This week at the request of my wife, I played my own song “Irrational” from my Two Sides of the Same Soul album.
Files: podcast.0007.Jeremy Tharp-Irrational
As usual, this is just me on my acoustic, in my studio, recorded on my Sony ICD-SX700 digital voice recorder, no modifications other than trimming at the beginning and end.
I was unable to record last week’s podcast, so I did two this week: Mr. Jones by the Counting Crows, and Bedroom of the Sun — an original of mine. We (Town Crier) are playing Mr. Jones in one of our sets, and Phil Taylor suggested that I recorded Bedroom of the Sun. Turns out, I think it’s the first recording I’ve made of Bedroom of the Sun since I first wrote it — it was a great trip back to my history, and I think it turned out fabulously.
I am recovering from a cold this week, so the vocals are even less perfect than usual, but I think they still have a great vibe.
Files: podcast.0005.Counting Crows-Mr. Jones podcast.0006.Jeremy Tharp-Bedroom Of The Sun
As usual, this is just me on my acoustic, in my studio, recorded on my Sony ICD-SX700 digital voice recorder, no modifications other than trimming at the beginning and end.
I realized a few hours ago that Friday I will not be able to do my podcast as usual, so I’m doing it on Wednesday this week. Another song we (Town Crier, my band) plan to play in one of our sets is Dixieland by Steve Earle, which is a great song about patriotism and just a fantastic story song, so that is what I chose for this week’s song.
File: podcast.0004.Steve Earle-Dixieland
As usual, this is just me on my acoustic, in my studio, recorded on my Sony ICD-SX700 digital voice recorder, no modifications other than trimming at the beginning and end.
This week I chose to play Remedy by Seether. We are playing this in Town Crier (my band), plus the song pretty much epitomizes modern rock.
File: podcast.0003.Seether-Remedy
As usual, this is just me on my acoustic, in my studio, recorded on my Sony ICD-SX700 digital voice recorder, no modifications other than trimming at the beginning and end.
I know I said these would be approximately weekly, but I already had this one done — we played this song at the jam session this afternoon at the VFW in Wardensville. I came home and recorded it — liked the recording, so I thought I’d upload it too.
The song for this post is “Country Roads” originally done by John Denver.
File: podcast.0002.John Denver-Country Roads
Again, this is just me on my acoustic, in my studio, recorded on my Sony ICD-SX700 digital voice recorder, no modifications other than trimming at the beginning and end.
I am hoping to make this a constant habit: record a song about once a week just for sharing it here on my blog.
The song for this post is “I’ll Be” originally done by Edwin McCain back in the 90s. Nothing special, just me on my acoustic, in my studio, recorded on my Sony ICD-SX700 digital voice recorder.
The file is here: podcast.0001.Edwin McCain-I’ll Be
I learned this song a few years ago, but my band, “Town Crier,” incorporated it into a set list, so I’ve been playing it a lot recently (and singing it), and this is my acoustic arrangement.
No modifications other than trimming at the beginning and end.
More Jeremy Tharp material available at http://www.jeremytharp.com/
Todd Burge to perform with 11 of the regions finest songwriters. Friday, January 27th Six Pence-Parkersburg, WV 9pm (304) 865-5891
Todd Burge will perform with 11 of the regions finest songwriters at Six Pence in Parkersburg this Friday Night. Songwriters scheduled to perform are John Lilly, Don Baker, Daron Baker, Chase Brady, Jeremy Tharp, Ian Decker, John Radcliff, Dave Chichester, Dan Cunningham and Andy Tuck The event is part of Burges www.songwriternight.com series. The music series features songwriters in live settings throughout the tri-state area.
“I’m thrilled to be hosting this evening of original music here in Parkersburg. Some of these players will be traveling from Charleston and Morgantown to play their songs. Some of these guys are seasoned professionals, so this is not to be missed! This is going to be great! ” Said Burge.
Each songwriter will play a short set and Burge will play a longer set of songs from his new critically acclaimed CD, Hip About Time.
www.toddburge.com www.songwriternight.com
Also … Open Mic at Coalie Harry’s has been great so far! Come see me again this Thursday around 9pm!
I finally decided to split “Jeremy Tharp” into a two CD album, and I’ve renamed it “Two Sides of the Same Soul,” reusing a lyric from “Love is a Hole.” Also I have posted a new song for that album (no recording yet though) as well as a song for “Sneaky Whisper.”
Enjoy.
Ok let me give you some “specifics” on the progress of “Jeremy Tharp,” and not in the ethereal sense. I feel a lot of pressure on the heels of “Unnatural” to make a very complete, exhaustive, musically coherent and lyrically coherent album, basically being autobiographical. That is, I want to give an accurate representation of how I feel, and I want the songs to maintain a musical style. Of course, the beauty of metaphor is there are hundreds of avenues available to accomplish this one task. As far as the musical cohesion, that will take place in the recording stage, and “Unnatural” worked out well because I recorded it all in a three day span. Nothing about it makes me want to make changes other than production flaws. But the songs I have written so far seem very sporatic, specifically musically, and I don’t feel like the complement each other just yet. Like I’ve said before I may break it into two albums, although I’m not sure where I would make the division.
I also feel a lot of pressure to write songs similar to the ones I have in the past, although the majority of the songs from my first two albums I can no longer relate to, because they applied to very specific moments in my life that are no longer relevant. One of my goals as a songwriter is to incorporate the appropriate amount of metaphor so that I can disconnect myself from the emotion, with just the right tough of specifics so that other people might get something out of it. As it stands right now, “Jeremy Tharp” is ridiculously abstract and very unfocused. Like I said, I am a little anxious about it. I need it to accurately reflect my own reactions or it will feel like a failure.
Part of the process that made “Unnatural” a success to me was that I was writing non-“Unnatural” songs at the same time, and I had a well defined theme. Right now I don’t have that, because my other projects are at a relative standstill, and who can really apply a theme to himself? I just need the right inspiration with the right motivation all at the right time, so for now I am just going to write a lot of songs and hopefully be able to bring myself to axing the ones that don’t fit. Period. “Jeremy Tharp” is not even beginning to resemble perfect …
Well … what to say what to say. I am having difficulty getting motivated on rerecording It All Comes Out and Triad, just because I am not completely sure I am happy with the remastered “Hell” and I’m waiting for a well defined plan to hit me. Basically, it boils down to “I’m not sure where to start.” I feel like I might even need to rerecord Heaven and Hell and that is a cumbersome thought, and I worry that they might turn out better than even Unnatural.
In new album news though, great things are coming of “Jeremy Tharp.” Of the 11 songs I have done, if I can manage to record the vocals as well as I sang all of the songs today, and get snazzy arrangements to boot, that album will be nothing short of spectacular. Let us cross our fingers.
In Unborn news, we should be getting at least one cut done on Sunday (cross your fingers or toes or nipples) for your listening pah-leasure, pleasure yeah. So I bid thee all a fair adieu, and don’t hurt your nipples.