Phil Brey 1934 - 2024
Thank you for visiting our website!
Unfortunately, it is with great sadness that I announce the passing of my father, Phil Brey. Dad passed away peacefully, in a Lincoln hospital, in the presence of my dear mother, brother and myself, four days after his ninetieth birthday. He was an awesome father, devoted husband and wonderful friend, and will be sorely missed by the many who knew him.
Some of you already know that he and I started a music studio to record his many compositions. He wrote all of the songs we released to date, including the perennial favorite Roll on Big Boy. He also provided crucial input on our music and video productions.
With his passing, I am struggling to carry on in many ways, including musically. The loss of his presence in the world, including his songwriting acumen, leaves a void that will be difficult to fill. He did leave some lyrics and unfinished songs behind, so I will try to complete these and bring them to full production. Having grown to love music production, I plan to continue this avocation, emphasizing songs about locomotives and other railroad fare. I hope to continue the music journey my father and I began so many years ago. I even believe he'll be sending down some inspiration and ideas from heaven, which I'll greatly need!
On behalf of my dad and I, we thank you for your generous support of our music.
Roll on!
Mark Brey
Who Is Nebraska 66?
We are Phil and Mark Brey, (pronounced BRYE), a father and son music duo. We are recording and releasing Phil's lifetime work of musical compositions to make them accessible to family, friends, and the wider public.
Recorded and mixed by Mark in his recording studio, we strive to render Phil's songs into highly listenable recordings, steadfast to traditional Country and Americana music roots while also being attentive to rock, blues, folk and other influences. We believe this approach has produced our own special sound, refreshing in its originality.
For some years, we performed in various venues ranging from biker bars and other clubs to more sedate senior centers and church services. Time and distance prevent us from playing together now, but as is often the case, when one door closes another opens. Thanks for journeying through this new door with us to travel down the open musical highway ahead!
Phil Brey - composer, singer and multi instrumentalist
Phil Brey always had a knack for dreaming up witty lyrics and setting them to his own catchy melodies. Over time, he assembled a rather impressive catalog of well-crafted works covering an array of subjects. These range from such standard fare as soured romances, homesickness, and the lure of the open road to other topics including prairie windmills, backpacking, and steam locomotives, to name just a few.
However, his songs, although holding great potential, languished in obscure desk drawers on yellowed notebooks, never to be heard in a modern recording studio or on a streaming platform. His songs seemed fated to exist solely as cryptic notes on timeworn paper, ultimately to disappear into the past.
Fortunately, aware of this rich motherlode of original compositions, Phil and his son Mark resolved to preserve his songs for family and friends and to make them more widely available to others who had not yet been privileged to hear them. It was also a lifelong dream to market the songs to possibly achieve some measure of commercial success.
Phil Brey by the Union Pacific caboose in Valparaiso in 2019
Early Influences
The small town of Raymond, Nebraska was fertile ground for a budding songwriter, providing many colorful and adventure-filled experiences that later manifested themselves in Phil’s songs. Living with the fields, woods and sloughs of Oak Creek Valley just beyond his front door, he experienced no shortage of boyhood adventures from which to draw upon in composing his songs. And all this before he even started hoboing on freight trains!
Music-wise, he had piano and trumpet lessons as a boy but was drawn to guitar at age 13 along with singing. He soon was playing in local taverns, one room school houses and other spots in the Raymond locale. After graduating from high school, he played in several jazz combos while holding various day jobs including bridge construction work and building freight cars for the Chicago Burlington and Quincy railroad.
For a time, he was a real life hobo, hopping freight trains that took him west to San Francisco after a stint working at a hotel in the Colorado Rockies.
Later, he served in the army in Germany, where he met his wife Anna. Returning to the states, he resumed playing in various combos while learning a printer’s trade. In 1969, he and the family moved to Washington D.C. where he worked at the Government Printing Office until his retirement in 1993. He and Anna then returned to Nebraska where they now live in Lincoln.
Phil Brey during his hobo days riding atop a boxcar crossing Great Salt Lake en route to San Francisco
Mark Brey - guitarist and producer
