ALBUM REVIEW: Ethan Samuel Brown Paints Gorgeous Character Portraits on ‘Small Actors’
Rachel Cholst
Posted On January 9, 2025
Ethan Samuel Brown paints gorgeous character portraits on his stunning sophomore album Small Actors. Brown, based in Nashville, has played quite a few supporting roles in the ten years since his solo debut, The Outset Lament. He’s worked as a concert promoter, talent buyer, audio engineer, and his latest gig is as stage manager for Wynona Judd. Now, Brown has returned to the microphone to take stock of his time in this ten-year town. Small Actors democratizes performance spaces by giving each supporting player their own spotlight; this is an album that rewards repeat listens.
Brown reflects our collective diversity by moving fluidly between styles. “Rothko” is a commentary on the art world: why do some people value certain forms of art over others? Can a series of abstract shapes truly move one in the same way as a political act? The song takes on the shimmery, synthetic glam rock of the ‘70s to carry us through a series of impressions, asking us to take what we need out of the song.
“Nickel and Dimed” by contrast, is a languid country song that invites us to lose ourselves in our thoughts along with the narrator. The drums tick by like an odometer as the narrator muses on where things went wrong – with his own life, and with the longer highway of American history. These ills don’t need to be accepted with quiet resignation: “Am I American?” is an electrifying rocker that skewers those who define their patriotism with anger, hatred, and the exclusion of others.
Brown winds down Small Actors with intimate scenes. “Big Chief Boudreaux” is a crooner of lost good times, made all the more precious as they fade from memory. “When I Found You” is a gentle folk rocker that feels a bit deeper than a love song: it’s also about gratitude for the world, as much as domestic bliss. Contrast that track with “Being Blue,” a series of vignettes of the frustrated aspirations collected in a Nashville bar, and we find that Brown is a consummate storyteller and artist. Small Actors shines a light on the beauty and pain we all contain, and Brown gives that duality dignity. After all, as the saying goes, there are no small parts.
Ethan Samuel Brown’s Small Actors is out Jan. 10
