Blues-Americana. Hank Williams-meets-Howlin' Wolf at a Stones' show. Guitar-based rock and roll, with rumbling vocals, deep-in-the-pocket drumming and the occasional pedal-steel and mandolin sweetness.

13 MP3 Songs
BLUES: West Coast Blues, ROCK: Americana



Details:
JOHN HARRELSON-- "MOJAVE"

I write songs. I mean no offense to the many who also are songwriters, but I don't hear that many good new songs out there. Zevon could write some songs. Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, they can write. Willie Dixon, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, and Ryan Adams-- creating material to be interpreted and built upon. Robert Johnson or George Gershwin... you gotta have the songs.

I perform. I've been on the stage since April, 1965. I have gigs up-coming. For some reason I can't imagine giving it up. Getting in front of an audience and delivering the "accumulation that is me," not much is better than that.

I quake with awe at Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Bryant, Brian Setzer, James Brown, Keith Richards, Waylon Jennings, Eric Dolphy, Sam McGhee, Prince, and a thousand more.

My songs are pages from a diary... sound corny? Too bad, motherfucker, it's simply the truth.

"MOJAVE" is the latest in a long line of recordings I have made. Some modestly successful, some still-born. This CD features the fantastic guitar work of Jeff Ross (Rank&File, Desert Rose Band, Hellecasters, William Clarke) on seven tracks.

"Honky Tonk Moon" was inspired by a red-haired waitress. "Les Pauline" is one of my favourite bartenders. Someone needed to write "I Don't Like You." If someone says to you what "Gone Tomorrow" says--they are in love with you. "Sweet Secrets" is trash, sloppy, greedy trash. "Cheatin' on Jesus" describes an intimacy in graphic [if poetic] terms.

If you are interested in hearing about life through the lens of someone who followed their heart--all the way to Hell, then you might find a few things here.
Cheers, Amigo... JWfH [www.johnharrelson.com ]