Rick Jones' Music 'blog
Rick Jones
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Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 7:28 PM
'Stolen Mower', 'Damocles' and 'Flights';
These are just done in front of a nice Beyerdynamic studio mic, with my pickups sent through my oc pedal then D.I.'d. |
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Posted on Tuesday, August 09, 2011 3:23 AM
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Posted on Wednesday, August 03, 2011 6:16 PM
Don't worry.....
.....I haven't become a flowery shirted, sensitive 'new age' man just yet, but this sentimental little two and a half minute ray of sunshine was written for my own little ray of sunshine, Abbi, my eldest daughter and biggest critic!!!
The challenge with writing something for her, and she's seven now, so I've had plenty of time to do it, is that everything was coming out too saccharin and not really saying what I meant despite having a ton of words.
I sat down, and told myself 'write her something simple that feels like her energy '.
So I wrote 'Simple', and here it is, recorded in one take straight through at Jono's place in St. Ouens in a session that took half an hour including set up!! Not often things like that happen, good vibes today!!
Lyrics;
I'm of the mind that a man is but a creature flawed by nature, Dumb by design, I won't exclude my own self from this picture, I know I'm the worst of my kind,
This rule of thumb was born of careful observation of the world,
Nothing's ever changed my mind..... ....until you.
Oh, it's simple Yeah but it's true Nothing I can ever do will ever make me smile like you.
And here is the song;
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Posted on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 9:52 AM
 .........in most of the usual places. You can buy Eden on iTunes, click the logo below, but it should be popping up in Amazon, Deezer, Tesco Mp3 and all those kind of places any day now.
Keep watching the stores (if you actually like what I do!), because I have the intention of being much more prolific with song production, and adding a lot more tracks for download only at these stores.
As a musician, it's a double edged sword....this kind of distribution will never allow someone like me to make a living from music sales, but at the end of the day, no-one makes music unless they want at least someone to hear it. This seems like the best way to get heard further afield than my back yard.
By the way, if anyone wants to add a review to iTunes, good or bad, as long as it's fair(!), please carry on.....I would appreciate your time!
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Posted on Thursday, June 23, 2011 1:10 PM
I have been listening to a lot of the amazing folk guitar player, Nic Jones, and I found a recording of his version of this, I like it better than the North-Eastern version about drinking etc....it seems positive. It reminded me of my two young sons, so I thought I'd try and play it myself! Learned it as I went really!
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Posted on Saturday, June 18, 2011 3:17 AM
For some strange reason....
...lately, I have had the overwhelming urge to draw ravens.....it probably means something, and with my luck, I'd sooner not know!!
But honestly, I've been thinking of concepts for my next recording....I tried to think of what ties each song to it's brethren, lyrically or otherwise on this next session, and there really aren't any fictional stories, it's all thoughts and memories set to music.
Thought and Memory. There, a title.
"What's that got to do with Ravens?", well, the Norse Deity Odin, in the stories and sagas, particularly
Grimnismál, was described as having two ravens, who flew all over the human realm of Midgard, and reported back to the shoulders and ears of the Allfather.
These birds were named HUGIN (meaning thought) and MUNIN (meaning mind).
Here, read wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn
Thus, in my feeble thinky place was spawned a concept that appealed to me, in that most people won't see the link without further investigating, or reading this blog...which is probably boring enough to render info here well hidden!
I wanted to draw my own cover, so I started to practice pencil drawing Ravens. Here are a few of my early attempts! Click on the pics to see bigger versions and detail;
 None of these are like what I want to use, but I'm getting the hand of drawing them, so by the time I have the tracks done, I should have some art. Of course by then I might have completely changed my mind and got someone else to do them!
Let me know what you think of the concept...good?...lame?....too esoteric?.....to VIKING for ya? Not flowery enough?
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Posted on Friday, June 03, 2011 3:26 AM
A couple of Raw Demo versions;
I decided to make use of the little recording device I've been carrying around for interviewing people for the last few months, and catalog some 'work in progress' songs /ideas I've had. I uploaded some rough demos, these are literally; Guitar-recording device-computer-uploaded.....no effects or mixing of any kind, just one take into the mic and chucked up on line. I figured it's good to bare yourself every now and then, keeps you real!
Please excuse the 'singing', I was just half assed because I was tracking ideas, the thought of posting them up came later....
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Posted on Thursday, June 02, 2011 1:07 AM
Second Edition of the 'Eden' E.P.;
The
first run of my CD Eden is pretty much all gone, which amazes and
humbles me, that's one thousand copies in circulation....or possibly
used as coasters. I've heard they make good beer mats.
With that in mind, I'm making the second run a little different....the
last track 'Exit Ramp' will be the full version with vocals, instead of
the funky little short clip it was constrained to on the first run. If you bought Eden, and in the unlikely event you'd want to hear my agonised caterwauling over that piece of music, then email me rick@rickjonesmusic.co.uk and I'll send you the MP3.
Also, in my....ahem....wisdom, when I did the
artwork for the first one, I had it in mind that if I made the cover
art dark and blurry it would be less 'in peoples faces' or spam like. I
don't know why, but I struggled with advertising myself, and I thought
it looked cool anyway. I wanted the music to be the focus. I always do. Screw the cover!
I had the concept of and X-rayed snake for the cover, and X-rayed apple for the back and an X-rayed tree for the disc. When I layed it out, it wasn't as cool as I thought it would look, and the time was ticking....like it does...
...Anyway, this time I'm releasing it in a white cover with a black fossil snake, and fossil apple on the back cover, also with sleeve notes this time....and....lyrics....!!
Here's the new cover.
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Posted on Tuesday, November 30, 2010 7:48 PM
......where I went on abit about having an interview online, here is the link! |
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Posted on Thursday, November 25, 2010 9:26 PM
As I mentioned in my previous post, Kev from Stage2 productions kindly recorded my second set at the Home-life Expo show, and handed me a disk at the end! I have been having some trouble uploading it to this sites music player, as it is a hefty file....so here are two tracks from it,uploaded to youtube, audio only, and I'll put a link underneath in case you want to download the whole 40 minutes afterwards. You're getting very much the dry signal off the desk....the sound of my pickups, without the room sound, but I think the sentiment comes across ok....let me know what you think? So here's my song Sunsets in the West, ......and here is a cover of "Hallelujah"; ....and here is the link for most of the set,if it doesn't work anymore, as the site sometimes deletes older inactive files, let me know in comments and I'll reupload it for you. Cheers all, Rick |
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Posted on Thursday, November 25, 2010 8:57 PM
To anyone who may have been following this 'blog, I offer sincere apologies for the lack of updates in the last 6 weeks....true to the cliché of the starving,penniless musician I haven't been able to pay the bill for a little while, and was blocked from editing,updating and generally messing with my site. Don't be thinking that I've had nothing to tell though, as things have been happening my end...oddly enough, as here where I live musicians tend to be busy in the summer, and winter is quiet all round for everyone, but I've been busily gigging and playing, and had alot of cool messages from folks who caught me live at various times over the past few months. So, a couple of weeks ago I had the chance to play in support of Headway, a local charity that have strong connections into the islands music scene, at the "Home-life show", a kind of trade show that takes over Jerseys Fort Regent leisure centre. It's pretty huge with many UK businesses and service providers showing their wares and such, and many visitors over the weekend....parking was a nightmare!! They had a stage in a theatre type room, off the side of the main building, and although not many people knew I was there, I had a few people in who were really listening, and coupled with a great sound guy, Kev from Stage2 productions, who also kindly recorded my set (I'm trying to upload it to a music player at the moment!)....I had a nice, chilled out set and really felt the music. I had the fortune of meeting a few lads from my homeland of Wales at the gig, who picked up a copy of my Eden EP, and got a copy of the set recorded by Kev, and I've had a few nice emails from them since, so cheers for the encouragement guys if you are reading this, it was really nice of you, and I hope to get across and play near you soon!  My son Zac decided to invade the stage a few times.....I think he wanted to sing backing vocals...but I wasn't doing "wheels on the bus" that day, sorry little man................................................Also, I did a little set for BBC radio Jerseys "Introducing" show, with DJ Ryan Morrison, who is a great guy, had a great chat and did "Monster" and a new, as yet untitled song, and he played "rut" from my EP to close the show. I would have linked you to the Iplayer so you guys could listen, but given my recent lack of website access, the Iplayer has moved onto the next weeks programme, and my wee set is lost, vanished into the ether.....still, maybe a recording will pop up sometime, and I'll post 'er up for you guys! I also did a couple of songs live @the Art Centre in Jersey, for BBC radio Jersey again, and in aid of Children in need.....also got to listen to the lovely "Flower singer" Michelle, who sang amazingly, with backing from Paul Vane on drums, and wowed everyone who heard them. This was on the Iplayer too.....but I'm afraid the same as above applies.... ho hum... A few other things have happened, but they warrant a post of their own I feel, so they will appear above in short order, hopefully! Cheers, Rick |
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Rick Jones: Posted on Thursday, September 23, 2010 1:35 AM
Here are the lyrics to a song of mine, called "772(the wolves)", with some links and perhaps some explaination...click the clickys and the song may make sense(or not,meh);  Out here, I fear,not the Wolves, and not the Winter. In them, I see, not themselves, and not me either. spilling crimson on the page of time. upon the green. Cast out, old ways, take their heads they lose the memories, history and all his stories. Over the earthly graves, Out there, I care, for the wolves, and for the winter. Rick Jones Sept 2010. |
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Rick: Posted on Monday, September 13, 2010 5:46 PM
Myspace was my first introduction to having my music on the world wide web (small caps for lack of emphasis)....and it was pretty good as a way to show my friends what I'd been up to in the studio, very few new people "found me" that way,as at the time the myspace craze was in full swing, and the sheer amount of bands and musos on there gave most people a headache and constantly full inboxes of "listen to my/our new track". The swamp effect meant that no one was really getting noticed without relentless PR tactics....which I never subscribed to. I slowly stopped bothering with the site, until just a few days ago... I logged in with no other expectation than an inbox full of bands spamming me, and maybe a message off a long lost friend in the USA or similar. Well that was a mistake....I had been invited to play two different festivals (by this time long over), asked alot of questions about guitars by people I really would have liked to help, and been offered free studio time in the UK. All missed....... ....I guess as the myspace tsunami subsided, people actually got a chance to use it for what it was intended for, and the whole insane popularity contest "I've got 778960966-09797866876987,0000 friends" type vibe had gone, but too late for me, as I just plain forgot about it all! The silly thing is.......I probably won't log in for another year now....... |
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Rick: Posted on Wednesday, September 08, 2010 4:59 AM
Eventually I intend to use my guitar page for some instructional, technical and performance related info, I want to archive some of the arcane knowledge I've picked up over the years of being my obsessive self when it comes to sound and music. I truly love acoustic guitars, they resonate against you and a good one imparts the frequeny of each note into your chest cavity as you play, what other instrument could go straight to your heart? That's why I like to play sitting down. I have owned many, never had the money to own anything without complications, so I know the upper end of more accesible models well, as I research anything I do like some kind of anally retentive anorak....I can get away with that, as I'm a big hairy biker looking dude....can't I? I'm not a geek...surely..... But I digress, I have tried,tweaked, re tried, fitted, combined and recombined every kind of acoustic guitar pickup you could imagine. I have traded,bought, borrowed.... not actually stole I'm glad to say, and tested all manner of ways of transferring that acoustic sound to the air around the crowd, and I may be able to save some folks the endless search....that said it's all subjective,sound, and I can go into the reasons for that as well (yawn). So, if you have any ideas where I should start, please feel free to mention it beneath this here blog post. RJ |
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Posted on Sunday, September 05, 2010 7:51 PM
Well now it's around seven thirty pm, on Sunday the 5th of September, and this means that I am supposed to be playing at the Jersey live festival right now,instead of sat here with the laptop feeling like death. Mother nature decided playing Jersey live was not to be, and struck me down with infected tonsils, and now I'm sitting here sweating, running a fever and feeling like I'm swallowing razorblades. I'm pretty gutted, as I've been playing small bar type gigs solidly for years, and it's been a while since I've done anything big with that electric vibe in the air that you only get when people are there to celebrate music. I'm also very sorry, both to anyone who was coming to watch me play, and to Lucy who organised my slot there, in her own time and for nothing....sorry....feel terrible. That said, there was some of the aforementioned weirdness going on, and maybe I am being paranoid, but there was a moment there when it looked like I was going to have to pay £54 to turn up and play an hour set for them..... not bad considering when Chris Bell first contacted me to play in the other tent on the Sat, he was offering me a couple of weekend passes. Then I got bumped out of that tent, and Lucy managed to square me this set in the Telecoms recharge tent.....so all was good.... Except that telecoms had given all the allocated tickets to their staff, and any bands playing their areana had to buy their own tickets.....that seemed wrong to me....I already spent £105 on strings for the weekend, and anyone who's seen me play knows that I go through at least two G strings per gig.... ...then a quick check of the arena lay out and schedule showed me that, apart from me, everyone playing in the Telecoms tent had a set in the Wild West tease tent the previous day. Hmmm. So they already had weekend passes issued....hence telecoms not needing to issue any. So I am feeling rather silly for getting involved again, and if it weren't for Lucy I wouldn't be playing anyhow....as I wouldn't have payed to play. I can't help thinking **another musician who I must not offend, hence the edit** may have had influence, as there was no attempt to book me the three years past...despite people telling me they'd asked him to include me when sourcing performers. So, if you'll permit me a moments bitterness,***edited to save peoples feelings....lets not worry about mine eh?***** Ok rant over, and more apologies to anyone that read all this nonsense. Can't say I'm in the best of moods. |
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