The Dodge Brothers

The Dodge Brothers are renowned for playing the hell out of classic Americana. Described as “wonderful stuff” by Radio 2 presenter Bob Harris, they play an exuberant hybrid of country blues, rockabilly, jugband and skiffle. Firmly rooted in these traditions The Dodge Brothers bring to them a freshness that has feet stomping and hands clapping from California to Cropredy, from the Mojave Desert to the New Forest. Their songs feature vocal virtuosity and heartfelt harmonies underpinned by joyous guitars, thumping double bass and rattlin’ snare and washboard.

The Dodge Brothers features Mike Hammond (lead guitar, lead vocals), Mark Kermode (bass, harmonica, vocals), Aly Hirji (rhythm guitar, mandolin, vocals) and Alex Hammond (washboard, snare drum, percussion). Their music has an authentically American tang ‘ lead guitarist/vocalist Mike Hammond was raised in Alabama and his youthful musical travels took him all over the southern and western USA ‘ but with a strong British perspective from Culture Show presenter and film critic Mark Kermode.

Louisa and the Devil is their second album and features songs that render picturesque images of transport, heartbreak and homicide with tales of strong women, bad men and railroads. These fables are set to hard driving rhythms and conjure mythic images of locomotive trains, lonesome souls, love, death and redemption: a siren call to restless spirits.

The band has presented this potent musical brew on BBC2 Culture Show’s ‘busking challenge’ and they regularly feature on Simon Mayo’s Five Live Friday show. Other appearances include The Roundhouse with Noah and The Whale, The Jazz Café with Rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson, sell-out gigs at London’s Borderline, support slots with indie legends The Subways, and shows for huge crowds at Larmer Tree Festival and Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. They are often joined by Billy Lunn of the Subways who also makes a guest appearance on Louisa and the Devil.

The Dodge Brothers also featured at the British Film Institute’s 12th Annual Silent Film Festival at The Barbican where the band performed a live soundtrack to a rare silent western. The Times Literary Supplement said ‘They are neither brothers nor from Dodge City but play like they are both.‘ In April of this year the band accompanied the Louise Brooks/Wallace Beery 1927 film Beggars of Life to great acclaim “Never has a film and a band been more perfectly matched than ‘Beggars of Life’ and the Dodge Brothers – deep dish Americana, rail-riding hoboes and Louise Brooks – they were made for each other.”-Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film, British Film Institute.

These guys play with dust in their Levis and the road their hearts.

“Louisa & The Devil is wonderful stuff – slap that stand-up bass!”

Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2

“The Dodge Brothers are one of only three or maybe four bands actually making great music with roots to the beginning, and Frank Harris is one of the greatest songs ever written!”

Billy Lunn, The Subways

“The Dodge Brothers are a touch more sophisticated than any of the bands who briefly tasted fame in that era (1957), astutely blending runaway rockabilly with a couple of stirring ballads that would shine in any setting”

Colin Irwin, BBC Review

“‘¦On the night this slice of supra-realism as screened at the Barbican, its scenes of passionate romance and spine-tingling adventure were fabulously augmented by the tear-jerking or rip-roaring tones of the Dodge Brothers (who are not related, and do not live in Dodge City, but play like they are both).”

Clive Sinclair, Times Literary Supplement

“Never has a film and a band been more perfectly matched than ‘Beggars of Life’ and the Dodge Brothers – deep dish Americana, rail-riding hoboes and Louise Brooks – they were made for each other.”

Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film, British Film Institute

“The Dodge Brothers swept into the Barbican Cinema on the 4th June, and with their delectable accompaniment to the 1921 silent western White Oak, made the opening gala of the 12th British Silent Film Festival a night to remember….It was a triumph”

Robert Rider, Head of Cinema The Barbican

‘It’s skiffle, it’s Rock’n‘Roll, it’s country, it’s blues – hell, it’s the completely endearing sound of a long-distance love affair with all things Americana‘

R2 Magazine

‘Louisa & The Devil” elevates The Dodge Brothers into the vanguard of the UK skiffle-billy revival.‘

FATEA Magazine

‘The best known member of The Dodge Brothers is film critic and Culture Show host Mark Kermode (bass & gob iron), but on stage, he really is just part of the band along with Aly and Mike on guitar and drummer x. This is definitely not a vanity band‘¦.The band really can play.‘

FATEA Magazine

‘The band encompass the traditional stylistic range and hybrids of folk musics like blues, country and bluegrass & The live show retains much of the feel and the tones that give it that “authentic” rockabilly mood.‘

ZapBang Magazine

“Bullseye! For total-quality Revival Americana sure don’t come any better than this. I luv it – brilliant!”

NetRyhthms Magazine

“The Dodge Brothers are way more than a vanity project ‘ these guys legitimately rock.”

The Hudson Valley News (New York)