"Sycamore Tree" live video

Here's a new video of my song "Sycamore Tree," performed with Josh Dekaney on percussion and Tim Burns on harmony vocals at the Words and Music Songwriter Showcase on 1/23/10.



The studio version of "Sycamore Tree" is now available digitally at CD Baby and on Facebook.

JPR's "Fly" wins the Lennon Award in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest

Amazing news today: My song "Fly" won the annual Lennon Award in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest! This follows the grand prize that I won back in the fall, and it puts "Fly" in the running for Song of the Year... Check it out:

http://jlsc.com/winners/2008b/lennon_awards.php

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who patiently voted day after day and made this happen.

Yeeha!
JPR

New video of "Fly," performed solo

This is a blast to play...



Don't forget to vote for "Fly" for the Lennon Award--you can vote once a day until April 27 at:

http://www.jlsc.com/vote

Free download of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest winner "Fly"

Here's a humble musical stimulus package: right now you can download my song "Fly," grand prize winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, for free:

http://www.jeffreypepperrodgers.com/humming-cd.htm

Spin it! Share it! And help "Fly" win the annual Lennon Award by voting online. Vote now--once a day through April 27:

http://www.jlsc.com/vote

Cheers,
JPR

Help me win the next round in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest

My song "Fly" won a grand prize last fall in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Now "Fly" competes in an online vote against the next session's winner for the annual Lennon Award...and then a shot at a $20,000 prize.

Vote now! You can vote daily until April 27.

Listen to the song here.

JPR on Pandora

All the tracks on my CD Humming My Way Back Home can now be heard on Pandora, the music site that allows you to create personalized radio stations based on your favorite artists and songs.

I've been getting hooked on the site lately--it's fascinating to see which artists and songs pop up because they are tagged with similar qualities as others I like. An amazing tool for discovering new music...

For starters, here's a station I created with my own music plus a few favorite artists. Happy exploring.

JPR song "Fly" a grand prize winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest

My song "Fly" just won the grand prize in the country category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest! Check it out and listen to the song here.

"Fly" appears on my CD Humming My Way Back Home as a duet with country-pop singer Lisa Gentile.

Yee ha!

Words and Music series in the Post-Standard

I wanted to let you know that the Words and Music Songwriter Showcase is featured today (Friday, 9/5) in the Post-Standard, in an annual arts and culture section called The Mix. The author also put together a slideshow about the September 26 headliner, Donna Colton and the Troublemakers, that you can see here:

Donna Colton and the Troublemakers by Laura Massey

On September 20 I'm also taking the series for the first time to the Auburn Public Theater. That show features the dynamic duo of Dusty Pas'cal with Loren Barrigar. Check out the full schedule for the rest of 2008 below. I'm thrilled to be sharing the stage with so many great songwriters and musicians in this series.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Words and Music Songwriter Showcase
with Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers

Upcoming...
Saturday, September 20 at the Auburn Public Theater: Dusty Pas'cal with Loren Barrigar, plus Dick Ward, Rory O'Bannion, and Jeff Connor

Friday, September 26 at Jazz Central in Syracuse: Donna Colton and the Troublemakers, with Len Widdenkind, Laura Courtwright, and Mike Gibson

Thursday, October 23 at Jazz Central: Bob Halligan Jr. of Ceili Rain with Christopher Ames and Peterson and Dennihy

Friday, November 14: Jamie Notarthomas with Tom Stahl and Juliet Lloyd

Thursday, December 11: Joe Crookston and more

For reservations, email showcase@wordsandmusic.info

Stay tuned about upcoming shows! Click here to join the email list:


http://www.reverbnation.com/jeffreypepperrodgers?add_email=true

Words and Music Songwriter Showcase upcoming shows, Woodshed

Lots of Words and Music news to share...

The series hits the road for a special show on Saturday, September 20, at the Auburn Public Theater featuring rising star Dusty Pas'cal with guitarist extraordinaire Loren Barrigar.

On Friday, September 26, the series will be back at its home base, Syracuse's Jazz Central, for a show featuring folk-rock powerhouse Donna Colton and the Troublemakers. (Details below.)

Also new in September is the Words and Music Songwriter Woodshed, a monthly musicians-only gathering where songwriters can share a work in progress and get feedback from their peers. The first Woodshed is scheduled for September 9 at Sparky Town, a new bistro in Syracuse. The moderator is the singer-songwriter Dana "Short Order" Cooke, whose showcase set in June was one of the highlights of the season. Details here.

The Words and Music concert series continues through 2008, with performances by Bob Halligan Jr. of Ceili Rain, Jamie Notarthomas, Joe Crookston, and more.

SEPTEMBER SHOW DETAILS


Dusty Pas'cal with Loren Barrigar, plus Dick Ward, Jeff Connor, Rory O'Bannion, and series host Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
When: Saturday, September 20. Doors at 7, music at 7:30
Where: Auburn Public Theater, 108 Genesee Street, Auburn, (315) 253-6669
Tickets: $10 at the APT box office or www.auburnpublictheater.com. For reservations, email showcase@wordsandmusic.info
For more info: www.myspace.com/wordsandmusicshowcase



Donna Colton and the Troublemakers, with Len Widdekind, Mike Gibson, Laura Courtwright, and series host Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
When: Friday, September 26. Doors at 7, music at 7:30
Where: Jazz Central, 441 E. Washington Street, Syracuse, (315) 479-5299
Tickets: $10. For reservations, email showcase@wordsandmusic.info
For more info: www.myspace.com/wordsandmusicshowcase

Lineup for Taste of Syracuse festival

The Post-Standard's website has a rundown of the artists (including yours truly) performing at the Emerging Artists stage on June 6--check it out here.

I'm looking forward to playing this great downtown festival and checking out many area bands...

Humming My Way Back Home now at Amazon MP3 shop

Downloads of the new solo record have landed at Amazon.

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

New video: the Grateful Dead's "New Speedway Boogie"

Just sat down today and knocked this out. Can't seem to get enough of this song lately...

Humming CD review on GoodSound

From David Cantor's review of the new CD, Humming My Way Back Home, on GoodSound (SoundStage Network)...

"Humming's 14 songs, all by Rodgers, are original, varied, and engaging. Rodgers' singing and guitar playing are both up to speed, and he uses his well-honed songwriting skills to comment on many experiences. The title song is at once substantive and catchy; 'My Life Doesn’t Rhyme,' about writing songs, is interesting enough to avoid the pitfall of triteness; and 'American Dream' goes beyond mere atmosphere in capturing the late-night ambiance of a highway truck stop."

Peter Mulvey on the CD Humming My Way Back Home

This just in: some thoughts from stellar singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey about the new CD.

"Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers balances solemnity with an almost-hidden playfulness in this music. The melodies are spare and direct, and three strings are seldom used when only one is called for. Give him a listen. Also, check out the video for 'Humming My Way Back Home'--unsung lives deserve singing."

Said video can be seen here:



For a limited time, listen to all the tracks online for free.

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

Read more about the CD.

Collaboration with Dana "Short Order" Cooke

Dana "Short Order" Cooke is a witty songwriter who performed around Central New York for years until--according to his website--"suddenly, and without explanation, the music virtually stopped."

Before his mysterious disappearance, I played guitar and sang with Dana on a beautiful song called "Wishing I Could Fly." Thanks to the preservation efforts of the Short Order Heritage Society, that track is now posted on this page as a free download.

CD Baby five-star review of Humming My Way Back Home

Posted on CD Baby about the new CD:

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers' CD is by far the best collection of original songs I've heard in a long time. I've played it for two weeks straight back and forth to work and find myself humming many of the songs throughout the day. His lyrics are poetic and accessible stories of real life, pure and uncontrived. The melodies and rhythms are engaging and seem to have appeal to all ages. As an RN and bereavement counselor, I am particularly moved by the very beautiful song "Sister". This is a gift to anyone who has ever lost a child and is struggling for ways to find peace and healing; it is a song for families which offers a tender way of living beyond the loss while carrying the existence of one's infant child or sibling in one's heart. Those whom I have shared it with have found it to be comforting and uplifting. I very highly recommend the entire CD!

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.

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.

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.

Free downloads on MySpace and ReverbNation

Several songs from the new CD, Humming My Way Back Home, are available now for free downloading at MySpace at ReverbNation--look for the download link.

And you can still hear the whole shebang online at my site.

Humming CD on the radio and in print

Yesterday was eventful for the new CD. I was a guest on two great radio shows--Common Threads on WAER and Soundcheck on TK99--to spin some tracks and also to talk about the Words and Music Songwriter Showcase, which opens this Friday. And the Post-Standard ran a feature review ("'Humming' offers songs that fill the senses"). You can still listen to the entire CD on my site.

Humming My Way Back Home CD review

This just in from Andy Ellis, longtime music journalist for Guitar Player, Frets, Guitar World Acoustic, and others:

"Folk music with a serrated edge... Humming My Way Back Home is a magical blend of storytelling and driving flattop guitar. Earthy percussion, swampy electric bass, and superb guest vocalists and soloists enhance the album's rootsy vibe without obscuring its unvarnished urgency."

The CD is now available direct from JPR, and from CD Baby, iTunes, and other online stores.

Read more about the CD, and watch a video of the title track.

Words and Music Songwriter Showcase

I'm very jazzed about this new project: a monthly concert series in Syracuse, New York, featuring songwriters of all genres in an up-close-and-personal theater setting. For details, see the series home page.

New video for "Humming My Way Back Home"

Pardon the long absence--every spare moment has been going into completing the new CD, which I start mixing this week. Speaking of which: here's a new video for the title track. The music heard isn't final--it'll be replaced shortly by the final studio mix. But the basics are all in place.



Lots more music news to come...
JPR

New "Nowhere Man" video

Here's my version of the Beatles' "Nowhere Man," taped back in January at the Guitar League in Syracuse, New York. This arrangement, which uses a partial capo (covering three strings) is transcribed in the October 2007 issue of Acoustic Guitar.

"Nowhere Man" arrangement in Acoustic Guitar magazine

My guitar-and-voice arrangement of "Nowhere Man" is published in the October issue of Acoustic Guitar--Richard Thompson is on the cover. The guitar part, played with a three-string partial capo (mine is a Shubb C7B), combines rhythm and lead. The capo facilitates some very cool sounds that mimic both Lennon's and Harrison's original parts.

Note to guitar players trying out the arrangement: the published notation has a few errors, which you can read about here.

Miles Davis and me

Got a nice bit of comic relief from my computer the other day.

I popped in a CD-R--a live recording of me performing solo, doing a mixture of my own songs with tunes by Tom Waits, the Dead, Chris Whitley, etc. My music player connected to the Gracenote database to figure out what CD it was, and a window popped up asking me whether this was:

Miles Davis, Another Bitches Brew (English)

or

Lisoir / Meta-Extase/Meta-Relaxation (French)

So apparently my music resembles either cutting-edge jazz-rock fusion or some sort of French new age therapy. That gives me something to ponder as I start working on the next CD project... Thanks for the feedback, Gracenote.

Live video of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

Taped in January at the Syracuse Center for the Arts:

"Wasting Time No More" now downloadable

The band version of this song, recorded for my NPR story on online sessions, can now be downloaded for free on MySpace.

A new recording of "Wasting Time No More" will be included on an in-progress CD.

Cheers, and thanks for all the nice feedback on the story and the song.
JPR

New JPR performance video

This clip of my song "Wasting Time No More" is from a show in January at the Guitar League in Syracuse, New York. Video by Daniel Ball.

JPR music update

I've been revamping and expanding my music pages at MySpace (which includes four tracks from the Traveling Songs CD and info on upcoming Syracuse-area gigs) and on my own site. Plus lots of new photos can be found here, and you can sign up to receive periodic updates on gigs and news.