Robert Brenton Lives!

In 1975 Rusty Spell was born. A few months later Tommy Burton was born. It was this significant difference in birth of the two characters that makes their music as Robert Brenton so distinctive: as if two greats from separate generations were fighting over a banana. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's back up...

Rusty helped invent music in 1990 with the band 'nikcuS. Tommy listened to this band and said aloud, "This is what my life is all about!" Tommy tried his best to mimic 'nikcuS in 1997 with Lately David. Rusty listened to this band and pondered silently, "I will not rest until I become a professional bass player!" Much later, in 1986, Tommy and Rusty met. A dog barked in the distance.

In the year 2003, when this web page was made, someone thought they would be clever by writing a silly history of the band Robert Brenton instead of something more useful like you find on the rest of the Love and Letters Music pages. But I digress...

There was and is a thing called Burton/Spell. That's Tommy Burton mingling his wine with Rusty Spell and making musicstuffs. They released a few things on the Love and Letters compilation Stick It Somewhere. This was not Robert Brenton. We can't explain why, but it wasn't. Therefore, Burton/Spell is anything that Tommy and Rusty do together that isn't Robert Brenton. Because Robert Brenton is a band, with a definite definition and meaning and purpose and je nais sais qua.

People watched CNN when 1999 changed to 2000, and shortly thereafter Thomas and Russell recorded Robert Brenton songs in Hattiesburg, Mississippi (home of people who come from bigger cities to live there who complain about the lack of coffee shops). Those songs sat around burning a hole in Russell's pocket for three years until a hole was burned in Thomas's brain enough that they made more of them.

And boy did they make more. They made it so that all of their songs wouldn't fit on just one CD. It would fit on two! But they put it on three, because it was easier to digest that way (which we trust is true, and that they weren't just out to make more money). Three CDs also allowed them to plaster their handsome images on more CD covers. When they realized this fact, they made a fourth: a highlights CD in case three CDs weren't digestable at all. After one album, Robert Brenton already has a greatest hits album. It's a wonderful world.

Robert Brenton is the new 'nikcuS now that 'nikcuS has been sucked into a temporal warp (as they say). Tommy and Rusty sit around and make up songs as they go. They hit record, they sing until one of them laughs, and then they make another one. Sometimes they sing pre-written songs, but Tommy sings Rusty's lyrics and Rusty sings Tommy's lyrics, so it all works out.

Their first album, you know, is called The New Beau Revere Tape, "Hit the Trigger, Jigger," featuring the three volumes, "Vol. 1: Hey, Rowldy," "Vol. 2: Touching Jenny and Her Sisters," and "Vol. 3: Slippin' In Some Guts" (and of course Highlights from The New Beau Revere Tape, in one volume).

By the way, my name is Max. I take care of them.

This page will have even more goofy fun in the future. It will be quite an event. Rub your hands together, Cecil. Rub your hands.