Bacon Brothers Band

Provides A Stage For Kevin’s Other Talents

By John Voket

Talk about six degrees of Kevin Bacon!

Long before the Bacon Brothers ever formally decided to establish a working band and vehicle for (actor/director/producer) Kevin Bacon’s other talents (singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist), Michael Bacon was writing chords to the lyrics his little brother was cranking out, never really thinking they would build a career together.

Heck, Michael even taught Kevin how to play a few simple chords on a beat-up old six-string the older brother bestowed on his sibling so he could work out musical arrangements on his own time. Boy, did that pay off!

Today, The Bacon Brothers are so good as a band you might even catch yourself forgetting what a great job the lead singer and primary songwriter did in his many acting roles from Animal House to A Few Good Men, or even the pivotal role he played in the Barry Levinson drama Sleepers, which was filmed in part right here in Newtown. And those who are familiar with Michael Bacon’s award-winning film and television scores may wonder: is this guy just schlepping bar band tunes to support his little brother’s vanity project?

“We’ve been chipping away at that awareness, chipping away at the fact that most people think we’re gonna suck,” Kevin Bacon said during a phone interview this week, addressing the idea many people have that these guys are just playing at being musicians.

All it will take is a few minutes previewing a few songs on their MySpace website to prove the Bacon Brothers take this project very seriously, and that may be because it’s just so much fun performing really good music live. Established fans, and those who want to see for themselves what the Bacon Brothers are all about should snap up the few remaining seats to their upcoming Ridgefield Playhouse set which is happening on Saturday, April 6.

What most don’t realize is that these two are lifelong musicians, which is of course part of the reason why they’ve become so good at turning heads when they’re jamming together in concert. Although Kevin has drawn inspiration to his many roles, whether playing an average Joe, a villain or a hero, he admits that the biggest impressions are still made by musicians.

“All my heroes were guys with guitars,” Kevin said, remembering his teens. “All my spare change was spent on music. I saw my brother playing out, and moving an audience and I could see how powerful music could be. Around that time I took my first acting class and I fell in love with it, and my life took a different direction.”

Not only did Kevin remain interested in the way music moved him, but big brother Michael saw plenty of raw talent there as well.

“He just seemed to have a feel for it,” said Michael, who taught his brother the chords to “Hey Jude,” the first song Kevin learned on guitar. In addition to Michael, Kevin had inspiration from other areas: The father of his best childhood friend owned Philly’s Electric Factory Concerts, which led to a lucky pre-teen Kevin taking in concerts by the likes of Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin for free.

Ignoring their sizeable age difference, Michael casually began grooming his younger brother, writing chords for Kevin’s words and melodic ideas. The partnership began with a preteen, melancholy effort from Kevin on which he sang, “All the world looks lonely through lonely eyes.”

From those humble and clichéd beginnings developed a seasoned songwriter who admits he brings along a laptop, microphone and guitar pretty much every where he goes including movie locations. While Michael still plays a critical role contributing a lot of material himself, he said Kevin writes about 60 percent of the songs.

“In fact, he doesn’t need me to write with anymore,” Michael said. “Maybe a long time ago, he did, but he doesn’t need it anymore.”

In a chat with The Newtown Bee this week, Kevin and Michael Bacon talked as much about what they do so well together, as how hard they both work at crafting good music during periods when the Bacon Brothers are off the road.

Michael discussed his latest projects, scoring music for two PBS series. African American Lives 2 premiered nationwide in February, and the popular recurring series, The Jewish Americans, boasts music so well crafted that its soundtrack is among top-sellers on Amazon.com.

His nearly two dozen soundtrack efforts lean toward biographical films and documentaries like Abe and Mary Lincoln, Napoleon and The Rockefellers, although he has also contributed to lesser known commercial films including Brothers in Arms and Losing Chase.

“This is kind of my day job,” Michael said. “My little niche is television documentaries, which I’ve been doing for 20 years.

“I started as a singer-songwriter, but once I had a kid I changed gears a bit and started doing the scoring. I never expected to get back to being a singer/songwriter, and now I’m lucky to have both.”

The elder Bacon bother said he would love to hone the enviable ability to switch on and off the score versus band talents. But for now, when he sits down to write, what may come out at the other end is never predestined.

“Some people can sit down and write music, others can sit down to write a novel. The difficulty in songwriting is with the lyrics. When I sit down to do scoring, it’s strictly instrumental, but when you right a song you are delivering this entire thing,” he said. “It’s easy to write a song, but it’s hard to write a good song.”

Thanks to today’s highly portable technology, Kevin said it is much easier for him or for any member of the Bacon Brothers — which includes backing musicians Paul Guzzone, Frank Vilardi and Ira Siegel — to go into rehearsal with everything from bare-bones melodies to full-blown arrangements ready to rehearse.

That is making the Bacon Brothers next release a much more collaborative effort, which could end up producing their best original work to date.

“We’re kind of working away at it now,” Kevin said. “We’re not sure exactly where we are going with it, but the new project is distinctly different because we’re involving the other members of the band.”

Kevin said The Ridgefield Playhouse audience will be among the first to hear many of the nearly finished compositions that are sanctioned for the new album. The Brothers had a show in New York this week, on March 26, which was going to be a chance to play all of their new material.

“From there,” he said, “we’ll decide which of these new songs we’re going to take out on the road for this leg of the tour.”

For tickets to the Bacon Brothers and information about all the Ridgefield Playhouse concerts, visit RidgefieldPlayhouse.com. Information about the Bacon Brothers is available at BaconBros.com.