MP3 The BLH Three - Tea, Horse and Crime

An album of thoughtful songwriting that moves effortlessly across genres and textures. Understated songs that speak to the listener about the world they find themselves in day after day.

11 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Folk Pop, ROCK: Americana



Details:
Rumor has it that Lee kicked his mother in the womb in rhythm to Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. He shits you not. Guitar lessons worked for about one year around age 13, but Lee was a little more interested in figuring things out for himself and just make noise in the basement. The first band in high school played metal, then a series of bands in college covered ground from industrial noise/collage ala Skinny Puppy to indie pop not unlike the Throwing Muses. Lee had a problem musically staying in one place.

College was also the place where Lee discovered a passion for recording music. He took hold of his schools recording studio and spent a few years making things look pretty and learning fundamentals of sound. This, in conjunction with a formal music degree, worked to refine Lee's understanding of both music and the sonic spectrum he'd always loved so very much.

Accordingly, Lee decided it made perfect sense to start producing House, Breakbeat and Drum and Bass... Electronic music made sense as a creative outlet for several years. Lee released several successful records under the moniker "The Infinite Posse" on Labels such as Sunburn (sister label to the revered "Hardkiss" label), Ubiquity, Domestic, Zoe Majik and even made an appearance on a French Sony Compilation. It's of note that every song off Lee's first full-length LP, A Stereo Couple, was used on MTV's Real World "Hawaii" season. Strangely enough, the songs were most often used during lesbian love scenes...

Lee has also released a few records under the monikers "Howard Hughes," a Drum and Bass project on America's first Atmospheric Drum and Bass label, True Intent Records and also "Bernard Leon Howard III," which was an outlet for the House music that Lee was making. The BLHIII track went on to do very well and was picked up by Shinichi Records, owned and operated by the world famous DJ Duo, "Deep Dish." The track, Marscarter, appeared on many, many compilations and was literally played in clubs all over the world.

Naturally, in the wake of all this success Lee decided he'd prefer to focus on more straight-forward traditional songwriting. The repetition of programming beats, synths, bass and strings and then striving to make these static loops sound organic lost it's charm for him. Lee noticed that if he picked up a single guitar and sang a little over the top that the performance was endowed with a kind of dynamic and warmth that he found much electronic music, including his own, frequently lacked.

And so, a quest to learn about the age-old art of song-crafting began and it has taken the form of "the blh three," a fictional trio made up by Lee alone. The music of "the blh three" is a blend of endless influences ranging from Pink Floyd to Will Oldham to Bert Jansch to Radiohead to Motown and on and on... There are few genre's of music Lee doesn't find inspiration in and they all find their way into the blender of his creative process. Lee finds that these new songs of his go deeper and say more than his old work ever could and doesn't see the significant challenge of songwriting ending any time soon.