Nashville songwriter Darrin Bradbury and the Milk Carton Kids’ Kenneth Pattengale have found rich musical partners in one another. Bradbury brought Pattengale on board to produce his second album — the as-yet unannounced follow-up to his 2016 release Elmwood Park: A Slightly Melodic Audiobook — which the pair recently completed at Nashville’s Trace Horse Studios.
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Over the course of their time together, the two musicians also took the time to film an intimate performance of Bradbury’s Elmwood Park track “The Almost Great Lakes.” The pair’s live performance hews closely to the recorded original, with delicate acoustic guitar from Pattengale taking the place of swelling strings.
“I wrote this tune while touring the Upper Midwest a few years back,” Bradbury says. “Those folks have a profound appreciation for their lakes. This is a tune about lakes that didn’t quite make the cut. The video also serves as one of several thinly veiled attempts I’ve made to secretly audition for the Milk Carton Kids. Though they’re not currently looking to expand their musical duoship I figure it’d be wise to keep sneaking a resume under their door. Fingers crossed.”
Watch Bradbury and Pattengale perform “The Almost Great Lakes” below.
