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MYSTIC
RHYTHM FINGERS (2010) This project includes Drew's most often requested
previously unrecorded "Road Tested" tunes. These 12 songs were recorded
so as to capture their live sound. The sparse and subtle instrument
accompaniments will draw you back to listen again and again.
This is Drew's first "hands on" recording at Road Tested Tunes Studios.
He recorded the basic guitar and vocal tracks at Niagara Falls (Bruce
Kaphan's California Studio.) The recording process coupled acoustic
microphones on vocals and guitar with a recording from a live sound
system. The mixing process integrated these two sonic frameworks to
closely produce a live show sound. Keyboard and other instrument
accompaniments were added at Road Tested Tunes and the CD was mixed
there with Bruce as mixing consultant. Unusual accompaniments were
chosen to enhance the acoustic guitar and vocal performance.
1. Powerful Sunshine
2. Better Off Than Before
3. Carried Away
4. Childhood Christmas
5. Nothing Personal
6. Flowers of Chance
7. Just A Little For Love
8. Bad For Business
9. Invisible World
10. Pain And Paradise
11. More
12. I'll Tell You Later
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Available
at cdbaby.com
cdbaby
Or Using Drew's Paypal Account
$13.00 Including Tax & Shipping
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WAY BEYOND
THE MAZE (2007) marks
Drew's return to the acoustic realm. This CD, his first on the Road
Tested Tunes label, is a true representation of his solo performances
with a few sparkling accompaniments by Bruce Kaphan (Keyboards and
Weissenborn), the Wayback's Joe Kyle (Standup bass), Matt Brubeck
(Cello) and Dallis Craft (Backing vocals.)
The 12 songs on this project were whittled down from an original group
of 18. Included are the Great American Song Contest award winner "You
Can Cry to Me" and Billboard World Song Contest award winner "Thicker
Than Blood." The song styles vary from folk blues to folk ballads to
rootsy country to semi-pop ballads:
1. Hands Up!
2. You Can Cry to Me
3. Thicker Than Blood
4. So Long
5. You're So Good for Me
6. Way Beyond the Maze
7. The World is Perfect
8. Every Daydream
9. Stumbled on the Truth
10. Love on the Outside
11. Goodnight Cowboy
12. I'm on Your Side
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$13.00
(Includes Shipping and Tax)
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THE LAST
SECOND CHANCE (2006) is Drew James’ second studio CD. Drew
recorded
the basic tracks with a group of talented musicians over three days at
Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California with Bruce Kaphan at the
production helm. Bruce brought several other outstanding vocalists and
musicians into the project to add just the right colors to the canvas
of each tune.
Drew and Bruce spent over a year in pre-production with the goal of
recording these original songs to sound the way they did in
Drew’s head when he wrote them. The result is an album that
will “stand the test of time.”
From “Rise & Shine” through the Billboard
Song Contest Award winning “That
Old Friday Night Feeling” this CD will take you on a musical
journey that spans many genres while retaining an originally organic
and rootsy sound.
You will want to hear this one over and over
again!
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$13.00
(Includes Shipping and Tax)
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1.
Rise and Shine Listen
2. All Over that Girl (with Lynn Asher)
3. It’s Always Summer Somewhere (with Noe Venable)
4. Inside Out
5. Ahead on the Highway
6. Good Morning Girl
7. Prison with No Bars
8. Cry, Cry, Cry
9. Ship in a Bottle
10. I Went to See Maria
11. Thank You Brother
12. Mama Mia
13. That Old Friday Night Feeling (with Dallis Craft) Listen
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Reviews:
“On his The Last Second Chance CD
(2006), Drew James has created his own music realm, attractive and
hospitable to any Real Music lover, no matter his or her genre
preferences. Strictly speaking, the album is recorded in a folk-rock
key, but there's so much True Blue feeling in every track that they
sound "more Blues" to me than many of the "canonized" 12-bar standards.
The arrangements and performance are tasteful and natural, and the
production is simply perfect (a George Martin level work done by
guitarist Bruce Kaphan). To those yet deciding whether to buy or not
this CD, I'd say it'd be one of their best investments, a "long term"
one - the more you play this record, the better it sounds. Drew James'
music world is a place to stay - "you can check out any time you like,
but you can never leave".”
- Paul Bondarovski,
Midnight Special Blues Radio
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AS FAR AS I KNOW (2003) is Drew’s first studio
CD. It
features 14 of Drew’s original songs presented in a solo
acoustic format, with a few musical embellishments by pedal steel
master Bruce Kaphan. The CD has received airplay in Europe and
“I’ll Never Make Friends With You Again”
is being featured on Shuteye Records compilation release of United
State of Americana in Fall 2004.
Here’s how Drew describes the CD’s songs: |
$13.00
(Includes Shipping and Tax)
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Preservation Blues – A
portrait of mankind’s struggle against the inevitable painted
on a rural blues canvas. The thematic riff came to me during a period
when I was drenching myself in the music of Northern Mississippi
bluesman R.L. Burnside. FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD OF THIS SONG
AVAILABLE ON MEDIA PAGE.
• The One –
Came to me one night as I
watched “Taxicab Confessions.” The stories included
one poor guy who told the cabbie about having recently blown thousands
of dollars on a New Years Eve bash with his newly found sweetheart,
after which he never heard from her again. Afterwards, while looking
longingly out the cab window, he sighed, “Yeah, but
I’d really like to fall in love again.”
• As Far As I Know
– Came to me while spending
a long weekend in Sonoma, CA. At the time I was listening to a
Mississippi Fred McDowell CD of blues and hymns. I realized that I had
written blues songs but never a hymn. So I wrote this as a
“hymn to her.” FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD OF
THIS SONG AVAILABLE ON MEDIA
PAGE.
• I’ll Never Make Friends
With You Again –
I heard this unforgettable phrase from a woman as she marched up to an
unsuspecting male patron in front of a coffee shop in Petaluma, CA.
• Across The U.S.A.
– Based on a true story of
a guy who disappeared from his Toledo, Ohio home and drove
cross-country claiming later that he had amnesia from a fall in his
stable. His story was refuted by his examining doctors. The song
describes his thought process as he plans the whole episode.
FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD OF THIS SONG AVAILABLE ON MEDIA
PAGE.
• I Know What Love Is
– This song is based on a
personal experience. It is the reaction I got when I first told a woman
I loved her.
• Rain Took The Rhubarb
– My
sister-in-law’s father used to jokingly say, “Do
you think the rain is gonna take the rhubarb?” during heavy
rain downpours. That fellows name was Elmo.
• Read About The Mob
– I truly do love to read
about the mob. The music grew out of my recollection of a song called
“Now You’ve Done It” from an old
Li’l Nancy cartoon. I never forgot that spooky song.
• Rock ‘n Roll Tears
– Based on my personal
experience flying back from New Orleans with a famous bay area rock
band. I learned firsthand on that trip that the farther up you go in
the music business, the farther the fall is when you drop.
• Sworn on a Bible
– Based on a true story of
a woman who visits penitentiaries to teach prisoners (primarily mass
murderers) how to draw biblical pictures. This song came from a story
about her professing her love for Richard Ramirez, the convicted
“Night Stalker.”
• Now & Then
– Not much to ask, is it?
• Hold On Me
– The ironic tale of a guy
who refused to commit forever to the woman he once had, only to realize
after she’d gone that she’ll keep her hold on him
forever.
• Would You Like To Go Dancing?
– The life stories of my
very special Aunt Vera and Uncle Eddie. (They are pictured on the
inside cover of the CD.)
• All Your Riches
– “We were rich
men, you and me, rich men. Rich like kings. And me … I was
as rich as King Midas.” My brother spoke these words on his
deathbed. From that point on I knew that all my riches were not made of
gold.
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Reviews:
“This album (As Far As I Know)
subscribes to the traditional roots songwriting, but slightly bends the
rules by subverting traditional sounds with intimate singer/ songwriter
and blues tones. Take, for example the opening “Preservation
Blues.” With its cool impending milieu, this little shanty
broods via eerie pastoral aesthetics. Another track that struck me was
“I’ll never Make Friends With You Again.”
- Ryan Hoffer,
A&R Shut Eye Records
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I Love
To Read About The Mob
A limited edition home recording – not for sale.
Tracks:
• I Love to Read About the Mob
• When the Wind
• The Words Were There
• The Hottest Night of the Year
• The Great Fall
• Old Baseball Joe
• Blanket for My Bed
• All You r Riches
• Get Me to the Head of the Line
• Gone for Good
• Death of a Painter
• For the Last Time
• The Band Played “Waltzing Mathilda”
• New Coat of Paint
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Sawtooth Willie’s Holiday
Drewsome Cowboys
A limited edition home recording – not for sale.
Tracks:
• Willies Theme
• Sawtooth Willie’s Holiday
• In The Good Old Days
• Do I want You
• Jean Pool
• Scribbles
• The Bear Toy
• I Gotta Stop Drinkin’
• Rusty Razor
• Annie’s Back in Town
• Humpback Hobo’s Cave
• Ellis Unit One
• Monday Morning
• Walk Away
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