John and Rick Brewster, foremost songwriters and guitarists of legendary group The Angels, one of Australia’s most loved and respected bands are back on the road in March for selected shows with their band THE BREWSTER BROTHERS.

John and Rick produced The Angels classic multi-platinum albums. They have been inducted into both the ARIA Hall of Fame and the Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame. While continuing to perform with The Angels, the brothers decided to work on a break- away project. They were looking to develop new material shaped by their experiences; both as teenagers growing up in Adelaide and all those years together in and out of the spotlight riding the highs and lows playing in one Australia’s most successful bands.

They were searching for an elusive style that would reflect and embody Rick’s early classical piano playing and John’s young teenage years holed up in his bedroom engrossed with The Beatles, Dylan, The Band and the like. THE BREWSTER BROTHERS were born!

They set to work and produced a batch of finely crafted songs with majestic melodies and poetic images which seemed to point a finger to the endless highways and byways they’d traversed and lived on since those far-off Adelaide days - songs such as ‘Do It Again’, ‘Brothers Keeper’, ‘You and I’ and ‘Blue Blood’, which ultimately gave birth to their haunting and evocative first album ‘Shadows Fall’. It is a remarkable work that reflects the full scope of the Brewsters' musicianship and creative vision.

In 2007 the live album (Brewster Brothers In Concert at the Port Fairy Folk Festival) was recorded at the Port Fairy Festival, and late 2009 they released the new critically acclaimed studio album ‘Wounded Healer’.

The Brewsters continue to perform extensively throughout the country, both club-style concerts and festival appearances. They continue to pack out venues and receive standing ovations.

What the critics have said

Sam Fell Bigroom - 2009

It seems many players who spent their formative years in big name Australian bands are at a point in their careers now, being older and wiser, where the solo route or ‘smaller band’ route is now more preferable. There’s no better example on the Australian scene at the moment than the ex-Angels, Rick and John Brewster, who for the past few years, in between various Angels reunion tours (post-Neeson bust up, obviously), have been out there as the Brewster Brothers whose focus is more folk rock with a blues edge, certainly not in the sonic vein of their famous pub rock group.
Wounded Healer sees the brothers team up with long-time cohort, upright bass player, Paul Robert Burton, completing their second album as a trio, minus the harmonica virtuoso, Jim Conway, who appeared on the group’s, Live At Port Fairy record a couple of years ago. I was lucky enough to be in attendance at those Port Fairy gigs, and I can tell you, I found a new band to covet, the live recording being icing on the cake. Here then, studio style, the brothers have not let me down. This is a very mature release, as you’d expect from these particular musicians – there’s no balls to the wall attitude or wasted notes, this is, rock ‘n’ roll. For that’s what is essentially is, rock ‘n’ roll, just a bit slower and more refined, and if done well, as it is on Wounded Healer, than that’s a fine thing to be sure.
Now, one of the things I really liked about the Brothers when I first saw them, was their blues edge, courtesy of conway’s harmonica. This isn’t as prevalent here (although both John Brewster and Burton play some harmonica), but then, this is different in it’s own right. There’s some tasty guitar all throughout, particularly on Face The Day and the beautifully arranged In A Heartbeat. For lovers of finely matured music by finely matured musicians, than Wounded Healer is indeed for you.



Anothony O’Grady Sydney Morning Herald - 2007
“Last year the Brewster Brothers achieved visibility with the album ‘Shadows Fall’.....They toured, constructed a website and found an influential fan in the Sydney ABC radio announcer Richard Glover.” They accumulate a repertoire of original songs that exist in a parallel universe to the brooding menace of the Angels classics such as Take A Long Line or Mr Damage”.


Richard Glover ABC 702 Sydney - 2007
“I defy anyone to listen to the Brewster Brothers and not be transported somewhere special. They offer a musical trip to a very compelling place. They are always a huge hit with listeners when they come on our show and I’m always happy to help in any way.”

Michael Smith Drum Media - 2007
“Their debut album, Shadows Fall’ presents that more thoughtful, atmospheric side of the Brewsters’ musical sensibility”.

Steve Bell Time Off Magazine - 2007
‘Shadows Fall – a timeless and diverse music with an unabashed love of the form that few can match. The potency of John Brewster’s voice, an unearthed treasure that has been sadly underused for decades”.

Derek Guille ABC Melbourne - 2007
Every year someone at the Port Fairy Folk Festival has everyone talking. This year it was the Brewster Brothers, with a show packed with great songs, great playing, infectious rhythms and a vibe that filled every venue they performed in. Their CD ‘Shadows Fall’ has all those ingredients and showcases the remarkable talents of two of this country’s most enduring and endearing musicians.

Glenn A. Baker

"Equal to the joy of having The Angels recently reconstituted with their essential parts is the new creative lease-of-life on the part of the bedrock Brewsters, who have drawn upon decades of music-making to craft a compelling and downright charming sound. Wounded Healer is a warm mature album of rich texture that, once invited home, will not be shown the door. It visits all their stops along the way - from folk and jugband to a bluesy grind. This is for those who connected so strongly with the earthiness of Dylan's Time Out of Mind, who hear the years in later WIllie Nelson and who willingly accommodate the honesty of troubadors, vagabond minstrels, journeymen and other tale tellers. There are songs of earned reflection and sometimes, not a little wisdom."