I have recently been going through my hard drives listening to recorded rehearsals, demos and other stuff that I may have never even listened to before. I stumbled upon this interesting little version of  Bob Dylan's oft covered tune, Knockin' on Heaven's Door. It is funny because Tracy HATED playing this one as he felt it was so over covered and overplayed. Hell, even Guns 'n' Roses did it!

But that doesn't stop the tune from being one of Dylan's greatest and most accessible songs.  The version here was recorded as part of a rehearsal for a show The Heretics were playing. I never intended to mix a recording from it and I only had three mics on the drums. (Normally I would have about 11!) I thought this was too good to throw away though. Dave Thomas adds some haunting "ooos" and I think the band really captured something here. Tracy was giving Dave and I dirty looks throughout the take and throws in a "hair band" drum fill near the end just to get us back for making him play this one....

 Click Here to Listen and Buy...
 
KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR CREDITS:
Drums: Tracy Mullins
Backing Vocals and Bass: Dave Thomas
Vocals, Guitars: J.H.

This is another of the live tunes from a June 2006 show at the Walnut Room that I recently mastered. Please have a listen...

 Click Here to Listen and Buy.
 
EYES OF LOVE (LIVE VERSION) CREDITS:
Drums: Tracy Mullins
Bass: Robert "The Goose" Guzman
Acoustic Guitar: Jay Clark
Vocals and Lead Guitar: J.H.
Recorded by Ron Gordon

This song along with Burn it Down and 8 more were a part of a "demo tape' that I shopped to record labels early on in my music business forays. At the time I lived in London and was trying to get together a group of musicians there to complete the lineage of The Who, The Clash and my band of course. Well, it didn't quite work out that way, but one must step boldy don't you think?

Cry Baby Cry is a John Lennon song from The Beatles' White Album which I couldn't stop listening to at the time. I was inspired to cover it because I loved the energy and not many people knew the song so I thought it would be an easier song to interpret than the more well known Beatles classics. Again the recording was done on a  4 track cassette machine.  I achieved the synth-strings sounds by placing a 12 string guitar with a pick-up against a speaker with a microphone in between. The sound you hear is actually the feedback  inside the guitar's body.

Have a listen...

Cry Baby Cry(Lennon-McCartney) Credits:
Guitars, Drum Programming, Vocals: J.H.
Bass Guitar: Ken Williams

You might find this interesting and fun to check out.  When I was about 21 and early in my songwriting development I penned this strange tune. My goal was to set poetry, real poetry to music. I started with one of my favorite poems at the time, a short piece from William Blake.  I used Blake's meter and Biblical, Book of Revelations type imagery and forged my own poem. I moved toward the more inward, personal and  psychological while Blake's poem is much more outward and speaks for the collective of humanity.

The music began with the background, heavily processed guitar figure which is harmonized on a second guitar. I was trying to emulate something that Pete Townshend might have done with synths on Who's Next. This pattern continues through the entire track and the repeated kick drum pattern and digital delay on the snare add to the atmosphere and tension in the song. You can also hear a bit of my heavy Clash influence at the time in the vocal stylization.

This was recorded on a cheap little four track cassette machine with multiple bounces of tracks so the sound quality really isn't that terrible considering! I think I've got about 10 tracks bounced onto the 4. It felt good to revist this song after all these years. I couldn't locate the original 4 track cassette, so I was forced to remaster from a mass produced cassete tape that I used for promotional purposes.

Burn it Down I think stands up as one of my more original compostions and is still one of my favorites. Hope you enjoy it.

Have a listen...

Click here to read Blake's poem

BURN IT DOWN Credits:
Guitars, Drum Programming, Vocals: J.H.
Bass Guitar: Ken Williams

Have a listen to the instrumental version of Down From the Moon. Brian Vibberts, the producer on this song, and I are both thinking that the instrumental version would work really well for film and television and will be marketing it this way in addition to the vocal version.

Stevie Blacke's amazing string arrangment really comes to the fore here, as do the symphony of guitars.

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DOWN FROM THE MOON (Instrumental) Credits:
Produced, Mixed & Engineered by Brian Vibberts
Mastered by David Ives at 101 Mastering, Beverly Hills, CA.
String Arrangement and all Violins, Violas & Celli: Stevie Blacke
Drums: Tracy Mullins
Bass: Robert "The Goose" Guzman
Hammond B3 : Jimmy Lange
Backing Vocal,  Electric, Acoustic and Slide Guitars, Synths, Piano: Jeffrey Harrison 
Recorded at Devil Dog Ranch Studios, Greenwood Village CO.

Here's the second of the the Leap Day  releases: Gwendolyn. Some of you may recognize this song as something that I have played for several years. I never give up on a song, and this latest incarnation really reveals more of the depth of emotion and energy that I have always heard in my head for this tune. I was never really happy with the story that was told in this song's first life, so the lyrics here are all new here as well. 

Again, I am so happy with Brian's production here and the rhythm tracks are so rock solid. Stevie's additional instrumentation and Jimmy's incomparable B3 organ add some beautiful resonance.

Just as with Down From the Moon, do yourself a favor: download this song, burn a CD and listen on some real speakers or quality headphones. The richness of the production can only be revealed on decent equipment.

Click Here to Listen & Buy

GWENDOLYN Credits:
Produced, Mixed & Engineered by Brian Vibberts
Mastered by David Ives at 101 Mastering, Beverly Hills, CA.
Esraj, Electric Violin & Lap Steel: Stevie Blacke
Drums: Tracy Mullins
Bass: Robert "The Goose" Guzman
Hammond B3: Jimmy Lange
Backing Vocals: Dave Thomas
Lead and Backing Vocals. Electric & Acoustic Guitars: Jeffrey Harrison 
Recorded at Rocky Mountain Recorders and Devil Dog Ranch Studios, Greenwood Village CO.

Wow,  I realized that if I wanted to keep up with my 4 release per month goal I better do something today, right? So here is the first  of your Leap Day double shot of tunes. This is your chance to hear and download songs before they are available on CD.

Down From the Moon is another of the four tunes produced by Brian Vibberts. This one is our "epic" with 85 tracks including a double string quartet from Stevie Blacke!  I must have layed down close to 25 guitar tracks as well as 3 part harmonies on all the backing vocals.

"Moon" evolved from a piano riff that moved from C to Gmin that I played over and over on my 1904 A.B. Chase baby grand piano. Gradually, more chords, the melody and lyrics revealed themselves. 

Do yourself a favor. Download this one, burn a CD, and listen on some real speakers or quality headphones. There is so much there your computer speakers probably ain't going to cut it! (It is still only an mp3, but at least you'd be getting closer to hearing it as we intended!)

Click Here to Listen & Buy

DOWN FROM THE MOON Credits:
Produced, Mixed & Engineered by Brian Vibberts
Mastered by David Ives at 101 Mastering, Beverly Hills, CA.
String Arrangement and all Violins, Violas & Celli: Stevie Blacke
Drums: Tracy Mullins
Bass: Robert "The Goose" Guzman
Hammond B3 : Jimmy Lange
Lead and Backing Vocals. Electric, Acoustic and Slide Guitars, Synths, Piano: Jeffrey Harrison 
Recorded at Devil Dog Ranch Studios, Greenwood Village CO.

Here's one that I have never actually recorded a studio version yet. The tune is called Heroin's Girl and it is another one that I have recently mixed and mastered from a November 2006 show at the Walnut Room in Denver. I love the playing by my bandmates on this one especially in the jam at the end. Check out Robert's bass improvisations during the final minute or so of the tune!

  Click Here to Listen and Buy.
 
HEROIN'S GIRL (LIVE VERSION) CREDITS:
Drums: Tracy Mullins
Bass: Robert "The Goose" Guzman
Hammond B3 Organ: Jimmy Lange
Vocals and Lead Guitar: J.H.
Recorded by Ron Gordon
Mixed & Mastered by J.H.

Here is the second single produced by Brian Vibberts! I feel really lucky to have the contributions of such talented players on this song.  

The Stevie Blacke one man string section amazes me whenever I hear it!  A double string quartet from the man with 16 arms...(well, 16 tracks...) As always Tracy, Robert and Jimmy play their hearts out and Dave Thomas adds some wonderful depth to the backing vocals.

Click Here to Listen & Buy

WHEN THERE'S NO LOVE Credits:
Produced, Mixed & Engineered by Brian Vibberts
Mastered by David Ives at 101 Mastering, Beverly Hills, CA.
String Arrangement and all Violins, Violas & Celli: Stevie Blacke
Drums: Tracy Mullins
Bass: Robert "The Goose" Guzman
Hammond B3 and Rhodes Piano: Jimmy Lange
Backing Vocals: Dave Thomas
Vocals and Guitars: Jeffrey Harrison 
Recorded at Rocky Mountain Recorders, Denver CO. Devil Dog Ranch Studios, Greenwood Village CO.

Here's your song of the week...I was moving files from one computer to another and stumbled across these recordings from a Heretics show that I had forgotten about. This a live version of "Venus of Astoria" from a The Walnut Room in June 2006. Unlike the other live tracks I've released in the last couple of weeks from a November 2006 show, this one was not recorded multi-track, so there wasn't any mixing that I could do really. Just a stereo file with all the instruments. What you hear is what you get! We played it extra fast, and if memory serves this was Robert Guzman's first show with us after only a rehearsal or two. It ain't perfect, but this is rock and roll, right.? There was a lot of energy to the track so I thought you all might have a listen. Our good friend Jay Clark was playing guitar with us that night as well, and those of you who know this song well will notice that I had yet to add the "V-V-V-Venus" part in the outro of the song. Click Here to Listen and Buy.

VENUS OF ASTORIA (LIVE VERSION) CREDITS:
Drums: Tracy Mullins
Bass: Robert "The Goose" Guzman
Rhythm Guitar: Jay Clark
Vocals & Lead Guitar: J.H.
Recorded by Ron Gordon

Here's another live track from the November 2006 show at The Walnut Room as recorded by  Ron Gordon. When I sit around just playing for fun and entertaining myself I almost always come back to the blues, and I have been jamming to this 12 bar in C since I was 16. "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" was written by Billy Myles and was most famously recorded by my two favorite blues players: Freddie King and later by Eric Clapton on the Derek and The Dominos "Layla" album (as well as several live versions.) Tracy and Robert really lay it down heavy here and Jimmy blows me away with organ and piano that he added to the track. Click Here to Listen and Buy. 

HAVE YOU EVER LOVED A WOMAN? (LIVE VERSION) CREDITS:
Drums: Tracy Mullins
Bass: Robert "The Goose" Guzman
Piano and Hammond B3 Organ: Jimmy Lange
Vocals and Lead Guitar: J.H.
Recorded by Ron Gordon
Mixed & Mastered by J.H.

Here is a freshly remixed and mastered version of "Reason to Live" from a November 2006 show at The Walnut Room in Denver. I'm really happy with the groove from the rhythm section of Tracy and Robert, and I think this was one of our best performances of this song. The irrepresible Jimmy Lange adds some tasty B3 organ and some lovely piano parts as well. Special thanks also to Ron Gordon at the Walnut Room for doing such a great job on the recording. Click Here to Listen and Buy.

REASON TO LIVE (LIVE VERSION) CREDITS:
Drums: Tracy Mullins
Bass: Robert "The Goose" Guzman
Piano and Hammond B3 Organ: Jimmy Lange
Vocals and Acoustic Guitar: J.H.
Recorded by Ron Gordon