BRADDIGAN
He rode the waves with the independent band Dispatch for nine years until July 2004 when the band played its epic finale in Boston. "The Last Dispatch," drew an estimated 110,000 people. While it marked both the trio's final concert together and the culmination of nine years of brilliant music, it so began Braddigan's solo career. Braddigan carries on with the Dispatch legacy spending time building relationships, both locally and overseas, investing in a community of listeners who desire more than just music. His first solo album, Watchfires, released in February 2005 on his new label Third Surfer Music.
Braddigan's inspiration is drawn from a myriad passions including film, family, surfing, and hanging with kids in far-away lands. His songs are rooted in beautifully heavy rhythms, layers of harmonies, and cultural snapshots from his travels. The combination of Braddigan's reggae, folk, Latin and rock cadences is best described as "a loving fist-fight between Paul Simon, Jack Johnson, and Pearl Jam." As an accomplished guitarist, percussionist, and lyricist, Braddigan's songs flow gently and put the mind at ease.
"And so if your heart's in the right place, then follows your identity," he adds. "I guess I'm just trying to keep it simple: of course I love making music, but it's just a bridge... getting to be with people because I play and sing, getting them all fired up, and growing in the process, now that's where it's at..."
Braddigan is an intense soul, a visionary living a wild and traveled life with a clear purpose of bringing people together. Whether he's touring in the states or working on one of his projects in Central or South America, his approach is the same, "It's never what you do in life, but the heart with which you do it," he offers. Currently, he has brought 19 artists together for a compilation CD in response to the tsunami tragedy and the crisis in the Sudan. The CD is entitled "the Relief Project" benefiting Save the Children, an organization dedicated to protecting and healing displaced children the world over. The record features tracks from Arrested Development, North Mississippi Allstars, Dispatch, Phil Keaggy, Slightly Stoopid, and many more. "The Relief Project" benefit CD will be sold from one person to the next, it won't be available in stores, so please help spread the word - it'll be released Fall of 2005.
