Brendan & the Strangest Ways

Brendan & the Strangest Ways is the moniker adopted by songwriter Brendan Shea to create music for the roving spirit. His songs are heartfelt reflections on the loves and losses experienced over countless miles traveled in a search for something that always feels just a little out of reach.

In autumn 2016, Brendan returned home to Buffalo, NY after completing a seven-year journey that saw him living and playing on and around all three US Coasts. He got his education in the thriving Austin scene, which he’s aptly referred to as “musician boot camp.” He applied the knowledge in the storied music city of Seattle, developing his sound while fronting a talented crop of revolving-door bandmates who would help him record his full-length debut, Brendan & the Strangest Ways.

The sessions were anchored by an epic three-week road trip back to Austin, where Brendan recorded the bulk of the tracks himself in a guest bungalow on a horse ranch just outside of the city. He would never be fully certain of how many half-finished, that-felt-like-the-one takes were sacrificed to the crowing of roosters or buzzing of low-flying planes, but in the end he was confident he came away with an album that successfully rose above its modest means of production.

Upon the album’s release, Brendan set out on a cross-country summer tour in a 26-foot RV. Early in 2017, he completed a tour of the Gulf Coast with producer, author and sophisticated singing hobo D.B. Rouse.

Brendan’s peers have called him a true songwriter’s songwriter who expertly crafts his lyrics like a mason building a brick wall, and whose haunting melodies and compositions have a way of outlasting durations of quiet to stay stuck in your head long after you’ve heard the last note.