Patrick Brayer

Patrick John Brayer, born in San Jose, California, in 1953, is a singer-songwriter within the Inland Empire music scene.

Brayer is the son of Raplh W. and Eleanore Brayer.^[1][2] In 1958, his family relocated to rural Fontana, California, where they operated an egg ranch,^[3] and where Brayer attended Fontana High School.^[4] Brayer's brother Michael also sings.^[5]

In the 1970s, Brayer played in bands including Lost Highway, which he formed with Walden Dahl and Dave Dickey,^[6][7] the Town and Country Boys, also with Dahl,^[6] and the High Window Boys.^[7] Brayer plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin and other stringed instruments,^[8] and has collaborated with bluegrass, country, and folk artists including Alison Krauss, Alan Jackson, Ben Harper,^[9] and Stuart Duncan.​^[10]

In the early 1980s, Brayer founded Starvation Cafe in Fontana, as a coffeehouse with scheduled musicians and open mic sessions.^[11][9] Performers included Ben Harper,^[12] Mike McClellan,^[13][14] Blind Joe Hill^[8] and John York.^[15] Brayer also hosted a radio program from the University of California, Riverside, and was the first signing on Ben Harper's Inland Emperor Records label.^[16][17]

Three of his songs were recorded by Smithsonian Folkways records as part of the Fast Folk Magazine, including Bourbon as a Second Language (2002)^[18], Straight Life, No Chaser^[19], and Funeral Town (1995).^[20] Brayer co-wrote the song So Long, So Wrong with Walden Dahl, which was covered by Alison Krauss on the album of the same name in 1997.^[9][21] His song Lonely Moon was covered by Stuart Duncan in 1992^[22] and by Northern Lights on their album New Moon in 2005. He also wrote the song, (Good) Imitation of the Blues, which was covered by Larry Sparks & the Lonesome Ramblers in 1983, John Doe in 1990, Chris Darrow on Slide On In in 2002, Orville Johnson in 2004^[23] and Alan Jackson in 2006 on the album Like Red on a Rose.^[24][25] The album went Gold in 2007.^[26]

Brayer has released a series of cassettes, entitled The Secret Hits of Patrick Brayer some of the songs were recorded in the kitchen of Dennis Hopper.^[27][28]

• 1979 - Cold Feelings,^[3] reissued 1993 by Eye of the Scarecrow Records^[29]
• 2000 - Sinner Songwriter, AIM^[30]
• 2001 - Catholic And Western Fabuli, Inland Emperor Records^[31]
• 2022 - Cabbage and Kings: an Inland Shrimpire Anthology, Shrimper Records^[3]

• Patrick Brayer discography at Discogs
• Patrick Brayer at AllMusic
• www.patrickbrayer.com