Dan Brodie

Melbourne-based vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Dan Brodie concentrates on a sharp-edged strain of rock laced with country influences, an approach that prompted his being labeled “Australia’s John Mellencamp,” even though Steve Earle offers a closer parallel. Because his father had worked as a musician in the Melbourne region throughout the 1960s, it seemed inevitable that Dan and his older brother Chris Brodie would take up the same path. The siblings made their initial appearance onstage at the Richmond Club Hotel in Melbourne, performing with Blue Velvet when Dan was 15 and Chris was 16. They continued performing and eventually found steady success under the name Dan Brodie & the Broken Arrows, a project anchored by Dan’s distinctive songs and Chris’s lap steel guitar. The self-funded EP I’m Floatin Mamma appeared in 1998, followed by the full-length Big Black Guitar in 2001. Capitol then signed the act and issued its major-label debut, Empty Arms Broken Hearts, in 2002. Dan next recorded alone for the label, releasing the pop-focused Beautiful Crimes in 2005 without the Broken Arrows. Barry Palmer produced the album, which moved away from the hard acoustic country-rock of the earlier releases, although Chris Brodie’s lap steel and Dan’s familiar, soulful vocals supplied a measure of continuity.