Brett Dennen Show at Tiny NYC Club Draws Big Fans

Towering and inspirational American troubadour Brett Dennen added a last-minute NY show just following the end of his tour opening for John Mayer. The show last night at the new fancy/seedy nightclub the Box (a hundred or so capacity) sold out instantly, with tickets selling for a big premium on ebay and elsewhere. Journalists from Elle, MTV, Bloomberg News, New York Magazine, Billboard and more were in the house alongside enthusiastic (very!) fans. Besides his guileless and cynicism-free songs, I was impressed with his interesting guitar playing...shades of Graceland-era Paul Simon and other lilting African styles like Sierra Leone's palm wine music (see S.E. Rogie).

Dennen's been playing arenas with Mayer, but on his own, his audience has been growing so fast that over the last six months he's moved from small clubs to headlining 1000+ seaters on the west coast, and he's moving up quickly on the east coast too with a Bowery date earlier this year also a sell-out. Meanwhile, Dennen and his new album 'So Much More' (Dualtone Music Group) continues to rise in the critical world. NPR's Christian Bordal cheered "The first time you hear Brett Dennen, it's his voice that stops you short and makes you pay attention," and Rolling Stone saying "He's timeless -- he's probably twenty-five, but he seems like he's twenty-five in 1972."

Here's Dennen under the lights at the Box


and MTV's Jim Allen with Shore Fire's Maggie Poulos and Nick Baily.