WIN A CD!Blues: John Williams and Electronica: Greg.ie

The Do-It-Yourself spirit has, of course, taken great strides through the Internet and computer-production techniques. Today’s 2 artists are using the Internet in order to share their music with the world. Through Music Spectrum, you can win a CD to hear them for yourself.


Blues: John Williams
John Williams—not the movie score composer—is from Seattle, brandishing multiple guitars in his quest to produce traditional and country blues. His self-released instrumental CDs are well-recorded, showing Williams’ abilities on acoustic, electric, and Dobro.

One release is called Hand Picked. The solo acoustic on “Nothing Lost” transports you immediately to a rambling, dusty country, a broken-down porch in front of the General Store with the flies buzzing. An acoustic jazz duet, “Admit One” shows how that same rambling country blues feel comes through in the laid back jazz picking. “Off the Road” is a blazing country blues with just enough punch in Williams’ style to take his playing from sessionist to a lead guitarist making an independent statement.

Williams has posted many articles on his site about playing music, recording, and mixing. For anyone interested in recording techniques, Williams would be a good source. He has also helped artists take their demos and turn them into full-blown arrangements.

I have 2 CDs to giveaway from John Williams. You can win one of these CDs for free by emailing me. Thanks to John Williams for the review copies and giveaway CD.


Electronica: www.Greg.ie
It is only appropriate that this artist would be in the Electronica section of the Spectrum. His name is his Website. His most recent album was released directly on an MP3. This is an electronic artist.

However, when I first got three-track CD from Greg.ie (Greg Geoghegan), I actually initially placed the Irish singer towards the end of the Folk-influenced IRE/UK Rock section, hearing something of the Lightning Seeds in the combination of electronics and acoustic song style. Greg.ie’s voice also has some of the deep brooding found in G.W. McClennan (the Go-Betweens) at times.

Greg.ie is at the beginning of the Electronic section, near the English Dance Rock category, because his brand of Electronica definitely breaks into typical song structure—unlike more ambient artists. Therefore, he’s a part of the “Electronica-feel-in-a-song” subset. Bjork belongs here too with her eclectic styles acting like sampling and loops even while emerging with a clear song structure.

However, as the newest album, Again (also available on CD), opens up with the title track, I could easily place Greg.ie next to Spiritualized—keyboard/electronic musings combined with that brooding voice. Because Greg.ie is more inclined to break form with more straight-forward rock, he isn’t in the same subset as Spiritualized, the “Electronica-with-choir” subset which is demanding a post here soon to comment on bands like Polyphonic Spree and the Beta Band. Stay tuned to Music Spectrum if you’re wondering what I mean.

Greg.ie’s 2002 album, Stay, has a nighttime street picture, the streetlight eerily revealing darkened homes. That’s a feeling I get from many of Greg.ie’s songs—they belong to the wee hours of the morning, they belong to the dream-like musings of a worried mind kept awake, they belong to the late night travels, they belong to the trains that run all night even with only 1 or 2 passengers per car.

Interestingly, apparently Geoghegan is the lyricist/singer, but the music is written and played by many friends. With Geoghegan being the focal point (www.Greg.ie), I would like to see the liner notes give more credit to those who created the music, giving more of an insight into how these projects come together.

From Stay, “Today’s Song” could develop into a discussion of Jesus’ invitation to eternal life. “I’ll free you to attend/a highest party will never end/…You will feel, wide and warmer from the sound/Of your mind being kind/Passing peace from soul to soul.” Geoghegan’s vocals, accompanied by Trea Breazeale, do not break out of the brooding spirit, but the song itself hints towards the hope spoken of in the chorus.

I have one 3-track CD to giveaway from Greg.ie featuring 3 songs from 2002’s Stay. You can win this CD for free by emailing me. Thanks to Greg.ie for the review copies and giveaway CD.