Musical Mastermind Brent Maher Releases “Night Of The Orphan Train – A Musical Novel”

Award winning producer and songwriter, Brent Mahar, chose November to release Night Of The Orphan Train – A Musical Novel, an audiobook with 21 songs to back it up, as it’s National Orphans Awareness Month. The project is something Nashville’s Brent Mahar took seriously after visiting the National Orphan Train Complex, in Concordia, Kansas.  Distributed by ONE Audiobooks, via Moraine Music Group, and features 21 tracks well placed around the story told by Mahar, with 3 fictional children leading the depiction with a fascinating delivery that takes digging into but once you do, you’re sold on every aspect of the release.  

After delving into Night Of The Orphan Train, I was drawn to another listen to get the story down and flow with it and the music that perfectly surrounds it. After all, the Nashville artist has seven Grammy awarded albums to his name, so the quality of this project poses no question, and the story is told in his own words like a dedication to the 250,000 orphans it’s originally about. The project showcases a few tracks released in video format and directed by Roger Pistole, with The French Family Band, Trey Hensley, Tammy and Marc Rogers, along with Brooke Spencer and Sarah Hollbrook.

The first of the three videos “The Have and Have Nots” comes from The French Family Band, which Mahar connected with through Joe Robinson, one of the featured artists involved, along with Seth Hopkins. This song is a lovely ditty that pertains to being orphan’s vs not, as the title completely gives away if you’re onto the entire concept of this complex but narratively and musically comprehensive project. The children in the video absolutely fit the script and help to tell the story and bring it out of Mahar’s visual and musical mind, and it’s a beautiful tune.

Night Of The Orphan Train – A Musical Novel, continues with “Orphan Train,” also released on video, with Trey Hensley (guitar, vocals), Rob Ickes (Hawaiian guitar, vocals), Tammy Rogers (fiddle, vocals), with Marc Rogers (upright bass). This is another fine part of the story, sung by these utmost professional bluegrass musicians of the world class order. The vocals are the star of the song, involving everyone above, up front of a musically folksy backing track with a soothing finish, and it holds up to every standard Mahar requires. The direction of Roger Pistole comes most in handy for these videos.

As the audiobook wears on, the 21 songs keep it as interesting as the story itself, and it’s really a thing you must dive into to and get fully on board to get lost in the concept of, which is easy, especially if you’re an audiobook consumer, and it helps to know of Mahar’s previous works, but it stand on its own two feet either way. The third video is for the track “I Will Hold You In My Heart” with Brooke Spencer and Sarah Hollbrook, and it’s equally good as the previous two tracks/videos, as they all come out top class, and get top marks.

Nicole Killian