Blues legend gets under the covers with Bros. Landreth

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This article was published 02/03/2022 (1097 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bonnie Raitt has given the Bros. Landreth something to talk about.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s latest single, Made Up Mind, is a cover of the Winnipeg blues-rock band’s song from its 2013 album Let it Lie.

Joey and Dave Landreth, the brothers behind the Bros. Landreth, heard through the rock ‘n’ roll grapevine last December that Raitt had recorded the song, but that spoiler didn’t ruin the groovy feeling they got after hearing the red-headed slide guitarist’s new release on Feb. 25.

”When I first heard the recording that she had made, to me it was perfect. It sounded like the song has always been hers,” Joey Landreth says. “I could hear little pieces from the original, of course — she kept it quite true to the original version of the song — but it stopped being our song and began being hers. It’s a very fitting tune for her, for sure.

“I was absolutely blown away.”

The Bros. Landreth and Bonnie Raitt first crossed paths on the opening night of the 2014 Winnipeg Folk Festival — Wednesday, July 9, 2014, to be exact. Raitt was the headliner that night and the bluesy Winnipeg group opened the evening’s entertainment with a set of their own that caught her attention. She even gave the band a shout-out that night, saying she loved its funky southern sound.

For the Bros. Landreth to get Raitt’s attention required some handy word-of-mouth assistance from one of their connections in the music business.

”Earlier that year, we had opened up for Dwight Yoakam at the Burton Cummings Theatre, and Dwight Yoakam’s tour manager is originally from Guelph, Ont., and we made friends with him, just being Canadians,” Joey says.

He put in a word with Bonnie Raitt at a gig in Austin, telling her to get to the folk fest early to check the Bros. Landreth out, and she liked what she heard.

“She’s incredibly kind and generous person, and she’s a big enough star that I think she doesn’t have to be and people would accept it, but she is very warm and generous,” Joey Landreth says.

The musical relationship didn’t end there.

”She had given me her email address and said, ‘Hey, I’m always looking for songs, so if you have anything that could fit my thing, send ‘em over,” Joey recalled.

The Bros. Landreth played it cool, and waited a couple of weeks before emailing her with an offer that she took advantage of eight years later.

“We rarely have songs to spare, but if there’s anything in our catalogue, don’t even ask, just take it. It’s yours,” Joey remembers writing.

Raitt’s version of Made Up Mind is expected to be part of her new album, Just Like This…, due out April 22.

The Bros. Landreth have their own recordings on the front burner, with their latest single, Stay, hitting streaming services Feb. 15. A long-awaited new album, Come Morning, drops May 13, with a tour of Canada, the U.S. and Europe scheduled for the summer and fall.

”Dave and I have been working hard over the last two years on the new record,” Joey says.

Raitt’s music has played a big part in the formation of the Bros. Landreth’s sound, which earned the group a Juno Award in 2015.

“Bonnie is legitimately, without a word of exaggeration, one of both my brother’s and my greatest heroes,” Joey Landreth says. “There’s a small amount of records we listened to, both Nick of Time and Luck of the Draw, those two records were on constant rotation at our house and had a massive part in our upbringing as musicians.”

The Landreths, along with their manager, Stu Anderson, have branched out in the music business, forming the Birthday Cake record label, which represents Winnipeg artists such as Begonia, Slow Leaves and Field Guide, as well as performers from the United States and the United Kingdom.

Many small companies diversify their businesses to offset the financial ups and downs of their operations, but Joey Landreth says it’s a ton of extra work as well.

”The hope is that, one day, owning the label will help ease the financial burden of being an artist for a living,” he says. “We’re having lots of wins with our artists, so it’s not like it’s a painful struggle, but it’s also not an Amazon.com situation.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall