MP3 Jay - Tiny Diamonds

Old songs about distant lovers, experimental Texas back yard party music, and pleasing meditations on death to cure your ails and remind you of your sins.

12 MP3 Songs in this album (33:33) !
Related styles: FOLK: Urban Folk, FOLK: Drinking Songs

People who are interested in Jonathan Richman Leonard Cohen Townes Van Zandt should consider this download.


Details:
Tiny Diamonds, the new full-length solo release from Texas singer-songwriter Jay Blazek Crossley (who also plays guitar and drums, and sings, in the punk band Woozyhelmet) evokes the long Texas tradition of the lonely poet, but one raised in the wilds of urban Montrose life, full of social justice, rock and roll, cartoons, sex, drugs, poetry, coffee shops, message boards, skateboards, diversity, movements, parties, dancing, and darkness. Jay is part of the weird home recordings generation and has been playing around with recording sounds on top of each other for almost 15 years. Tiny Diamonds is both a celebration of that experimental approach and a modern pop album that your mom, your goth little sister, and your taxi driver might like.

Tiny Diamonds was recorded and mixed by Frank Davis and Jerry Page at Frank's studio/research facility/home in Houston thanks to a grant from the Anthony Foundation. It was mastered by Nick Landis at Terra Nova Digital Audio, Inc. in Austin, TX. The picture on the cover is a picture of Jay taken by his father, David, who was doing a series of photos of kids with guns. Interestingly, Jay was the only kid who would not point the gun at either himself or anyone else.

"Tiny Diamonds, by the way, is pretty damn cool...Crossley definitely put the award he got from the Anthony Foundation this last year to good use... The music's a bit different from the full-band sound of Woozyhelmet; Crossley (who's going by simply "Jay" for this release) sounds more vulnerable and uncertain, occasionally trying to cram a lot of words into a small space in the music, and the sound's much folkier, more rambling and loose and shaggy 'round the edges. The album deepens the resemblance to Modest Mouse that's occasionally evident on Woozyhelmet's albums, but Jay makes things his own quite nicely, achieving a feel with the whole thing of a friendly bunch of folks hanging out and playing music together."

- Gaijin at Space City Rock dot com