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CD: $22.00out of stock |
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Every Sunday when I was a kid my dad and I would go flea-market shopping in his black Lincoln town car; he would smoke Garcia Vegas and play Bob Dylan records. As we drove, my dad would tell me how nobody could use words or turn a phrase like Bob Dylan. He would point to his radio, we would drive and listen, and this became our Sunday ritual. Still, when I hear Dylan’s voice, I smell the leather seats of that car and my father’s cigar smoke.
I was born and raised in a small factory town called Hopedale, MA. The town was centered around an abandoned textile mill, a corporation that built the community from the ground up in the early 20th century and then closed its doors in the late-seventies, leaving a skeleton of oil-soaked warehouses, machinery, and decaying railway lines. It was a small and scenic place; there were summer concerts at the park bandstand every Wednesay and the local barbershop would sponsor the little league team every season-- even the field itself was built on the old factory landfill. The mill itself was huge; I could never get over all of the bricks--a million square feet of abandoned brick wall.
As a teenager I began recording at a small studio not far from the flea markets my dad and I would drive to on Sundays. In May of 2003 I pressed up 1000 copies of my first full-length album called Long Way Down. This album deals with those things experienced by most college kids: first loves, late nights, and the countless victories and defeats found in between. By all self-released standards Long Way Down was a success. The album gained local attention and sold quickly. I began to perform in new places with more and more people attending the shows.
In 2003 I was chosen as one of five finalists in the Newport Folk Festival Songwriters’ Contest-- I was the youngest finalist by over 10 years. In the Fall I traveled to Ireland for a month, performing on the street, playing in pubs, and working on material for a follow-up album. When I returned home I rented an apartment outside of Boston and immersed myself in the music scene, religiously attending the open mike at the legendary Club Passim in Cambridge, and trying to absorb and learn all what I could. I began listening to many new artists who became heroes to me: Gillian Welch, Martin Sexton, Josh Ritter, Elliott Smith, and David Gray. I could feel their influences on my own writing and, as new songs materialized, I became more and more excited with the sound of them.
Over the next two years I began performing throughout the Northeast at premier venues like: Club Passim, The Stone Church, The Paradise Lounge, The Nameless Coffeehouse, Acoustic Coffee, The Living Room, The Bitter End, World Café Live and the Tin Angel; opening sold-out shows for artists such as: Ellis Paul, Peter Mulvey, Lori Mckenna, Jess Klein, Martha Wainwright, and Vance Gilbert.
In the spring of 2005 I released my second album entitled Another Ghost to a sold-out crowd at Club Passim in Cambridge, MA. This album is influenced by late-night highway drives and AM radio listening and deals with holding on to those things that are most important, memories that we relive time and time again, which revisit us like ghosts. I am very proud of this album, it contains many types of songs-- some that felt like drilling through rock to find, and others that were caught in a drainpipe somewhere in my head and fell in my lap while I was sleeping. Critics describe the music as “dark and disarmingly sweet,” sung in a voice “as raw as whiskey and soothing as honey.” I was called “a diamond in the rough” by Boston’s Insite Magazine and was dubbed “one of the brightest on the folk circuit today” by the esteemed Stone Church in Newmarket, NH.
The last two years have been really exciting, scary, and wonderful. I have been working harder than ever before and have been blessed with the support of a wonderful family and friends. There have been many turns in the road, but I finally feel like I have my feet facing straight ahead. Aside from the smell of Garcia Vegas, the sound of Dylan’s voice, and anything else I have picked up along the way, mostly I have learned that this is the beginning. There are certainly many more miles to go, more songs and stages. And, really, what kind of History is that? I was once told that all you can do is keep doing what you love and hope that it loves you back. Well . . . . . .here’s to hoping.
See you at your local watering hole :)
Jason
Jason is currently residing in Brooklyn, NY and is performing throughout the greater northeast promoting his latest album and writing new songs for a future project.
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