Brightwire

In the wake of the acclaim and exposure from their latest LP: Cracked, Flawed and Frayed (named as one of the top Houston albums of 2021 by the Houston Chronicle), Brightwire came up with the concept of releasing a couple of EPs a year to keep their audience satiated with material and their momentum moving forward…or that’s the story we would like to tell you.

While keeping up the momentum from Cracked… was a major motivation for the EP series, the downtime during the pandemic saw the band with no shows from the completion of Cracked, Flawed and Frayed into the latter half of 2021. The lack of performances left Brightwire writing new songs and working them out until they were ready to be recorded.

Finally, once they were able to play live again, the setlists were filled with new, yet-to-be-recorded songs in equal numbers to the songs from the ‘new’ album Brightwire was finally able to promote. This led to the idea of an EP series to get the songs out, but to also give Cracked... the breathing room and exposure it deserved.

Much the same way Cracked… was recorded, Samuel Barker recorded guitars, bass and drums, then the rest of the band came in to create the entire work once the groundwork had been laid. Kim Barker added organ while Michael Helfenstein brought electric steel and dobro to the songs. Finally, vocals were laid down and the first EP was born.

Ghosts Best Left Alone includes 3 brand new songs with a re-imaging of Crystal Beach from the first Brightwire album, A Place to Call Home, which was recorded as an acoustic duo album. Future EPs will follow the same format of new songs combined with re-imaginings of songs from Home…