5 Songs You Need to Hear! Vol. 3

Greetings lovers of new music everywhere! Welcome to the third edition of 5 Songs You Need to Hear. If you are tired of everything you are hearing on the radio and bored with everything already on your iPod/iTunes/iPhone/iDon'tCareAnymore... then this is the blog for you.

You know how this works. I give you 5 Songs You Need to Hear. You listen to them. If you like any of them, you go buy them, then you tell all your friends about them, and support the artists who created them so they can keep on making more great music in the future.

So let's not waste time. Here we go...

1. Back to You - Twin Forks. Another Noisetrade.com discovery. I don't know much about this band except I love this song. Also, they do an amazing cover of Taylor Swift's song Mean. In fact, I actually like that song better than this one even, but I'm saving it for a special covers songs edition.

2. Be My Girl - John & Jacob. One of the catchiest dang songs I've heard in a long time. I absolutely love the chorus of this song. It reminds me of classic Foster & Lloyd. Country but with a Beatlesque sensibility of melody and pop hooks. You will be humming this one the rest of the day whether you want to or not.

3. There's a Rumor - The August Empire. Amazon.com offers a lot of free music if you are willing to take the time to sift through it and find the gems among the rubble. Among the treasures a diligent seeker can find are a set of samplers from a label called Mishara Music. I have all of them and there is some absolutely brilliant music on these singer-songwriter collections. One of my favorites is from a guy-girl duo called The August Empire. This song is beautiful, haunting, flawlessly written and performed. It was featured last year on an episode of NBC's The Night Shift and almost immediately scored them 20,000+ views on their YouTube video. I predict you will buy this song within 24 ours of hearing it. You're welcome.

4. Blackbird Song - Lee Dewyze. OK, if you're a fan of The Walking Dead you probably know this song. What you may not know is who did it. This darkly haunting, gruff-voiced masterpiece is performed by none other than former American Idol winner Lee Dewyze! Yeah, I know, I couldn't believe it either! Regardless of who did it, this song is one of my favorite tracks of the last year.

5. Beneath the Brine - The Family Crest. And now for something completely different.... The Family Crest defy categorization. I think they may have invented their own genre. How do I prepare you for what you are about to hear? Hmmm.... words like epic, majestic, sweeping grandeur all come to mind. Aw, heck, just listen to it yourself and tell me what you would call it. Here's what I can tell you... you will never, ever hear this on the radio or in the mall at Hot Topic. It's far too cool for that.

There you have it, folks. Get busy. You've got work to do. And remember, you don;t have to listen to the crap they tell you to listen to. You have a mind of your own. Now go explore...

5 Songs You Need To Hear! Episode 2

Hello fans of great music everywhere! Welcome to my second installment of 5 Songs You Need to Hear. As an avid fan of the unheard, unsung, unnoticed makers of aural art, my goal is to seek out and discover greatnew music wherever I can find it, and pass it along to you. If you hear something you like, be sure to share it with your friends and help get these artists the recognition and fanbase they deserve.

People ask me, "Jerry, do you consider yourself a hipster?" No, I do NOT consider myself a hipster. A hipster is someone who takes pride in appreciating something no one else has heard of and holds everyone else in scorn and derision because of they are not as cool as he thinks he is. Hipsters deliberately keep their discoveries a secret so they can hold it against everyone else, and somehow make their own pitiable, gray lives seem a little less msierable. That is not me! I love great music everywhere I find it -- even on (gasp!) the radio! Even made by -- (horror of horrors) popular artists!

No, I am not a hipster. I am a servant, really. I want to share what I've found. I want to bring sunshine and happiness to people's music libraries. I want to broaden the horizon of musical tastes and styles. And I want these artists to succeed so they will keep making great music for many years to come.

So with that in mind, here are 5 Songs You Need to Hear....

1. Empty Me Out - Liz Vice. It's like someone dropped an old Gladys Knight vinyl LP from 1970 onto the turntable. This stuff is solid R&B gold. I discovered Liz Vice on Noisetrade.com ( a gold mine of free music from new indie artists of every style and genre). This whole CD is amazing but "Empty Me Out" is by far the standout track.

2. Shelter Song - Temples.  While we are in throwback mode, let me hip you to one of the coolest bands out there right now. Temples is a British band that perfectly replicates the acid-drenched, lava-lamped psychadelic sound of the late sixties. This song was a freebie on Amazon.com last year and it has been in permanent rotation in my iTunes ever since. If you're not a fan of Cream, Hendrix, early Pink Floyd, or more obscure bands like the Electric Prunes, Vanilla Fudge, or Frijid Pink, then this definitely NOT for you. But if you crave a bit of paisley in your diet, I highly recommend Temples.

3. Morning Fades - Jameson Elder. Another Noisetrade find. This song is absolutely beautiful. Elder is a troubador of the highest order, able to capture nuances of emotion and pathos with nothing more than an acoustic guitar and a his voice. This brilliant singer-songwriter has a lot of great tunes, but "Morning Fades" is a standout. I couldn't find a decent YouTube video for the studio recording (there is a fanshot video of a live performance in a club, but the quality is poor), but you can listen to it on Spotify here.


4. Something About You - Carey Brothers.  No, it's not the Carey Brothers (as in siblings with the last name Carey); it's one guy named Carey whose last name is Brothers. And yes, it is the old Level 42 song from the 80s. I confess I was never a big fan of the Level 42 version when it was originally released. To me, it just sort of blended in with the rest of the bland, souless, Euro synth-pop-with-a-drum-machine crap on the radio. In fact, I had completely forgotten this song even existed until I heard this remake. Carey Brothers managed to strip away all of the keyboards and outdated production and find a real gem of a song buried underneath it all. This is a surprisingly beautiful song with a lovely melody and heartfelt lyrics. It just needed the right treatment. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do...

5. Ain't No Grave - Jamie Lin Wilson. Another cover that for me outshines the original. I know I will get a LOT of push back on this, but I like this version better than the Johnny Cash recording. Don't get me wrong: I absolutely love Johnny Cash. In my book he is one of the greats right up there with Elvis, the Beatles, & Sinatra. But there's just something about the fire in this young lady's spirit when she sings "Ain't no grave gonna hold my body down/ When I hear that trumpet sound, I'm gonna rise out of the ground!" that makes me wanna have church right there in my seat! Whether you agree or not about which version is best, I hope you will enjoy Jamie Lin Wilson's take on this gospel classic.

There you have it, folks. 5 Songs You Need To Hear! Please take the time to listen and comment. I appreciate your feedback. And as always, if you have discovered some great new music that you think deserves to be heard, please let me know about it. Until next week! -- Jerry Davison

Five Songs You Need To Hear: Inaugaral Edition

For a while now I have been doing this play list n my iTunes called "Flavor of the Week" to help me assimilate new music into my library. I have about 16,000+ songs in my music library so I have to be intentional about working in new stuff or it will literally get lost in the shuffle.

I am constantly on the lookout for new music. Through websites like Noisetrade.com and services like Spotify, I add new bands and songs almost everyday. I would say the vast majority of stuff I listen to are things I discovered that way. I thought it might be fun to share some of the new songs I discover every week and hopefully do a couple of good things in the process:

1. Help people discover great new music.
2. Break people free from the thought-trap that you have to hear it on the radio before you can like it.
3. Help new artists and rising talent to get heard more by sharing their music with a new audience.

One quick note before we begin... As a pastor, I realize I am under a lot of scrutiny about where I go, what I do, what I watch or listen to. I get that my position carries influence and responsibility. Having said that, not all these songs are going to be Christian songs. Some of the artists are not folks you would want your kids emulating. Please understand that by listing a song on this blog, I am not endorsing anyone's lifestyle or suggesting you support them. I am taking these songs on their own merit, one at a time. This blog is about the song, not the writer or the performer. I will do my best not to lead anyone astray... :-)

So here is my very first edition of 5 Songs You Need to Hear This Week...

1. Geronimo by Sheppard. This is my jam. Great stuff for sunny days, windows down, driving to the lake or the mountains or the beach... wherever you feel connected. Sheppard is an Australian group made up of a brother and his two sisters (last name Sheppard, get it?) and a few friends. I like the bright, catchy, sunny fun of this song. I like the idea of yelling Geronimo and just going for it when you have a dream worth chasing down, or a calling to answer. The imagery of leaping through the curtain of the waterfall is a nice one, full of shimmery beauty and promise. I crank this one when it comes on. I am posting the live acoustic version for a few reasons: it highlights the song rather than the artist, it's not stupid like the music video, and it shows that these guys really have some talent!

2. Stars by Jessica Rotter. Found this one on Noisetrade. I am a sucker for that lonesome fiddle sound and this one has it in spades. Just plain beautiful.

3. 1612 by Vulfpeck. A buddy of mine turned me on to these guys a few months ago. Every song they do sounds like the soundtrack to a 70s cop show... I mean that in a good way! You know those ones like Barney Miller, Baretta, The Rockford Files (am I showing my age?) that had way cool music. These guys are without question the best jazz funk you will ever listen to. The musicianship is bar none. The bass player is a beast. Most of their stuff is instrumental but this track features gospel singer Antwuan Stanley. It sounds like it could have been a School House Rocks cartoon in 1973.
Trust me, you need this in your life. Just go on Spotify, search "Vulfpeck" and listen to everything. You're welcome.

4. A Little More by Eric Hutchinson. It's funny how I stumble onto these things. Never heard of this guy before. One day I'm sitting in my office working, listening to Spotify, and on the feed comes across that one of my friends is listening to this guy Eric Hutchinson. On a whim I clicked on it to sample it. Ended up buying several of his songs off iTunes that day. This is one of them. Pure retro 80's power pop at its finest. Leaves me wanting a lot more. The video is a little goofy but if it distracts you, just turn your head and listen.

5. Run Boy Run by Woodkid. I can't even remember how I found this song but it's amazing in its epicness. The video is a very interesting mix of side-scrolling video games and an eisode of Adventure Time with a lot of spiritual imagery (the demons, the sword and shield, the promise of a heavenly city awaiting at the end). Don't know anything about the artist at all. Never heard anything else by him to this day. But this track is crankworthy and a fitting closer to this inaugural edition of 5 Songs...

Okay kids, that's all this week but there are about a jillion more where that came from with more pouring in all the time. Hope you all enjoy these nuggets. Feel free to send me your suggestions of great, unheard, unknown songs. Later!