including rock and soul ballad “Hard Act To Follow” and rocker “That Don’t Satisfy Me.” The band toured with the likes of Robert Plant, Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Mötley Crüe.
After the first album cycle though, Maxey was burnt out. He stepped away to focus on family and worked a straight job.
Huntsville native Maxey’s friend Dave Anderson was brought in on guitar and Glick moved back to bass, his primary instrument. This Brother Cane lineup released sophomore album “Seeds” followed by 1998 LP “Wishpool.” They played hallowed venues like Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado and scored film synchs.
But it wasn’t enough. Although Brother Cane did well in markets like the Midwest and had radio hits, they never sold a lot of albums, then a major part of being a successful major label rock band. Frustrated by turnover and lack of support at their label, Brother Cane was done.
“We couldn’t make a living,” Johnson says. “I mean, let’s be real man, you start a new business and you’ve done it for seven years and you’re not making money, then maybe that’s not a good business. [Laughs] That has nothing to do with the fulfillment of the music and playing together, shows and whatever.”
Johnson went on to become a collaborator or songwriter for stars like Sammy Hagar, Stevie Nicks, Steven Tyler and Santana. Then he joined Alice Cooper’s band on guitar for six years.
Then Johnson got the opportunity of a lifetime to play guitar with “The Boys Are Back In Town” rockers Thin Lizzy, a band he had posters of on his bedroom walls back in the small Alabama town Geraldine, where he’d resided before his time in Birmingham.
Johnson developed a solo career, releasing six albums so far including 2020 standout “Battle Lessons.” He also tried country on for size, forming the group Whiskey Falls, which also featured Buck Johnson, who’d go on to join Aerosmith’s touring keyboardist and backing vocalist.
In 2021, Southern rock icons Lynyrd Skynyrd reached out to Johnson to fill in for guitarist Gary Rossington after Rossington, Skynyrd’s sole remaining original remember, had emergency heart surgery. Unfortunately, Rossington, known for his lyrical slide guitar playing on “Free Bird,” died this May at age 71.
When Lynyrd Skynyrd decided to carry on, Johnson became a full-time member, making it the third legendary band he’s been in.
But Damon Johnson had unfinished business with Brother Cane. He and Maxey hadn’t spoked to each other in many years but reconnected around 2019.
Maxey had spent the last couple decades working in industrial electronics. But after his wife and both parents died in the same year, Maxey decided to return to what made him happiest: Being a full-time musician.
After playing around Huntsville with an Ozzy Osbourne cover band, he got a gig playing in the solo band of ex-Bishop Gunn frontman Travis McCready.
In 2022, Johnson and Maxey reunited and rebooted Brother Cane. The current lineup also boasts old friend Buck Johnson, guitarist Tony Higbee and drummer Jarred Pope, both of Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer’s solo band.
The new Brother Cane did several shows last year, including rock festival Monsters on the Mountain and hometown shows in Birmingham and Huntsville.
This year, Brother Cane is stepping things up for their debut album’s 30th anniversary. On Oct. 27, the tour comes to Mars Music Hall at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville. (Tickets for the 8 p.m. show, with young Southern rocker Cage Willis opening, start at $28 plus fees, available via ticketmaster.com and the VBC Box Office, address 700 Monroe St.)
Brother Cane have close to 20 shows booked, crew and management team in place, the original album’s first-ever vinyl pressing, and two new songs.
In addition to “Blinded By The Sun,” the band’s released “Are You In There Anymore,” also produced and cowritten with Fredericksen. The lyrically stirring track calls to mind a mix of Tom Petty and Jason Isbell. Mid-song, Damon and Higbee engage in an Allmans-meets-Lizzy guitar tangle.
The music includes some elegant lines from Buck Johnson, who recorded his keyboard parts remotely while on tour with Hollywood Vampires, the supergroup featuring Alice Cooper, Joe Perry and Johnny Depp.
On both “Are You In There Anymore” and “Blinded By The Sun,” Maxey and Pope’s grooves are lean, tight and strong.
To record the new songs, Damon brought out the Marshall amp he’d used on Brother Cane’s debut. Guitars included his reptilian green Les Paul and sunburst Gibson reissue.
Because there are new songs to play in the live set – strong new songs – makes the Brother Cane reunion about more than nostalgia.
Maxey says, “Instead of we’re just gonna get together and play the song that we did 30 years ago, now it becomes more of a living, breathing moving-forward, you know, situation. The band’s kind of restarted and there’s new music coming out. So yeah, it’s made a huge difference.”
Still, it’s been sweet and full circle for Maxey and Damon to reconnect. In addition to their shared adventures as young musicians back then, they talk about family and joke about being rockers in middle age.
“It was easy to get some young guys and throw them in a van and run around and play songs,” Maxey says with a laugh. “Because the chances that they’re all going to be OK, and they’re going to be in good enough condition to play the show.”
In Brother Cane’s early stages, including a time when they were called Chyld, the band struggled to find the right fit on vocals. It was Maxey that suggest Johnson, who’d never been a lead vocalist, step up to the mic himself.
In addition to band rehearsals, at home Maxey has been playing along to Dixie Dregs and Kansas records to get his fingers tour-ready. Live, he’s playing Spector basses and the quintessential rock bass amp, an Ampeg SVT.
In addition to both new tunes and songs from the ‘93 debut, the set includes material from the two Brother Cane albums Maxey wasn’t part of. He says he’s having a ball playing bass live now on “Seeds” and “Wishpool” songs. “Man, ‘Wishpool’ is such sophisticated songwriting and production. It’s my favorite [album] out of the three of them. I’m always pushing to play more ‘Wishpool’ stuff.”
Although there are just three Brother Cane albums, between the Black Crowes and GN’R-influenced debut, the more Seattle-sounding “Seeds” and gleaming “Wishpool,” the set goes through several shades of rock.
“You can listen to them and hear a natural progression of the songwriting and the lyrics and everything,” Maxey says. “I could listen to those three albums and not really know anything about this band and be able to tell what was the first album, the second, the third.”
From the debut, Maxey’s faves to play live include the swampy “Make Your Play,” which Johnson cowrote with West Arkeen, who also cowrote classic Guns N’ Roses songs like “It’s So Easy,” “Yesterdays” and “Bad Obsession.”
Both Johnson and Maxey are quick to credit Fredericksen for Brother Cane’s initial success. Johnson says, “There’s no question Marti was a monumental part of the original band.”
Fun fact: In addition to being an accomplished co-writer/producer, Fredericksen did the vocals for the “Almost Famous” movie songs by fictional band Stillwater. Yep, that’s him howling “Fever Dog.”
Johnson says Fredericksen did “a lot of the heavy-lifting” on the debut Brother Cane, as Johnson was inexperienced as a lyric writer back then. But now, with decades of songwriting experience, Johnson arrived at writing sessions for the new songs with pages of lyrics and demos. He’d had the chorus for “Are You Still In There” for years, which he’d written with Ricky Warwick from their time together in Thin Lizzy offshoot band Black Star Riders.
Coming back to Brother Cane now, it’s made Johnson appreciate his band’s rebirth, songs and, most of all, their fans. “I’ve always said, Brother Cane fans are some of the most passionate on the planet. There’s just not that many of them, you know? [Laughs] But those that have been with us and have been waving that flag, man, relentlessly. After all this time, I’m happiest for them because I’m sure they felt like they were never going to this day.”
A big difference in being with huge acts like Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Thin Lizzy instead of a “baby band” like Brother Cane was coming up, Johnson says, is “you don’t have the stress of a shitty hotel room. Or no shower. No food in the dressing room. None of that ever happens anymore, so everything’s easy and you can just focus on the music.
“It’s just made me value what we did achieve in the ‘90s with Brother Cane. And now having a great team, good management, great band got a proper road crew again, there’s a there’s a lot of work that has gone into this over the last year-and-a-half. I just feel really grateful man, you know?”
Vinyl’s enjoyed quite a resurgence over the past 12 years or so. But during the mid to late ‘90s, vinyl had steeply dropped from its ‘60s through ‘80s mainstream heyday.
As good as Brother Cane’s original album sounds on CD and even cassette, the classic vibe deserved to be heard on vinyl’s warm grooves. In addition to the first-ever ‘93 LP pressing, the two new Brother Cane sounds have been pressed on seven-inch vinyl, available at the band’s merch table and their website.
Maxey says, “When I was young, you had a record-sized cover and pictures and the whole thing, and you would sit in your room and listen to records. It lost a lot of its allure when it went to CDs. That’s one of the things that excites me the most [about the reunion] is having that thing on vinyl.”
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