Humming CD spotlight on Whole Wheat Radio

Quick addendum to my recent post about the new CD, Humming My Way Back Home, on Whole Wheat Radio. Today the CD is being spotlighted, so head over there to listen, rate, or request songs. And, of course, you can still hear the whole CD at my site.

CDs and downloads available direct from me, and from CD Baby, iTunes, and other online stores.

Depressing news from No Depression

No Depression, a good little music magazine covering the beat of alt-country/roots/Americana/indie rock, will cease publishing its print edition after its May/June issue--though plans are afoot to keep it going online. This letter from the editors outlines the reasons and says much about the tectonic shifts in the music and publishing businesses, and it's well worth a read. As the founding editor of another niche magazine, Acoustic Guitar (thankfully alive and well in its 18th year), I can well relate to both the pride and the sense of loss. The music world needs writers and editors who truly care about the music.

Humming My Way Back Home on Whole Wheat Radio

The new CD is now posted on this enterprising Internet station operating out of--you guessed it--Talkeetna, Alaska. You can request songs, rate songs, and post feedback right here.

"Humming My Way Back Home" lesson in Acoustic Guitar

The April issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine includes my lesson on spicing up guitar accompaniment parts by playing reduced and simplified chord voicings. I show a number of chord examples and then share a guitar-only version of my song "Humming My Way Back Home," the title track of the new CD.

You can access the whole lesson online--text, tab, and audio too--at the AG site. And you can still hear the final CD version of "Humming" right here.

Google books preview of Rock Troubadours

My book Rock Troubadours, a collection of conversations about songwriting and the music life with Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Dave Matthews, Ani DiFranco, and more, can now be previewed on Google at this link.

As I write this, it's strange to think that two of the musicians in this book, Jerry Garcia and Chris Whitley, are no longer with us. Both are on the wall in front of me now, in photos taken when we met for these interviews, and are very much present in my own music.

Guitarist Billy McLaughlin comes back from focal dystonia

The new issue of Acoustic Guitar (March 2008) includes my interview with guitarist Billy McLaughlin, who's making a mind-boggling recovery from a neurological disorder called focal dystonia by learning to play the guitar left handed. Just a remarkable story. Read it here, and find out more about McLaughlin and his music at his own site.

Words and Music Songwriter Showcase opening night

The first show in this new monthly concert series was a blast--big crowd, very diverse music, and great songs. Here's a review from today's Syracuse New Times (also posted online):

Something for Everyone

The Jan. 25 Words and Music Songwriter Showcase, a WAER-FM 88.3-sponsored event at Jazz Central, 441 E. Washington St., featured a veritable smorgasbord for all music fans, from smoky blues to light and sentimental country and upbeat folk songs.

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, National Public Radio music reporter and writer-turned-songwriter, started the night with the title track of his new, independent CD Humming My Way Back Home. That tune had a soft and airy quality akin to a lullaby. Watching Rodgers’ live rendition grabbed a few chuckles due to a small instrument he called a strumstick, which looks like a broom handle with strings.

Following Rodgers was Leo Crandall of the local group Gonstermachers. His bluesy, sometimes hellish “The Night That Sam Cooke Died” cleared away the dreamy atmosphere left by Rodgers and replaced it with an overcast of darkness. His haunting moans and low growls channeled Muddy Waters’ deep Mississippi blues.

Loving someone so much that it hurts seemed to be the central theme of Dusty Pas’cal’s music. The Skaneateles-based performer’s “If I Can’t Find You” was sentimental, delicate and bittersweet. The slight southern accent that Pas’cal injects into his songs gives them a country edge, which makes his music straddle between country and folk.

Timothy Daniel featured a pop-influenced style, yet Daniel has a way of tackling complex issues through innovative lyrics. No simple love songs exist in Daniel’s catalog. “Desert Island” revealed a philosophy that proclaims no one is born with the skills of leadership. And “Happy Now,” a melancholy song about that guy friend that a girl always runs and cries to regarding her jerky boyfriend, was the type of song that spoke about ineffable, romantic matters.

Rodgers returned with his musical manifesto, “My Life Doesn’t Rhyme,” about how Rodgers “pays {his} dues for artistic license.” That song is quite possibly the only song in the world to have the word “spelunking” as a part of its lyrics. Rodgers then rounded out the first set with the rhythmic “American Dream,” for which he insisted on audience participation in the form of drumming on the auditorium’s pull-down desks.

The second half of the showcase was devoted to Lisa Gentile, a local songbird and 2007 Syracuse New Times Syracuse Area Music Award (Sammy) winner. Gentile started off by sharing a story with the audience about how her parents’ work at Motown Records has influenced her music. After a duet with Rodgers entitled “Fly,” Gentile let the audience really hear her voice soar in “Carolina Sky.”

Gentile talked to the audience in a way that made you feel as if she were a friend chatting with you over coffee between songs that yielded the same type of intimacy. In “Guys Like You,” Gentile sang about the pressure to sleep your way to the top of the music business with an attitude and spunk that let the audience know that she stands her ground.

In the similarly soulful “Tell Him How You Like It,” Gentile told women to speak their minds to get what they want from their men. With lyrics like “ Tell him when it hurts/ tell him when it works” it’s no wonder why she calls this piece her “dirty song.” Yet the track also has an empowering quality that would make it a perfect candidate as an anthem for independent women.

—Nichole Nichols

The next showcase, on 2/21, features Gary Frenay and Arty Lenin with Dick Ward, Linda Stout, and Ed Zacholl. Details at the series home page.