Solid singer-songwriter material backed by dreamy hooks, soaring melodies, solid beats, and emotionally honest lyrics.

13 MP3 Songs
POP: with Live-band Production, ROCK: Acoustic



Details:
You really canât help but fall for John Boyâs Courage.

First comes the acoustic guitar, simply strummed, then joined by gently pulsating drums ânâ bass. The words beginâpoetic, thoughtful, pointedâdelivered with strength and solid vocal ability. When the lead guitar hooks you, thereâs no turning back.

St. Louis quartet John Boyâs Courage was formed when guitarist Chris Taggart and singer-songwriter Todd Michael Sarvies met and recognized a creative kinship in the other. Each had enjoyed a level of success in previous projects (Chris with Core Project, a hip-hop/funk act, and Todd with the bucket-fronted indie band Precho). Yet each knew there was more to music than just putting on a show.

For Todd, music was a means of channeling his inner poet. All the normal thoughts and feelings and observations of most became lyrics for Todd, who observed and interpreted and believed.

âBasically,â he said, âI sing what Iâm passionate about.â

Now might be the perfect place to comment on that singing, as Toddâs voiceâyearning, full, and slightly unpolished, just like lifeâis one you wonât soon forget. But a singer-songwriter does not a band make. The first step was finding Chris.

âWhen we started to play together, we really meshed,â says Todd. âI would bring an idea to the table; Chris would say, âHow about this?â And almost instantly: song.â

Once theyâd amassed a collection of tunes, the pair recruited drummer Kevin Geekie, bassist Matt Fobian and percussionist Pete Hays: rhythm and energy. Suddenly, John Boyâs Courage was realizing its unwritten objectives: To feel music, not just manufacture noise without ample time or broken strings. To make one word mean more than the next. To tell a new story, a new song.

âI can sit down and write a poem with some chords behind it,â Todd says humbly, playing down the talent of his unique style: creative tunings and capos, lots of them.

âThe generic music that is mass-produced baffles me,â he admits almost sheepishlyâbut really, listeners, arenât we all in agreement here? Music, to be meaningful, has got to be honest, original, heartfelt. Only then can we give ourselves completely.

Take, for example, the bandâs just-released debut CD â¦The Fall Precaution. The songs are chapters, the album a story: about falling down, hitting bottom and then getting back up. In the end, though, youâre better for itâstronger, more courageous and focused. And you realize suddenly that here is where you should have been all along; this is where you belong.

As each of the songs means something to him personally, Todd is hesitant to pinpoint favorites. ââStillâ is a song that strikes me,â he says finally. âItâs simply about watching someone sleep and how intimate that can be, being unconscious and vulnerable next to someone you love.

ââPuppetsâ is another one. Itâs about surrendering, maybe hitting the âresetâ button and how great that feels in the long run. There are times in our lives when we are completely broken before we start fresh on something new.â

Like I said, you really canât help the way you feel about John Boyâs Courage. And falling never sounded so good.