Beginning Brazos as a bedroom recording project, singer/songwriter Martin Crane released the EPs Feeding Frenzy and A City Just as Tall before recruiting a three-piece band to play live around Austin. With guitarist Nathan Stein, bassist Paul Price, and drummer Andy Beaudoin, Brazos received a warm response for their crunchy rock take on folk, and went on to play a series of local shows in 2008. The band's trajectory picked up steam with the self-released 2009 full-length Phosphorescent Blues, for which the band gigged regularly, opening for Grizzly Bear, Vampire Weekend, the National, and Iron & Wine. Following the tour, Crane moved to Brooklyn and signed with Dead Oceans. For the next two years, he went into hiding in his apartment, writing several albums' worth of new material before enlisting bassist Spencer Zahn and drummer Ian Chang to back him up for 2013's Saltwater. ~ Jason Lymangrover