Meet the Band: David Brooks — Banjo, Bucket-List Moments, and the Heart of a Storyteller

If you’ve ever heard Bourbon Legend live, you know the banjo isn’t just an instrument in the mix, it’s a voice. Bright and rhythmic one moment, warm and grounding the next. And the musician behind that unmistakable tone is David Brooks, whose journey to the banjo is as genuine and unexpectedly winding as the melodies he plays.

How the Banjo Found Him

David’s love for the banjo didn’t begin in a bluegrass hall or on a front porch , it started in a movie theater. The soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?  was an instant hook. Something about the twang felt different from the Limp Bizkit, Korn, and MTV-era music he was listening to at the time. It cut through everything else with its own personality, raw, honest, and oddly comforting.

That spark led him to pick up a banjo in college. For years it was more of a quirky decoration than a creative outlet. But when he and his wife bought their home in 2013, something shifted. His neighbor played guitar, so the two started jamming on the porch and in the living room, trading chords and stories. David eventually remembered that old banjo collecting dust indoors.

“Let me see what I can figure out,” he said. And he meant it. The moment he started picking, the instrument seemed to wake up, and so did a part of him he didn’t realize had been waiting for that sound. That was the moment the banjo stopped being an ornament and started becoming part of his identity.

A Night When Everything Clicked

David talks about live music the way some people talk about their favorite memories: vividly, passionately, and with deep gratitude. There’s one moment, though, that sits above the rest, his 41st birthday show at Park Street Tavern.

The room was overflowing with people from every chapter of his life. Childhood friends, college buddies from across the country, coworkers, friends-of-friends, and relatives who made a surprise drive from Michigan. Nothing about that night was small.

During the jam in “Mountain Annie” by Fruition , one of David's favorite bands, he looked up and saw the room moving as one, smiling, laughing, and singing along. It was a moment where time seemed to slow down just enough for him to feel it fully.

“Playing one of my favorite songs, by one of my favorite bands, with all of my favorite people in the room, that was a bucket-list night,” he says. “I’d always dreamed of playing on stage in front of everyone I know.”

It wasn’t just a show. It was a milestone, the kind of moment where all the threads of his musical story came together under one roof.

The Influences Behind His Sound

David’s early playlists were an unpredictable shuffle, Vanessa Carlton into Snoop Dogg into Korn without batting an eye. But the true turning point came when he discovered the Duck Creek Log Jam music festival. Tucked away in the Hocking Hills of Ohio, Duck Creek became part of his musical DNA.

Floating near the Cabin Stage during the day, getting swept into the energy of Pine Grove at night, stumbling upon new bands he’d never heard before, each festival rewrote his internal playlist. It’s where he met the sounds that now shape his banjo style: Fruition, Caamp, Greensky Bluegrass, Billy Strings, Tyler Childers, many had passed through that event.

Those shows proved to be powerful influences that developed David's sound. His style is a blend of structure and instinct, part festival fire, part porch pickin’, part musical wanderer.

Bringing Energy — and Sunglasses — to the Stage

David is sharp, focused, and deeply committed to making each show sound great. He gets a kick out of recognizing returning faces in the crowd, people who may not know him personally but keep coming back because something about Bourbon Legend resonates with them.

Among the band, there’s a running joke: "faster is better". If a song works at one tempo, David is always curious to see if it works a little better with just a touch more drive. That instinct gives Bourbon Legend moments of lift, little jolts of energy that get feet moving and heads bobbing.

But early on, people had one recurring piece of feedback for him: “You guys sound great, but are you having fun?” He was. He just wasn’t showing it.

As a naturally focused performer, David realized he needed a way to loosen up, and that’s how the sunglasses became a thing. They give him a little buffer, a sense of ease, and a way to get lost in the music without worrying about expression or eye contact. And yes, they look pretty cool, too.

Life Beyond the Five Strings

You could say David is a maker. When he’s not playing banjo, he’s usually building, tinkering, designing, or discovering something new.

By day, he’s a Middle School Special Education teacher, bringing the same patience and curiosity he has in music to his classroom. He’s a woodworker who earned a 3rd-place ribbon at the 2024 Ohio State Fair, a testament to the skill, precision, and creativity he puts into everything he crafts.

Then there's the camper van, Ruby, a full DIY project that he tore apart and rebuilt into a comfortable home-on-wheels. He and his wife have taken it across the country as they work toward visiting all 50 state capitol buildings. They’ve already crossed off 39.

And when he’s not building furniture or driving cross-country, David is experimenting with tie-dye, creating one-of-a-kind shirts and even the Bourbon Legend banner you’ll sometimes see hanging behind the band.

Everything he does, whether it’s teaching, woodworking, traveling, or tie-dying, has the same thread running through it: he’s always learning, always creating, always exploring.

David’s banjo adds color, character, and energy to Bourbon Legend, but it’s his curiosity, quiet determination, and creative spirit that help define who he is in the band. He’s a craftsman in every sense of the word, and the music is better because of it.