My good friend, and label-mate, Jerry Dale Harris recently announced that he will be offering his new album (which comes out on October 28th) for whatever you want to pay for it, including not paying anything. Jerry is fantastic, and I have no doubt that the number of people who pay for it will far outweigh the people who don’t. But it brings up an issue that’s discussed a lot in the music industry lately. What exactly is the value of a song?
The last few weeks have been crazy-busy. We’ve been in and out of town several times and had lots of commitments on our calendar. It was all fun and we really had a great time. But after so much on-the-go, we’ve started to feel completely worn out.
I knew July was going to be busy. But I had no idea how much it was going to wear us down. I thought doing all of these fun things and adventures were going to invigorate our zest for life. All it’s done for us recently is invigorate the ability to sleep through alarms.
I’ll never forget my first cassette player. It was a giant red thing, with a belt clip and cheap headphones. I took it with me almost everywhere. That and a stack of tapes.
My Grandmother used to make me mixed tapes from my Dad’s old records. I’m sure she put lots of songs on there, but the ones that I remember most that were always on her mixed tapes were “Sweet Caroline,” “Smoke on the Water,” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.” My Dad was a huge Beatles fan, so there was always lots of their songs on them.
Singer/songwriter Nick Peay’s ‘Sobering’ is about just what you think it would be – facing your demons and being honest with yourself on decisions and life choices. The result of his five-song EP is a strong showing of brave lyrics and great American rock and roll music beds.
In “Put This Bottle Down” the cool, electric guitar opening sounds just like a steel door slamming against a grand, solid oak bar. It reminded me of Steve Earle and his Americana-rock-country orchestrations. Peay’s voice is strong and could fall somewhere between John Rzeznik (Goo Goo Dolls), Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty) or even one of the many vocalists at the helm of Foreigner over the years.
From Louisville, Kentucky comes singer/songwriter is Nick Peay and this is his story of struggling with and coming to grips with addiction.
Opening with “Put This Bottle Down,” the mood is upbeat and too much hasn’t yet become too much for him. “Every Morning” is another uptempo song where he laments “I miss you every morning,” and a sense of loss is evident but not overwhelming. It’s on the third track, “I Won’t Fall in Love” where everything crashes headlong into itself. “First it’s last call, then we’re out of here/A belly full of thought and a head of beer/You might blur a little/I just might slur a little.” but it soon becomes evident Life has caught up unceremoniously and our narrator sounds ready to stop. “Ok baby, I think I’ve had enough. “ he offers with a tired sense of resignation.
The Sobering EP is a tremendously inspiring effort that marks the meteoric rise, bottoming out, and reclaiming of Nick’s life. With tracks including Put This Bottle Down, Every Morning, and Sobering, Peay is able to tell a story of lost love, coping mechanisms, and bundles these themes up in a stellar singer-songwriter style that is equal parts pop and rock. Put This Bottle Down is a quick-hitting introduction to Peay’s music; while the song concludes at the 2:30 mark, the theme continues into Every Morning. The frenetic energy that is exhibited here takes up hints of Soul Asylum and Counting Crows, but these five efforts possess a greater thematic cohesion than any album we’ve heard this year. Every Morning keeps things in the top gear, with punchy drums, insistent vocals, and sizzling guitar work that is sprinkled amongst the track.
Armed with a whole crew of talented musicians to bring his songs to life, solo-artist Nick Peay has released the Sobering EP just a little earlier this September into the world awaiting. Those looking for an authentic acoustic/rock sound in the spirit of bands or artists like Toad The Wet Sprocket, The Fray, Nick Drake, The Head And The Heart, Gin Blossoms…that kind of melodic-rock that sounds inviting and pulls you in easily through smooth-flowing verses and bright-choruses…if that’s you, then throw on some Nick Peay and dig on some sweet rhythms through this latest effort.
In a series of successive themed sets, Louisville experienced singer/songwriter Nick Peay is back again with a new EP,Sobering. Following a familiar tale of addiction and the complications of life resulting from it, the EP was essentially put together and shelved several years ago before Peay and his band dusted it off and brought it to the studio. With a narrative that portrays the broadness of the topic rather than bogging down in specification and an organically produced rock sound that meets somewhere between the early reflections of Neil Young and Bob Dylan with the alternative 90’s pop-leaning sound of Collective Soul and Fuel, Nick Peay and his band offer an impressive and impassioned musical story to take in.
A new study in Applied Animal Behavior Science shows that cats prefer “species-specific” music. What they say that means is that, cats responded better to music which contained frequencies that cats use in their communication.
To us, it doesn’t really sound like music. But the cat’s seemed to respond well to it. You can listen to some samples here.
I’m not going to lie, I definitely rounded up my two cats to play them some new tunes when I read this article. The first song got their attention a little bit. They turned their heads in the general direction of the computer. But didn’t really let on as to whether they were enjoying it or not.
The second song seemed to really interest them. It had some bird chirping sounds. But, again, they just kind of shrugged, like, “Oh yeah, we’ve been listening to bird chirps since before it was cool to put them in ‘music.'”
By the third song, they’d totally lost interest. I guess I’ve got hipster cats.