As of this morning, the first three tracks are live:

1.) Perception The Creator

2.) Deceleration From Stasis

3.) The Extraction

Please feel free to take a listen! I really want to turn this into a live stage production with choreographed dance and, obviously, live musicians, but I need musicians, production help, and especially some financial assistance.

For about 2 years, I have had this “opus” album idea that would combine all my favorite musical points (mostly instrumentation) into a single genre.  I have wanted to do overdriven electric lead guitar paired with banjo for a long time, so that was the start, then I decided I needed to throw in marching band drums, slap bass, a french horn trio, an ocarina (which is just a flute for compositional purposes), and a reedy woodwind (in this case, the clarinet).  The finally requirement was that all songs would have 5-beat phrasing.

The idea finally solidified as a 7-track instrumental album that chronicles the evolution of the universe through this new genre that I titled “Baz Hennessy.”  About a year and a half ago, I discovered the Sibelius music composition software, and got underway.

The first track I wrote, “An Unexpected Rebuttal,” sat by itself for about 9 months, then over Christmas 2010 I finally got to work on “The Extraction,” and the last 5 tracks came about in the 4th week of January 2011.

As hard as it was, I sat on the compositions for a month — without even listening, then mixed down the midis as close as I could to get an ALMOST live sound.

I’m very pleased with the results, so please go check out the the lo-fi samples I’ve put on my website.  The album is called “The Awakening of Baz Hennessy.”

The next stage is to find an ambitious musical entrepreneur to finance the live recording and possibly performance of these compositions.  During that process, I want to add some tribal rhythms to the current blend of instrumentation.  I am shooting for doing all this by Fall of 2012.

If you happen across this blog, have listened to the samples, and are interested or know someone who might be interested, please contact me and we can arrange a full demonstration of the current recordings.

You got it!  Pimp Daddy G Fly Shooky Shooky and DJ Funk Dizzle G Straddy Bang Bang (my alter ego) have finally followed up our debut EP “krackA krumZ” with a full, very insightful album: “Surpryzes: Let It Ryde.”

Check it out today.  If you can’t do it today, well that’s just crazy.  Do it.  Because you can.  And it rocks.

You can download a zip file the full album in mp3 format at this link: http://www.mediafire.com/?k6di2e7rt6k0rnj

Or just follow the album link and listen/download one mp3 at a time.

For Baz Hennessy, my plan is to complete the preliminary compositions this year (hopefully sooner than later), then conceptually comb over them in depth, then do crazy awesome recordings and release it officially sometime before the end of 2012.

Avenge the Reaper is little more than a collection of ideas, but once I’ve completed this phase of Baz Hennessy, I’ll get cracking on it full force.  The trick on it will be making myself a better guitarist, then having the patience for recording.  The plan is to have it ready for release sometime in the first half of 2012.

So there you go.  :)

We did, however, finally get a band photo, so I’ve posted that to the website (http://jeremytharp.com/towncrier/).

Also, all reference recordings for all 4 sets are now available at http://listapp.ciesurplus.com/jeremy_temp/

Enjoy!

Download the songs here: http://listapp.ciesurplus.com/jeremy_temp/

Remember, these will get deleted after we practice next week.

This week we worked exclusively on set 4 as we really hadn’t touched on those songs much, so there are multiple takes of a few songs.

Set 4:

• Foreverman (Eric Clapton)
• I’m On My Way (The Proclaimers)
• Remedy (Seether)
• Heartbreaker (Grand Funk Railroad)
• Can’t You See (Marshall Tucker Band)
• I Know [Which Way] (Town Crier)
• Past The Point Of Rescue (Hal Ketchum)
• Kansas City (Wilbert Harrison)
• Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton)
• Lightning Crashes (Live)

As I have slowly worked myself back into playing music, forcing a regular schedule of it into my life with my band and with my podcasts, I’m trying to do a little more.  One of my goals for 2009 was to write and record a new album.

Seeing as how 2009 (and my 10th year playing guitar) is coming to a close, I have little time to do that album, and I had given up any realistic odds of it’s happening — until today.  Phil Taylor contacted me with a kind of “motivate each other” proposition, where we would simultaneously produce albums — kind of keep each other accountable.

Since this works right into my goal for the year, I told him our deadline would be January 1, 2010.

Now, there’s no way I will have time for full productions with drums and whatnot, so I am only pushing myself to write at least a dozen songs, and record them with me singing along with the guitar.  I may do more if I get motivated, but since I would prefer to master the album once it is complete, it’s unlikely.

Anyway, I’ve set up the project page on my website, and you can keep tabs on it here:  http://tharp.me/8

These are low-fidelity recordings … unfortunately, I am not able to do large size files which trigger high bandwidth yet, but these will work for the time being.

Hopefully, I’ll have all the mp3s I had on the old site uploaded within a week or so.

So follow the link, take a listen, and use the awesome new commenting feature to let others know what you think!

Download the songs here: http://listapp.ciesurplus.com/jeremy_temp/

Remember, these will get deleted after we practice next week.

This week we practiced sets 3 and 4, and they are as follows (the original artist is in parentheses):

Set 3:

• The Man (Town Crier)
• Why Me (Delbert McClinton)
• Smokin’ Gun (Robert Cray Band)
• I’ll Be (Edwin McCain)
• Ride Captain Ride (The Blues Image)
• Higher (Creed)
• Homesick (The Atlanta Rhythm Section)
• One (U2)
• Bad Boy (Beatles)

Set 4:

• Foreverman (Eric Clapton)
• I’m On My Way (The Proclaimers)
• Remedy (Seether)
• Heartbreaker (Grand Funk Railroad)
• Can’t You See (Marshall Tucker Band)
• I Know [Which Way] (Town Crier)
• Past The Point Of Rescue (Hal Ketchum)
• Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton)

We just started set 4, so there are two tracks still not recorded (track #8 “Kansas City” (Wilbert Harrison) and track #10 “Lightning Crashes” (Live).  Set 4 is very rough … so don’t judge! 

Download the songs here: http://listapp.ciesurplus.com/jeremy_temp/

Remember, these will get deleted after we practice next week.

This week we practiced sets 2 and 3, and they are as follows (the original artist is in parentheses):

Set 2:

• Texas Flood (Stevie Ray Vaughan)
• Something To Hold Onto (Jeff Healy Band)
• Whiskey Rock And Roller (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
• Rain (Town Crier)
• Careless Whisper (George Michael, Seether)
• Don’t Tear Me Up (Mick Jagger)
• All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix)
• Fortunate Son (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
• Help Me Up (Eric Clapton)
• Born To Be Wild (Steppenwolf)

Set 3:

• The Man (Town Crier)
• Why Me (Delbert McClinton)
• Smokin’ Gun (Robert Cray Band)
• I’ll Be (Edwin McCain)
• Ride Captain Ride (The Blues Image)
• Higher (Creed)
• Homesick (The Atlanta Rhythm Section)
• One (U2)
• Bad Boy (Beatles)

(These are even less polished than usual … mostly because I was sick, but there is definitely some good stuff in here!)