on September 6th, 2011Okay, so I mostly do CD reviews of local, south Florida musicians, but one day I get an email from a Jersey guy asking me to review his CD. So, I say sure and he sends it to me in the mail. When the CD arrives, I’m busy so I just do a quick, fifteen second preview of each song, then tag it as gothic country (yes, there is such a thing) similar to Mark Sinnis’ cemetery-western genre. But about a week later I finally had time to sit down and thoroughly listen to all the tracks and I was blown away. It ain’t gothic, country, cemetery or western. No, it’s more like Johnnie Cash and Tom Waits ran head-on into each other on the highway doing 90 only to have one, whole, new person emerge. And that person is Briz (a.k.a. David Conard – www.brizsongs.com).

Now Briz’s CD of all original songs is called HARD TIMES, and just by the cover artwork you can tell this ain’t no Carpenter’s walk through the sunny side of life. The front cover sleeve displays a rainy day, steering-wheel view out a wiperless window staring down an endless tree-lined country road, while the back sleeve shows a hardened figure (Briz?) standing amongst giant truck tires discarded in the woods. No, it may not be a pretty ride, but any reflection of the economically destroyed, hard-time world we live in today is by its very nature going to be a bit uneasy. Yet Briz can take all that pain and still turn it into a heartfelt song of beauty and recognition.

The CD starts off with BROKE DOWN TRUCK, a memoriam to a four wheeled family heirloom. Track two, I DON’T CARE, is a devotional to the better, supportive qualities of family in tough times. This is followed by LIFE OF CRIME where even death might be a welcome respite for those caught up in the transgressions of economic hardships. Then comes HARD TIMES, the CD’s title track which is a testimonial and tribute to perseverance when everything else fails. Finally, CLEAN BREAK ends the first half of this compilation with an almost Meat Loaf (singer Michael Lee Aday) like yearning for freedom from life’s every day drudgery.

The CD’s back half starts off with MADE IN AMERICA, a dark side of the coin tribute to Bruce Springstein’s Born In The USA (1984, Columbia Records). Things turn a bit cheerier with track seven, HOBO WINE which is made from a little bit of yours and a little bit of mine. Track eight, HEART BE STILL, is about the heart’s longing not to be longing, which is then followed by DON’T TEMPT ME FRIEND where longing for the bottle replaces the longing of the heart. And it all ends with NOT THAT KIND OF MAN, where even desperate times can’t justify indefensible acts.

So it might be raining and the wipers might be broke, but just put down those rose-tinged glasses and take a good look at the world around you. Then turn on Briz’s HARD TIMES and know that there’s life still to live, even in hard times.

Dr. Bob

 From The Lawrence Ledger   01/25/2007

‘Briz’ brings Black History Month to Lawrence Library next week
By: Lea Kahn, Staff Writer

David Conard has been writing and singing about politics, love and other topics for most of his life, but he never thought he would write songs about slavery.
All that changed after Mr. Conard — known professionally as “Briz” — watched “Unchained Memories: Readings From the Slave Narratives,” a 2003 documentary on HBO based on interviews with former slaves that were conducted between 1936 and 1938.
Those interviews inspired Mr. Conard’s “Freedom Trilogy” of songs, written between 2004 and 2006, which examines slavery, the Civil War and the civil rights movement.
Next week, he will bring “Freedom’s Glory” to the Lawrence branch of the Mercer County Library on Darrah Lane. The program begins at 7 p.m. Feb. 1 and is in recognition of Black History Month.
“Freedom’s Glory,” which will be heard for the first time Feb. 1, is the final piece in the Freedom Trilogy, the  Eldridge Avenue resident said. The first two pieces — “Freedom Stairway” and “Freedom’s Cry” — focus on slavery and the Civil War, respectively. “Freedom Stairway” was first performed in 2005; “Freedom’s Cry” has not yet been performed.
Mr. Conard said the “Freedom’s Glory” program includes several of his own compositions, plus 1960s-era classics such as “We Shall Overcome.” It also includes a PowerPoint presentation of black-and-white photographs of the era, which also had been shown in “Unchained Memories,” and were provided by the United States Library of Congress.
“At the end of ‘Unchained Memories,’ there is a picture of the ‘freedom stairway,’” Mr. Conard said. “It’s a black-and-white photograph of a stairway going up the banks of the Ohio River (which divided the slave state of Kentucky from the free state of Ohio).
“It’s the stairway to freedom,” he said. “That picture made an impression on me. I wanted to know more about that time, what it must be like looking at those stairs, and all I have to do is climb the stairs and I’ll be a free man.”
Inspired by the photograph, Mr. Conard went to the Lawrence Library to learn more about the slave narratives, which were the product of interviews conducted by the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression.
The first song in what was to become his Freedom Trilogy grew from the initial entry in the book that contained the slave narratives, an interview with a woman who said she grew up on “Old Man Foley’s plantation” — which became the title of one of the musician’s songs.
“I wrote some more songs, and my wife, Michele, said I should do a program around it,” he said. “I didn’t know I was going to do more than a concept album of songs, but seeing the interest that my two sons, Shawn and Cody, took in it, I thought it might be a good children’s program. I decided to develop a whole program around it.”
Soon after Mr. Conard created “Freedom’s Stairway,” he realized a 40-minute show could not cover all the information available. “Freedom’s Cry” was the next segment, which explored the horrors of the Civil War.
“Freedom’s Glory” was written to wrap up the trilogy, he said. The former slaves were promised the right to vote and the right to own land, but many of those promises were not fulfilled until the Civil Rights era in the mid-20th century, nearly a century later, he said.
Mr. Conard, who gained his nickname “Briz” from his sister while growing up in nearby Hopewell Township, said he has always been interested in history, politics “and, of course, music.”
“I listened to President John F. Kennedy, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and, to a certain extent, Malcolm X,” he said. “I was taken by their words. I could see how they were able to move people with their words. It made me want to hear what they had to say. I was always taken in by the plight of the underprivileged, the unfortunate and the underdog. People were not treated equally.”
Though a self-described child of the ’60s, Mr. Conard eventually went on to what he called “adult things.” He married and started a family, held a series of jobs in the food industry and moved to Florida. The family returned to Mercer County and settled in Lawrence in 1994.
Mr. Conard turned to music after the lease expired on a former business five years ago. He has since taken his performances on the road to libraries, schools, museums and cultural centers throughout New Jersey and currently performs about six to eight shows per month throughout the year.
While he acknowledged it may be unusual for a white man to write and perform songs that deal with blacks and slavery, both he and the program are well received by audiences. Black audiences especially appreciate his efforts to convey the historical aspects, he said.
“An African American woman came up to me after a show and thanked me. People don’t care who puts it out or how. They just want their children to know about it,” Mr. Conard said. “The children can’t imagine what slavery was like, or what the civil rights movement was like.”

“Freedom’s Glory” will be presented at Lawrence branch
of the Mercer County Library on Darrah Lane at 7 p.m. Feb. 1.

Rob Lincoln, cdreviewsonline
Briz is a versatile Philadelphia area singer-songwriter who is an excellent live performer with an awesome vocal range. He sings blues, country and Americana and can sound like Neil Young in his vocal delivery when he sings high. When he is growling, he can also sound a bit like Springsteen. His writing can sound like both artists as well. However, he also knows how to write a good country tune, and in the case of this self produced release he has written an extraordinary country tune. I usually do not review cds unless I love 5 or more songs but I am making an exception here as this one song is worth the cost of the CD. My favorite songs are:

1) Cowboy Serenade- This song is so good that whenever Briz plays it live, the room comes alive, people begin singing and then comes a huge ovation. It has a melody that is unforgettable, not only because the hook is so catchy but because the entire song is so well constructed into three distinctive and equallly strong parts (verse, bridge and chorus). And then of course there are the words. It is a riveting story in which the narrator now old and wheel chair bound, sitting in a nursing home poignanty cries, "If they only knew my name..." and then the listener is vividly transported into the past when the old man was a young singing cowboy. It is an unforgettable song lyrically and melodically. If Briz never writes another song again, this is one for the ages

2) How'd We Ever Get Out Alive?- Imagine a cross between American Pie and We Didn't Start The Fire and you have this song. Briz does a great live version of this tune. This version is just ok.
3) She Can't Wait To Leave This Town- Briz must have been channelling Springsteen on this one. It has a really gritty roots rock sound.

Honorable mention- Ivyland Special has a kickin' bluesy groove and the countryish Never Wanted You To Go and Still Gone showcase Briz's range as a singer.

There are no bad songs on this cd. But there is only one great song. How good is that song? Well of all the songs I've heard in the 7 years I have been booking the 60+ artists in the Philadelphia Area Songwriters' Alliance Houseconerts, I believe Cowboy Serenade the most likely to become a national hit on the country charts. Make sure if you are in the Philly area to check out Briz live--he is an outstanding performer. To learn more about Briz and hear this CD go to www.brizsongs.com

Reprinted from the July 11, 2007, issue of U.S. 1 Newspaperby
Richard K. Rein



Sounds of the city (or at least the sounds of my neighborhood of small houses, apartments, retail stores, and restaurants on the edge of Princeton’s central business district):

The rumbling begins off to the east at around 5 a.m., and turns into a clank as it passes under my window 30 feet away. At 5:40 it rumbles and clanks back in the other direction. It’s the street cleaning machine, of course, which on many mornings heralds the new day in my neighborhood, where we have the cleanest streets in the state.

At 7 a.m. sharp the garbage truck comes up the street to empty the dumpster behind Sovereign Bank. The massive vehicle roars up to the parking lot entrance with a pounding percussion, fails to get through the narrow passage on the first attack, and then shifts into reverse to improve its angle. With that maneuver, of course, the roar is punctuated by the beeping alarm of a truck in reverse — it’s the triangle accenting the bass drum. For most of us in the neighborhood it’s a wonderful alarm clock. Only my two teenage boys, sleeping 10 feet away from the backed-up truck, manage to sleep through it.

That’s the morning symphony. But at night it’s another, more rewarding show. On Fridays in the summer, if you stand outside my house and listen carefully, you can hear the faint sounds of music wafting down from Nassau Street. Is that “American Pie” I hear? Or “The Boxer?” Yes, it is. And that would be a one-man band, a singer and songwriter named Briz performing on acoustic guitar and harmonica in the courtyard outside Thomas Sweet Ice Cream.

Head a few blocks to the east, toward New York, and you come to Nassau Street’s restaurant alley. And there at the Blue Point Grill, tucked neatly into the space between the curb and the sidewalk, a jazz quartet — bass, sax, drums, and guitar — known as the 6th Street Quarterion holds forth every Saturday night, weather permitting. It’s a free concert for diners waiting for a table at the seafood restaurant and for passersby.

Head back into town, and walk a block down Witherspoon Street to Hulfish, and you come to a sliver of land between a parking garage and the outdoor seating area next to Halo Pub, another dessert destination. On Saturday nights, weather permitting, you will find that sliver of land occupied by musicians, as well. This Saturday, July 14, it’s Irish and folk, with Bill O’Neal and Joe Kramer.

So who says they don’t have live music anymore? Yes, I know about the concerts on the Palmer Square green in front of the Nassau Inn on Saturday afternoons, and the Princeton Shopping Center concerts on Thursday nights, and the lunchtime concerts at the Carnegie Center on Wednesdays and Thursdays at lunchtime.

But this is different: Accomplished musicians — guys actually making a living at it — showing up in odd places where you would not expect them. It’s a lesson of the new urbanism: Put enough people together in a small space and someone is going to figure out how to have fun.

David Conard earned the nickname “Briz” as a kid growing up in Hopewell. Now 54, Briz has given up his career in food services to toil fulltime as a musician. He plays at Thomas Sweet most Saturday nights and some Sunday afternoons, and he also performs Thursday evenings at the Stockton Inn. It helps that he has an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music — Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Neil Young are among his influences. And he is also smart to write his own stuff, including a musical interpretation of slavery and the civil rights movement that he performs at libraries and schools www.brizsongs.com).

At Thomas Sweet Briz plays nonstop from 7 to 10 p.m. That’s a reflection of his food service experience. “I know I’m here to keep the customers around,” he says, looking out at a crowd that has filled all the nearby tables and taken over the lawn chairs in front of 185 Nassau Street, as well.

Art Stephano, the bass and spokesman for the 11-year-old Sixth Street Quaternion www.6stq.com), moved from the Philadelphia area to Hightstown around four years ago, so his wife would have an easier commute to her job with an ad agency in New York. He searched the Internet looking for restaurants that might want to book the quartet.

When he called Blue Point Grill the manager made the obvious point that the restaurant didn’t need musicians to draw more customers — the place was already filled to the gills. But, he and Stephano both mused, perhaps some live music might calm the diners during their long wait.

The 6th Street Quarterion is now in its fourth season at Blue Point. The season is supposed to end in September, but if a warm spell carries into a Saturday in October or later you might find the group back on the sidewalk.

The owners of Halo Pub on Hulfish were in a situation similar to Blue Point Grill: Plenty of customers on a Saturday night but a feeling that they deserved a little something extra for their time. That led to booking a series of musicians — who provide an unexpected sound in an unexpected setting from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

The street music ends fairly early in my neighborhood. The next gig belongs to that street cleaner.