The Brothers Goddard

In the summer of 2002 two British brothers embarked on a road trip that would have elements of an odyssey and echoes of Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’.
Their shared love of Rock’n’Roll & Soul is one that is easy for anyone to understand, but what is more complicated is the delicate balance of factors and influences that led to the creation of the unique legacy of this great American art form that sprang first from New Orleans and then spread up through the Mississippi Delta to the rapidly urbanising centres of Memphis, St Louis and Chicago more than a century ago.

Mark & Jeremy Goddard, both musicians brought up on a diet of stride piano, Jazz and Blues, wanted to see these places and feel their music firsthand.

Flying into Boston on July 4th, American Independence Day, 2002 they set off on a two month adventure that lasted for a ‘classic American Summer’, which
traditionally culminates in Labor Day in early September after which date white should not be worn.
After the purchase of ‘Rufus’ a 1982 Cadillac Eldorado, that they picked up for $1,500 in Chicopee, Massachusetts they headed south.

They drove 7,000 miles to the great Music Towns & Cities that have shaped America. Along the way they met Bobby “Blue” Bland in Tennessee, attended Al Green’s Gospel church on a Sunday in Memphis, saw The Isley Brothers in Brooklyn, heard Buddy Guy in Chicago, almost got lost in the murky motels of Elvis Presley Blvd before honouring the King himself at his home in Graceland, visited Sun Studios where Jerry Lee Lewis recorded his rollicking piano performances and even sat in with Jazz Bands in the French Quarter in New Orleans…

It is the memories and experiences that they shared in the juke joints, jazz clubs, blues bars, dance floors and on stages from New York to New Orleans, Nashville to Austin , Memphis to Clarksdale, and St Louis to Chicago that have shaped their vision for how to honour and continue the spirit of Rock’n’Roll.
They lived, breathed, sweated and imbibed the complex cocktail of American musical heritage.

Now they are aiming to return to their musical roots and have started a new act The Brothers Goddard that explores why Rock’n’Roll shook the world.