Other Brother Darryl channel a sense of love and longing with ‘Gypsy Girl’
The Boston cosmic canyon rock band’s vocal harmonies shine bright on a stirring and nostalgic new single out Friday, February 9
Other Brother Darryl’s debut album ‘Roll Shine Roll’ due out later this year
Listen to Other Brother Darryl on Spotify + Watch their videos on YouTube
BOSTON, MA [February 9, 2024] – At one point or another, we’ve all had a “Gypsy Girl” dance into our lives and leave an indelible mark. And often, the mystery that follows in the dizzy aftermath is as potent as the unknown that led her to us in the first place. For Other Brother Darryl, the brush with this mystical and peculiar character is at the tender heartbeat of the Boston cosmic canyon rock band’s captivating new single, out Friday, February 9.
A soothing ballad for the gray days and cold nights of a Boston winter, “Gypsy Girl” is the third official single from Other Brother Darryl, an ever-expanding collective led by music scene veterans Dan Nicklin, Nate Leavitt, and Dan Cederholm. It’s a special song for the Americana and alt-country project, both in stature and spirituality, as it contains the vocals of late bandmate, co-writer, and close personal friend David Mirabella, the Boston Music Award-nominated musician who passed away unexpectedly in the spring of 2022.
“Gypsy Girl” follows Other Brother Darryl’s debut single “Until I Do” and last fall’s “Drive.” But where those songs were about a lost love or friendship and the urging to hold your loved ones close, respectively, “Gypsy Girl,” with its gorgeous three-part harmonies and B3 organ illumination, is a song about longing. It retains the collective’s ability to craft tender, haunting compositions that hang free in the gentle air it breathes, and supplies another captivating chapter, through song, of Other Brother Darryl’s forthcoming debut album, Roll Shine Roll, set for release later this year.
“‘Gypsy Girl’ is a nostalgic and regretful love story about losing someone you could never really have,” says Leavitt. “Fooling yourself into thinking you could be the one to change her or settle her down. The fascination of being someone we aren’t through someone else. Making promises to her in vain after she’s gone, wishing she would come back home knowing she won’t.”
The identity of this “Gypsy Girl” remains a secret, both by design and by human nature; the sweeping atmosphere that swirls around the track and cradles a heartfelt memory of something lost only adds to the intrigue.
“I would love to tell who it is, but I can’t,” admits Nicklin. “Even if we change the names the person would know. So if you think it’s about you – you are probably right.” Leavitt, however, paints a more nebulous tone: “I actually don’t know who she is but I love singing about her. She’s both familiar and mysterious to me.”
Leavitt says while lyrically, “Gypsy Girl” is about a person with a free soul, musically the song exists in a world not too far from “Gypsy” by Fleetwood Mac. And he and the band are clear that they are not using the term in a derogatory way, acknowledging that the word ‘Gypsy’ does have a negative meaning. But in this context, it is used in a most reverent way, and echoes the free spirited nature of the song itself. It was co-written by Mirabella, Leavitt, Nicklin, and Cederholm; produced by Other Brother Darryl at Henley Row in Stoneham, MA; recorded and mixed by Nicklin at Henley Row; and mastered by Brian Charles.
“The idea was for a big harmony song – one that had the three parts right from the jump,” says Nicklin. “So like with all good Other Brother Darryl songs, it came together in one sitting. Thematically all the tunes are written as if it’s 1968 to 1978, so when we needed a hook ‘Gypsy’ just appeared. I recall a question of ‘Are we gonna go all the way there?’ It was greeted with a big laugh and a yes.”
A personal favorite of Mirabella’s as well as the band, “Gypsy Girl” features the vocals of the late musician, who sings passionately about promises in the track’s heartfelt and yearning bridge and maintains a presence in everything Other Brother Darryl does. On “Drive,” we could hear his count-in to the song; but on “Gypsy Girl,” Mirabella’s voice stands out.
“Dave really nailed the sentiment and longing of the lyric, especially in the promise to be a better man and/or partner,” admits Nicklin. Adds Leavitt: “One of the hardest things we had to do after Dave passed was go back and take inventory of the recordings. On our listen through of ‘Gypsy Girl’ it was the first time I cried after he died. It’s unofficially my favorite Other Brother Darryl tune and there are many moments in this song I love.”
Other Brother Darryl, its name taken from a Newhart reference, was first conceptualized more than a decade ago at long-lost Somerville venue Radio, with its members bonding over The Jayhawks, Wilco, and the various projects each had been a part of over the many years spent in the trenches of a local music scene. But time was on their side, and after loose exchanges of ideas it would be seven years before the group began writing music together, crafting the harmony-driven, Americana-leaning sound that their spectral surroundings and sharp songwriting acumen were destined to produce.
Then Covid hit, and the world stood still. And in April 2022, the band’s world collapsed: Mirabella died, leaving an empty space within Other Brother Darryl both as musicians and friends. Suddenly, time, once a casual asset, became anything but, and a common refrain of telling friends and family how much we care for them became an important one.
Ahead of performing live at New York City’s Underwater Sunshine Festival, the band in late ‘22 released debut single “Until I Do,” a tender indie-folk ballad about losing someone special. The song took on an enhanced feeling in the wake of Mirabella’s passing, and so did “Drive,” a weathered road-trip earworm the band unveiled last fall. “Gypsy Girl” is similarly buoyed by Other Brother Darryl’s layered vocal harmonies, spacious alt-country storytelling, heartfelt chemistry amongst its collaborators, with each members’ vocal contribution driving the song as a crystalline B3 Organ fills its open spaces with a heavenly calling.
“Looking back through old demos, we wrote the song on July 29, 2019,” admits Leavitt. “It was another one of those ‘write a song in a night’ tunes we came up with at our weekly get together. Like most songs that came out of those sessions, Dave or I would be noodling and Dan would say, ‘What’s that?’ In a matter of moments we’d be off to the races composing music and lyrics. By the end of the night we’d leave with another song. I remember when the words ‘Gypsy Girl’ started becoming the chorus. It immediately dropped the song into the ‘70s, reminiscent of ‘Brandy’ by Looking Glass or ‘Diamond Girl’ by Seals and Crofts. We all had a laugh at first but decided to go all-in, being huge fans of those songwriters.”
“Gypsy Girl” was first recorded virtually in the fall of 2020, and remained an important part of the band’s catalog both before and after Mirabella left us.
“Having some of Dave’s parts recorded would turn out to be more significant than we could ever imagine in light of his passing,” Leavitt says. “Dan and I actually re-recorded our vocals after Dave passed. Singing along with Dave again, creating those three-part harmonies, was the catharsis Dan and I needed. As a songwriter, especially when collaborating, feeling like you’re writing for someone or something outside of yourself is liberating. Other Brother Darryl is a concept much bigger than any of us as individuals. Especially so with the passing of Dave as now it’s a way that we can keep him alive.”
And Leavitt admits this track, in particular, has a certain heaviness to it, underneath its gentle Americana glide. And like most, if not all, Other Brother Darryl compositions, there are additional layers of nostalgia and longing tucked neatly underneath the song’s sympathetic surface.
“In a way we’re still figuring out how to keep going without Dave,” Leavitt concludes. “Without a doubt we’re going to be a band and release the music we wrote and recorded with him. Every day those decisions become easier and a lot less time is spent second guessing them. Musically it felt right for this time of year during that long stretch of winter that makes you long for spring.”
Other Brother Darryl is:
Dan Nicklin: Vocals and percussion
Nate Leavitt: Guitars and vocals
Dave Mirabella: Guitars and vocals
Dan Cederholm: Drums
Jim Collins: Bass and vocals
Derek Feeney: Guitar
Dave Lieb: Keyboards
Chad Raleigh: Multi-Instrumentalist
And those who contributed to ‘Gypsy Girl’ (and are also sometimes in the band)...
Ed Valauskas: Bass
Matt Odabashian: B3 Organ and melodica
‘Gypsy Girl’ production credits:
Written by Mirabella - Leavitt - Nicklin - Cederholm
Produced by Other Brother Darryl at Henley Row in Stoneham, MA
Recorded and mixed by Dan Nicklin at Henley Row in Stoneham, MA
Mastered by Brian Charles
Cover logo by Dan Cederholm
Cover photo by Dan Nicklin
Other Brother Darryl short bio:
Other Brother Darryl are a Boston-based alt-country supergroup made up of singer-songwriters Dan Nicklin, Nate Leavitt, Dave Mirabella and Dan Cederholm. First coming together over a love of big folk harmonies, the cosmic canyon rock sound of The Jayhawks and Wilco, and the television series Newhart, the seeds of Other Brother Darryl were first conceptualized back in 2012 at the defunct Somerville rock club Radio, where each member would perform frequently with their respective projects. An endless string of conversations, local Boston rock shows, and beers would line the next several years, and in 2019, Other Brother Darryl would make good on a promise to each other to bring their collective creative vision to life and write and record the album they were always meant to. In November 2022, Other Brother Darryl released debut single, “Until I Do,” b/w “The Ballad of Joni & Graham,” the same night they would perform live at Underwater Sunshine Fest in New York City. New single “Drive” arrived a year later, followed by February 2024’s “Gypsy Girl”; debut record Roll Shine Roll, recorded at Nicklin’s Henley Row Studios, is set for release later this year. It is dedicated to fallen bandmate and close friend Dave Mirabella, who passed away suddenly in April 2022.
Media praise for Other Brother Darryl:
The music of Other Brother Darryl can be heard on Almost Famous 95.5 WATD, Americana UK, Banks Radio Australia, Bay State Rock, Bill Frater’s Americana Boogie, Blood Makes Noise, Boston Emissions, BumbleBee Radio, Christian’s Cosmic Corner on Mark Skin Radio, Click Roll Boom, Everything You Know Is Wrong on Salem State Radio, Good Music UK, Hump Day News, If It’s Too Loud, JammerZine, Moosic Entertainment, Music Mafia Radio, On The Town with Mikey Dee on WMFO, PipiloPop, The Whole Kameese, Twangville, UncertainFM, WoNoBlog, and other fine stations, shows, and platforms…
“The sound, anchored by acoustic guitars but with electric guitar and organ weaving their way across the song, recalls the Jayhawks in their prime. More to the point, it is a moving tribute to one of Boston’s lost musical lights.” _Twangville on ‘Drive’
“Boston alt-country and Americana band Other Brother Darryl make music in that tight harmonies, melody rich, cosmic-tinged corner of Americana. ‘Until I Do’ is a tale of a parting of the ways – a ‘you go your way and I’ll go mine’ moment, with the pledge to never think of or cross paths with the other again. It’s a bittersweet moment for Other Brother Darryl, as the song was released a few months after the unexpected passing of co-founding member Dave Mirabella, which gives the song an added poignancy.” _Americana UK
“[Other Brother Darryl] rolled in six deep for an alt-country vibe. Glistening vocal harmonies, a sweet electric organ and melodies for miles on the acoustic and electric guitars. The band has studied the songbooks of Neil Young, Tom Petty, the Grateful Dead.” _Cambridge Day
And now it’s time for some nice good old fashioned country rock. …Fans of the genre will recognise everything from the Eagles to CSN(&Y) in ‘Drive’. The laidback rhythm almost conceals a great song that has that slow rock in it. Another description is a tougher version of the beautiful ballad by The Connells, ‘74/75’. Acoustic guitars playing around each other, strumming, some lead notes sprinkled in between. A warm Hammond adds to the fun already enjoyed. Next, the vocals set in with some great harmonizing in a style that moves between the two already mentioned examples. The singers in Brother Darryl know the power and joy of singing together.” _WoNoBlog
“...you can hear such a genuine, heartfelt musical collaboration coming at you through your speakers. The overall recording is so honest and without big production, it just feels like you are sitting in the room with the band performing. Really nice stuff.” _Blood Makes Noise
“The musical description of ‘cosmic canyon rock’ might not make sense until you hear the latest single from Other Brother Darryl, and then it makes perfect sense. …This is the kind of song that would have made Gram Parsons proud. It has that timeless quality that is soaked in 70's AM radio sweetness but is far too country to be a rock song, or even a soft rock song. But ‘Until I Do’ doesn't sound like a throwback song. It has elements of the classics from the 70's, but it's a modern song. If you've ever loved anything considered alt-country, this one is for you.” _If It’s Too Loud
“Whoah, deepcut Newhart reference. You don’t get that every day in 2022. Other Brother Daryl picks up the thread of new Americana that bands like Wilco have returned to respectability in the new millennium. A strong acoustic progression, a banjo on a walk, and multi-layered harmonies. Comfort food musical textures, mixed with a little melancholy.” _Hump Day News
