Beggars Belief

The Brains Behind Pa
13 songs • 75 minutes • Released 03.25
All songs written by Bill Price ©2025 Mr. Quill Music (BMI)

Song Samples

About the Album

With thirteen original songs, Beggars Belief is the first release from The Brains Behind Pa since 2006. The record is the result of what the band is calling The Pony Expressions Recording Sessions, which began in April 2019. They worked with engineer and co-producer Tyler Watkins at Postal Recording in Indianapolis. Having been so long since their last record, the band was itching to record again. No sooner had they started, than there was a big delay due to the COVID pandemic. But eventually the sessions resumed and the band got into a productive flow, recording nearly 40 songs. The remaining songs will be released on two successive albums.

The songs on Beggars Belief look at the breakdown of morality, basic decency and truth. Bill Price, who wrote the songs for the album explains, “In terms of lyrics, this album is pretty cynical. It’s a reflection of the ‘ugliness of man,’ as I like to call it.” While the album’s mood is dark in places, it’s not without humor. Price says the next two albums will be more uplifting and hopeful.

A variety of musical styles were explored. “We’d record a few songs and then I’d wonder how this band would sound taking on this other song,” Price says. “So we’d give that a go. It was a lot of fun trying out different styles.”

The record falls roughly into the Americana and Indie Rock genres. There are minor-key songs with solid and “greasy grooves” (as the band likes to call them) alongside jangling folk-rock and rockabilly-tinged tracks. Despite the variety of styles explored during the sessions, much of this first album has a dark, rich, atmospheric sound. Price says the sound is the result of Watkins’ vision. “I think he really nailed the mood of these songs in his mixes,” Price says. Several piano link pieces appear throughout the album, including one at the very beginning. Price explains, “I had some fly-on-the-wall video of Garry warming up on the piano. He was just improvising and playing these short, random pieces that I thought were really cool.” Watkins treated them like old timey recordings and inserted them into various places in the record. “The idea was to help unify the album. They’re loose and playful and they also offset the cynical mood of the record a bit. Lets the listener know we aren’t taking ourselves too seriously,” Price says.

Price believes Garry Bole’s unique playing style on keyboards, Gordon Bonham’s feel and tone as a guitar player, and Price’s approach to songwriting define ‘The Brains’ sound. “We try to leave room for those elements to shine,” Price says. “Consequently, there are a lot of solos on this record.”

Bole, Bonham and Price along with Jeff Stone on bass formed the core band for the sessions. Several different drummers contributed as well as a few additional players to add further variety to the sound. The band also worked with some Black gospel background singers on a few songs. “That was amazing,” Price says. “I can’t wait for people to hear it.”

Tracklist

1. Strike the Rock
2. Heart of the Howl #1
3. Tangerine Guillotine
4. Blue Riders Approaching
5. Whistling Liars
6. Poor Eyes
7. Apples to Oranges
8. Most Men
9. Maybe, Maybe Not
10. Red, White & A Little Bit of Blue
11. Beggars Belief
12. Strong, Silent and Sad
13. The Wooden Horseman

About the Sessions

While the circumstances surrounding the recording of Beggars Belief have a small degree of drama to them—obstacles that many bands face—the more intriguing aspect is perhaps the vague and undefined artistic direction what resulted from that lack of specific direction. Bill Price, who wrote the material for the album suggests the original idea was to have a quasi-spiritual theme to the songs, somewhat cynical and judgemental about the current lack of decency, honesty and basic morality in the world. “It wasn’t so much about any religious ideas, but about being truthful, honest and kind,” Price says. “But much of the material slated to be recorded addresses these issues in a finger-pointing way. So there was a little bit of the Old Testament prophecy bent to it. A kind of ‘time to shape up, folks’ attitude.

The problem was, there were many songs that didn’t fit that theme and wouldn’t have sat comfortably along side the cynical material. “I just couldn’t really decide what to do about that. We had most of what we needed for a rather dark, cynical record, but I would think, yeah, but I want to record this other song too. The band would sound great playing this. But it just wouldn’t work well on the album,” Price says.

What to do? The solution became procrastination. “We decided not to decide and just plowed ahead, recording whatever songs I brought in,” Price recalls. “I thought, maybe something would eventually reveal itself somewhere along the way. And in time, it did.”

Initially there was a delay due to the COVID pandemic. But after that, the band got into a really productive flow and just kept recording. Price remembers, “It was exciting to bring in a song and think, ‘I wonder how this band will treat this song.’ We tried a lot of different styles—within our own limitations, of course.”

Eventually, the band had nearly 40 songs committed to tape. It had been five years since the sessions started. There were enough tracks for three, full-length albums. And sure enough, they fell into three fairly distinct themes. The first album, Beggars Belief, ended up keeping it’s somewhat dark and cynical mood, although not without some humor here and there. The next two albums’ themes are not being discussed, but Price says that while there is some overlap in all three records, the next two will be more positive and less cynical.

While trying to determine how all this material would be released, Price said it was hard not to think of all of the songs as one project. That’s why we came up with The Pony Expressions Recording Sessions moniker. “It’s not like we recorded the songs in order,” he says. “And there are a few songs that could’ve been on any of the three albums, so we actually did different versions of them. So in my mind, although the records are certainly individual releases, they are part of one long experience.”

Where did the title come from, you may ask? Price says the Pony Expressions idea was a nod to several things. First, the recording studio is in an old post office building. Second, the Pony Express was a slow, drawn out process to deliver a package. And third, there are references to horses in several of the songs. “I have no idea why there are that many horse references in my songs,” Price laughs, “but they just are.”

Price says the moniker also keeps things from being too serious. “It’s really kind of a cheesy thing, but it does help unite the three records as three parts of a larger whole.”

About the Packaging

While The Pony Expressions Recording Sessions name and logo help to reinforce the “three parts of a larger whole” concept, other graphic treatments do so as well. Each album in CD format will have a slip case. Each one with making up a third of a larger image. If you have all three, they will fit together like a puzzle—the fronts as well as the backs.

The Brains Behind Pa have also begun releasing a series of short, behind-the-scenes video clips they called Snippets that document the recording process. Many of those images are used in the albums’ packaging. “We shot so much video, that I couldn’t get those visuals out of my mind when thinking about these albums. It’s yet another reason that the sessions themselves became such an dominant part of the project,” Price explains.

Postal Recording has an interesting floor that became a strong visual element as well. The floor was saved from an old gymnasium and reassemble there. Although the foul lines and other markings are still intact, none of them line up. So there’s a randomness to it that Price found visually interesting. “That is a fascinating floor. The old yellow gold hue of the wood with the black and bright red shapes is like some kind of art piece. It’s like a cousin to a Piet Mondrian painting or something. So, yeah, it’s part of the packaging as well.”

Price says several aspects in that studio were chosen for interesting artistic reasons, such as the color of the walls. “I remember Tyler telling me that the color scheme of each room was based upon a particular movie. How cool is that? I love that kind of thinking.”

Credits

Produced by The Brains Behind Pa and Tyler Watkins
Recorded mixed and mastered at Postal Recording by Tyler Watkins

Garry Bole: Piano, Hammond Organ, Electric Piano, Farfisa Organ, Accordion, Clavinet, Mellotron, Vibraphone, Dobro
Gordon Bonham: Electric and Acoustic Lead Guitar, 12-string Electric Guitar, Vocals, Harmony Vocals, Banjo
Bill Price: Electric and Acoustic Guitar, Vocals, Pump Organ, Cittern
Jeff Stone: Bass, Fretless Bass, Upright Bass

Devon Ashley: Drums
Johnny Concannon: Drums, Percussion
Chris Fry: Drums
Colin Oakley: Drums

Alex Kercheval: Bass
Chase Cotten: Muted Trumpet
Gearl Stephens: Tuba
Joe Weddle: Trombone

Rodnie Bryant: Background Vocal Arrangement/Direction
Issac Dickey: Background Vocals
Shayla Ervim: Background Vocals
Karen Hoskins: Background Vocals
Fetima Knox: Background Vocals
Randy Nunn Jr.: Background Vocals
Lela Springfield: Background Vocals

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