New Release: John-Eric Booth
John-Eric Booth - Alive & SwingingHere's an album I've lived with through various mixes and versions. It is finally out and ready for its closeup. I often kid about John-Eric being my favorite crooner from West Virginia, but the fact is simple: He "gets" it. He got into the business late, but is a quick learner and a swing historian, too. Sinatra, Martin, Darin, Cole and the rest of the faces that are carved in stone in the crooner version of Mount Rushmore are his heroes.
He put out a different version of this album a year ago, but grew to knew he could do better. He wanted to go back into the studio. The record label handling his distribution went under. He knew that this was his chance.
The great thing about music these days is that nothing is set in stone.
For the new version, "Alive & Swinging" is out on Carbel Records and includes fifteen swinging tracks. While I'll spare you the trails of choosing those cuts, let me just say that he left some decent stuff behind on the cutting room floor.
The production was sometimes virtual, sometimes bi-coastal. Sessions in Nashville and Hollywood produced excellent work from Pat Longo, Tim Smith and some of the best musicians around. The tracks were sent to Melbourne, Australia for mastering and mixing by Damien Montalto at Cavern Sound Studios - after two other attempts stateside fell short. Various mixes were even presented here on TPR to see how things sounded with radio processing.
I'm happy to say that I've not only reclaimed a large amount of hard drive space but also have the new product in hand. Let me talk about the music!
J-E-B and I discussed the idea that there are a number of standards that seem to be standard issue to any singer. You know what I mean. He wanted avoid a lot of that list and breath new life into the few that he really wanted to do.
He starts things off with an old-school crooner number from Harry Archer and Harlan Thompson - "I Love You", goes swinging with "They'll Be Some Changes Made", "More" and "Mack The Knife" and even gets a little soulful with Neil Hefti and Bobby Troup's ditty on the distaff side - "Girl Talk". He travels musically from "Brazil" (Barroso/Russell) to Burma (or Myanmar if we must be correct) with "Road To Mandalay". Kipling's poetry is safe with John-Eric and it pops just like Frank's version did. He cooks up a Harry Connick, Jr. original "Recipe For Love" that I'm sure he added swing to taste. Finally, if you want to end cool, you pour from Dean's pitcher - "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" (Russ Morgan/Larry Stock/James Cavanaugh) - right?
"Alive & Swinging" covers a bit ground musically. Booth pays homage at times, but does it without cribbing off other's notes.
JohnEricBooth.com
BP
P.S. Catch J-E-B on Swinging Songbook with John-Eric Booth right here on ThePenthouse.fm, Fridays at 1pm with a encore performance on Tuesday at 6pm.
Labels: Carbel, John-Eric Booth, new releases
posted by The DJ at
5:52 PM
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