Seattle’s Brudi Brothers bring their version of country to the District Bar

The Brudi Brothers, Washington’s own harmonic busking trio, have always felt comfortable on the streets and in the small, dimly lit bars of the Pacific Northwest. That’s why, amid newfound attention and the nuance that come with it, shows in places like Spokane continue to mean so much.

While calling from the American Midwest, ordering pie in a roadside diner far from the Seattle they call home, Conrad Brudi spoke of the long-winding road that has led to the brothers’ success and this very moment in time. He also joked of pie having “all the vitamins a man needs,” inadvertently testing the joke out over the phone before landing it with the waiter.

“He liked the joke too,” Brudi said with a laugh.

Conrad, George and Johannes are the grandchildren of a Dixieland banjo and harmonica player and the children of a fiddle-playing father and a singing mother. The sounds of traditional folk, blues and roots music, those of influences like Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie, may be embedded in the brothers more than most other street poets and Americana troubadours.

For years, whether in Seattle or during their time living in Amsterdam, the lead singer, rhythm guitarist and harmonica player played on the streets and with a variety of bands, but in 2019 came to realize that focusing on a brotherly trio would create a more cohesive musical procedure.

“Minimalism has proven to be a very good approach,” Brudi said.

In January, the group’s manager recorded a video of the brothers singing a song at a Seattle bar that was meant to be a joke more than anything else: “Me More Cowboy Than You.”

The tongue-in-cheek tune comments on the recent “cowboy craze” of sorts, where it doesn’t seem to take very long to find folks arguing over who comes from a bluer collar and has the roughest hands.

The video posted on TikTok blew up overnight, garnering over 5 million views and thousands of users that, perhaps somewhat ironically, use the audio in means that often prove the brothers’ point.

“I didn’t even know we had a TikTok,” Brudi said. “We decided we better put this thing on ‘big evil Spotify’ so somebody could make some money off of it. So now we’re making the billionaires’ money and paying our taxes like big boys.”

They released a new single, “Motherland,” last month and have an EP in the works, but are continuing to navigate the challenges of growth. These challenges include balancing touring and recording.

“We’ve been recording a lot of songs, but it’s different once people actually care what you’re doing,” Brudi said. “Suddenly 20 people have their fingers in the pie, and you kind of have to please a couple dozen people at a time.”

Another one of those nuances comes from being “placed” by many in the very broad category that is country music. Although they have a deep love for the older sounds of the genre, Brudi will be the first to admit they don’t pay much attention to the country music that the radio tends to lean toward today.

“We’re pretty ignorant to modern country and what being in that category really means,” Brudi said.

The Brudi Brothers have recently been touring with the multi-Grammy Award-winning, style-blending Sierra Ferrell. Brudi was awestruck after seeing her live a few years ago, but has found a sense of solace in getting to know somebody who has also lived in cars and busked the same circuits, including at Pike Place Market.

“To be able to tour with her and play with her around the campfire after all the shows and whatnot, just get to know her as a human has been a gift,” Brudi said. “She feels like a band member in a weird way, like somebody we’ve busked with for a long time.”

Venues like the District Bar they will be playing on Tuesday offer a sense of home for the Brudi Brothers. And although they love playing their usual shows on the other side of the state, there’s something special about the Inland Northwest and the crowds that don’t always get a music scene with shows every single night.

“Our favorite is to go out to the inland cities … the places where not everybody in the crowd is working a tech job and oversaturated and goes to a show every Friday and Saturday,” Brudi said. “It’s more exciting to play to a crowd of people who don’t see a show every other day. If you play an LA crowd or something, it’s harder. Everybody’s spoiled.”