Ep. 13 – ALBUM REVIEWS: Cold Spring Harbor & Port of Morrow

08/15/12 • 128 min

Jason Pyles and Craig Tovey give two, in-depth album reviews on Billy Joel’s first solo album, “Cold Spring Harbor” (1971), and The Shins’ “Port of Morrow” (2012), respectively.

In these reviews, Craig and Jason discuss various concepts, such as the phenomenon of having to warm up to a new album — even from a band you already love; how vocal quality and range change with age; the importance of writing memorably repetitive melodic themes; how to add additional “lifts” to your song when you’ve already maxed out your crescendoing dynamics — and many other nuanced topics.

Links from this episode:

Craig recommends: Port of Morrow by The Shins

Jason recommends: Cold Spring Harbor by Billy Joel

Dave Eaton’s new podcast: All About Autism Podcast
On Twitter: @AllAboutAutism

Follow The Songwriting Podcast on Twitter: @SongPodcast

Send Your Song: The hosts of The Songwriting Podcast invite budding — as well as seasoned songwriters — to send their songs to us, and we will critique them on the show, giving constructive feedback, which consists of positive and negative points, and is merely based on our opinions. Feel free to contact us about sending your song at [email protected].

The Songwriting Podcast is a bi-weekly podcast that posts new episodes on the 1st and 15th of every month — and we’ll be posting Episode 14 here on September 1 (which happens to be our one-year anniversary). Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams and Jason Pyles. To contact us or to send your feedback, you can leave a voice mail at (801) 382-8789, or as noted above, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And you can also find us on Facebook.

We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

This bonus episode of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on July 11, 2012.

Jason Pyles and Craig Tovey give two, in-depth album reviews on Billy Joel’s first solo album, “Cold Spring Harbor” (1971), and The Shins’ “Port of Morrow” (2012), respectively.

Links from this episode:

Craig recommends: Port of Morrow by The Shins

Jason recommends: Cold Spring Harbor by Billy Joel

Dave Eaton’s new podcast: All About Autism Podcast
On Twitter: @AllAboutAutism

Follow The Songwriting Podcast on Twitter: @SongPodcast

We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

This bonus episode of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on July 11, 2012.

Previous Episode

Ep. 12 – MATT CALL: Recording and Producing Your Own Music

The Songwriting Podcast is a monthly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, typically with a songwriter guest.

In Episode 12, Craig and Jason were honored to interview Matt Call, the frontman for the Asheville, North Carolina-based band, Lewis. Matt is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, percussionist — as well as several other musical titles. The primary theme for this episode is Recording and Producing Your Own Music. We also discuss evolving as a musician, and we listen to Matt’s song, “Straight Jacket,” in its entirety and hear about his method for writing it.

On Bandcamp.com: Lewis music

Matt Call and Lewis videos: YouTube channel

We also dip into the proverbial “mail bag” and address a listener voice mail and some e-mails:
— Natalie from Utah asks what makes a song sound sad or happy or sexy
— Ben asks about being a parent while still finding a sufficient amount of time for a recording session at home
— Keith wrote in with a suggestion for guitar players who experience finger / string noise
— A very nice comment from Tamlyn
— An incredible e-mail from Adam in Lebanon, Virginia, about an unlikely experience he had with Fred Ingram’s song “Waimoku III.”

After the listener feedback section, we delve into our famous Moving to Nashville segment, by “Nashville” Steve Rempis. In this month’s report, Steve gives us a Part 2 on Nashville’s open mic venues, including the Commodore Bar & Grille and the Douglas Corner Cafe. Nashville Steve also included this link for the listeners: A List of Nashville Open Mic Venues by NSAI. If you haven’t heard the Steve Rempis episode yet, be sure to listen to Episode 9 of The Songwriting Podcast. And you can find more from Nashville Steve at Steve Rempis.com.

Next we move into our new songwriter segment called Mesake’s Tunes. This month Mesake describes his audition on The X Factor, when he sang before the likes of Simon Cowell and Britney Spears.

And in this episode, we have two Send Your Song submissions:
“I’m Not Gonna Say Love” by Paul Tarle, and “Shine” (the Basement Session version) by Christopher Uryga:

Daeva
Vox and Bass: Christopher Uryga
Guitar: D.J. Palmer
Drums: Kyle ONeil

Find Daeva on Facebook

Find Daeva on YouTube

Feel free to contact us about sending your song at [email protected].

Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams and Jason Pyles. The Songwriting Podcast posts new episodes on the first day of every month. To contact us or to send your feedback, you can leave a voice mail at (801) 382-8789, or as noted above, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And you can also find us on Facebook.

We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work. And by the way, for those interested in all things Autism-related, check out Dave Eaton’s new podcast, the All About Autism Podcast, which airs on August 13 and is produced by Jason.

Episode 12 of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on July 25, 2012.

Next Episode

Ep. 14 – BRYAN ODEEN: Songwriting for the Soul

Though there is no fanfare during this episode, one year ago today exactly, we launched The Songwriting Podcast on September 1, 2011. Our podcast is one year old today.

For Episode 14, Jason interviews music therapist Bryan Odeen, who is one half of the duo Little Bluestem, with Liz Montgomery. Jason and Bryan discuss music therapy as an occupation, and they talk about the cathartic uses for songwriting, both for others and for one’s self. They also discuss spiritual songwriting. In this episode you’ll hear some tips for writing effectively yet tastefully expressive songs. Don’t miss it!

The Songwriting Podcast is a bi-weekly music podcast where three hosts revel in the technical and creative aspects of the craft of songwriting, with the help of guest songwriters or some other music industry professionals.

Feel free to contact us about sending your song at [email protected].

Links for Bryan Odeen and Little Bluestem:
Reverbnation
Facebook
Twitter
MySpace
That Nice Music Man Blog

Your hosts of The Songwriting Podcast are Craig Tovey, Grant Adams and Jason Pyles. The Songwriting Podcast posts new episodes on the 1st and 15th of every month. To contact us or to send your feedback, you can leave a voice mail at (801) 382-8789, or as noted above, you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And you can also find us on Facebook.

We’d like to recognize Aaron Thomas as the photographer for the Little Bluestem photo shown above. We’d like to thank the Dave Eaton Element for the use of its tunes for our theme music, and we’d also like to thank Kara Brewer for her graphic design work.

Don’t forget to watch for Episode 15 on September 15!

Episode 14 of The Songwriting Podcast was recorded on August 30, 2012.