TJR: News Blog

My song "American Idol" got a write up in Orange County's biggest paper.

Check it out here

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/byrnes-songs-stars-2037202-fallen-band

Scroll down to the column entitled "Orange Slices".

This is very cool.

My song "American Idol" got a write up at the Rare Writer website.

You can read it here:
http://www.rarwriter.com/

Rick even wrote a commentary regarding it. I wrote my own response. which you can read below

Dear Rick

Thank you so much for your coverage of my song “American Idol”. There is nothing like seeing your name and picture in (virtual) print, to help justify your existence LOL.

I really appreciated your commentary too. I agree with your comments whole heartedly. At the end of the day, AI is just a singing contest and no more.

This simple fact is probably the main reason why so many of the idol stars CDs tank or do only moderate business after their season is over (Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson being some of the few exceptions).

Since the beginning AI has been great a creating singing stars who look
good, sound good, but who (for the most part) end up recording mostly forgettable songs after they win. And this is because the show is a singing contest with no emphasis on songwriting. Which I’m sure is what Simon and his label want. If they can’t write their own songs they’ll be easier to control.

I also agree that I would probably never make the cut on AI. Neither would Johnny Cash (Whom I reference in my song). In fact neither would Dolly Parton who was recently a guest mentor on the show (But then unique musical voices are not what AI is interested in).

But as for the age thing…….Sometimes less if more. I wish that I was such a great songwriter that I could convey all of the opinions that you and I have expressed within a conventional 3-4 minute pop song (That is also entertaining), but alas I am not. But I think I was up to task of writing a song that effectively conveyed at least one of the shows many faults and still entertained.

The inspiration for the song was all of those people would excitedly approach me at gigs wanting express their belief that I should be on the show. I always wanted to convey my rather complex feelings about the show, but in the end it was easier to just say to them "American Idol Discriminates against people of age". At this point their jaws would drop in outrage and they would express how wrong they felt that was. This would often times open the door to further express more about what I felt was wrong with the show.

In a better world there would be a show like AI that would have artists who are the whole package competing against each other (strong vocals, strong musicianship, strong songwriting, etc). Thats the kind of show I would audition for (Provided there was no age discrimination LOL). Audiences could still enjoy the drama of the competition but would also be exposed to exciting new artists whose careers would be launched via the exposure.

Lastly, I noticed that a sizable number of this years AI contestants are actual musicians. This appears to be a quite a departure from previous seasons, so perhaps slowly (very slowly LOL) AI might become more that show that it needs to be.

My newest song "American Idol" is ready.

Download it here

http://www.myspace.com/tjr

Orange County's biggest paper; The OC Register is running a story
about me in their Show section this Friday, but you can read it online
here.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/tjr-beatles-piano-2002307-songs-album

The article talks about my recent Piano album of all Beatles songs,
and my last CD "Another Roll of The Dice".

After you read the article, do me a favor, and click the "Reccomend"
button below the authors name. You will see the number go up one and a
little check will appear. You don't have to log on or anything. That
will let everyone know there is interest in reading about original
music.

Thanks

I am an indie artist. I have self released 3 rock albums and one Piano instrumental album. All my life I have always felt that the Grammys are just a popularity contest for whoever sold the most CDs and little to do with artistic excellence. Not that artistic excellence and CD sales don't always go together, but the Grammy's are nothing like the Oscars which gives props to great films that don't always get the box office.

But I became a voting member of the Grammys because sometimes you can only affect change from the inside. But I am only one person, which is why I encourage my fellow indie artists to join and vote.

But I am here to talk about the live performances and not who wins or loses.

Some of you may be shocked to realize that I am not familiar with some of the songs on the show. I may have almost 5 thousand songs on my ipod (And I love them all), but I don’t pay much attention to mainstream radio anymore (It’s hard to when most of it sucks).


ALICIA KEYS AND FRANK SINATRA: This duet is made possible through the miracle of modern
technology and reminded me of Natalie Cole's duet of "Unforgettable" with her late father. In spite of all the criticism she gets from some hipper than thou types, I think she's very talented and out of all the fake diva's currently getting airplay she has the stuff to become a real diva someday (Ya' gotta work for that title).


CARRIE UNDERWOOD/BEFORE HE CHEATS: I liked the song (This is the first time I've heard it), I don't think it's a country song. The only thing country about this song is the fiddle, I think it was more of a blues song. I guess we would call this urban country(at least the way it was performed here). This time the dancers actually added something to the song. But I do like the song.

COOL AND NOT COOL
Reunion of Morris Day The Time performing Jungle Love. This was very unexpected and cool, then Rihanna came along and started singing
"Umbrella" really badly. It doesn't help that Jungle Love is hundred times more fun a song than Umbrella (A mediocre song that took 4 people to write). She started to improve a bit during the songs breakdown but I think she may have been lipsynching or they where doubling her voice at this point. I noticed that "The Time" seemed to stop playing during her performance which makes it obvious that a lot of Rihanna's performance was canned. This is in stark contrast to "The Time", who were obviously live.

Tribute to the Beatles:

Part 1 Opens with Cirque du Soleil's performance of "A Day in the Life". This is one of those stage shows I can't afford myself, so it's great to see a bit of it.

Part 2 Then From the movie "Across the Universe" A live straight up gospel rendition of (what was always a Gospel song in the first place) "Let it Be".

The first half was performance art, the second half a straight up live performance, and both where awesome. Of course It's real hard to screw up Beatles songs (although American Idol managed it last season).

KANYE WEST: I am not a big fan of this guy, but I have to admit his song "Jesus Walks" is powerful and can bring me to tears. I have never heard the song he performed tonight before, but I think I might like it, if I heard it more. What surprised me is that he actually started to sing at one point. I've never heard him sing before.

FREGIE AND JOHN LEGEND: Once again, I've never heard this song before tonight. It's great to hear Fergie really sing (instead of singing crap like "London Bridge"). This songs sounds like something out of a musical. It sounds like a chick song, but I think I might like it if I heard a few more times and John Legend plays piano really well.

TINA TURNER: I enjoyed the duet with her and Beyonce. Pairing up artists who don't normally get to perform together is really one of the great things about the Grammys. Nice reaction shot of John Forgerty at the end.

MY GRAMMY MOMENT: Last years "MGM" was nothing more than a pathetic attempt at American Idol (Grammy Idol if you will) This year though was a lot cooler. The Foo Fighters + one Classical instrumentalist (plus an orchestra) being conducted by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. This was the coolest part of the night and the Foo Fighters rock. It was nice to see them honor musicianship.

But come one Grammy, do "My Grammy Moment" right. Use it to introduce the world to a new, unsigned great Songwriter/Musician/Singer/Performer and reveal them to world. Use my Grammy Moment as a force for positive change in the Music Business.

BRAD PAISLEY: I'm not into this guy. He plays guitar pretty good though. This feels like real country music to me.



UNCOOL

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that Cab Calloway gets a Grammy lifetime achievement award (he deserves it), but he should have gotten it in his lifetime.

BACK TO COOL
Tribute to Cab Calloway

ARETHA FRANKLIN: Man can she still sing or what? Her voice doesn’t sound like it’s changed much. Memo to today's “pop” divas: Please take note of the real thing.

THE CLARK SISTERS AND THE TRINITY 5: Well Done, Well done.

ISREAL AND THE NEW BREED: Never heard of them before but this was a great live band performance.


FEIST: I am shocked that this girl got on the Grammys. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed this, but I’m shocked that a new female artist who isn’t a barbie doll with 7 dancers behind her got on the Grammys. Lets hope this is a portent of things to come.

KEELEY SMITH AND KID ROCK: This was awesome from the 1st second and Kid Rock proves that he is fearless and more musically diverse than many give him credit for. Once again, this is what the Grammy’s need more of.

ALICIA KEYS AND JOHN MAYER: I’ve already talked about Alicia Keys. I am not into John Mayer, but he is a good guitar player. Love these duets.

HERBIE HANCOCK AND LANG LANG PERFORM RHAPSODY IN BLUE: Love those unlikely pairings. Loved the whole dueling piano motif. How can you go wrong with such great music? You can’t. After this performance was over my songwriting partner looked to me and said, “I think they may have just stolen the show”.

AMY WINEHOUSE: The trainwreck, was not a trainwreck. She was great. Her
band was great. I don’t if it’s the same band that was on the Back to Black album (The Dap Kings as in Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings) but if they weren’t, they did a great job of replicating it. Good job Amy. Prove all the nay sayers wrong on national TV. She seemed rather humbled at the end.

JOSH GROBAN AND ANDREA BOCELLI: Not into Josh Groban but there is more to him than I thought, because he was holding his own against Andrea Bocelli . I wasn’t into this song though.

John Fogerty / Jerry Lee Lewis / Little Richard

Nobody was bad, but this pairing was uneven. Fogarty was solid and played a cool guitar solo in the middle, Jerry Lee shows his age in his playing and voice. He seemed a bit tired but trying his best in spite of it. Age affects us all differently. Lewis is 72, Little Richard is still playing and singing with vitality and he’s 75. This is not a put down on Lewis, I feel badly for him. It’s sad when a once vital aritst is held back by the ravages of age. But like I said, He did his best in spite of it.

My DVR stopped recording after the best album win so if there was any performance after that I missed it.



A FEW THINGS I NOTICED

Is it just me, or does Dave Grohl and his drummer look like they are having a “Jesus-off”?

Also it looked like Ringo Starr and Dave Stewart where having a
“Ringo-off”.

Vince Gill wins the award for best comment “I just got handed an award by a Beatle.....Have you had that happen yet Kanye”.....Kanye is going to pout and have a temper tantrum now.

All in all good night for live performances. Once again I want to
encourage my fellow indie artists to become voting members and help champion the indie movement..

Yes! I have released a piano tribute album of the music of the Beatles. It is only available as a digital release (There is no physical CD).

check it out at CD baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/tjr4

A few weeks ago, I drove down to LA to take part in a taping of the
Gary Garver show.

I performed two songs and was interviewed.

The entire show is online here
http://www.garygarver.com/video.asp

Gary Garver is an alumnus of the Howard Stern Show. This show is
uncensored and there is, what some might call, course language in it,
so don't watch if that stuff offends you.

I am playing a somewhat abbreviated version of "No One Makes the Sunshine" during the opening segment.

I am also in the last segment playing an uncensored version of "Jesus Loves You" and I am interviewed right before that performance.

I thought Gary Garver and his staff where all very cool and nice people.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

A while back I was playing at a resturaunt. A new waitress who had just started working there, gave me a compliment on my playing, and asked me if I had ever played the Rock Star Video game.

I had seen people trying this game at the electronics stores. You have this controller that's shaped like a guitar but it's just a controller and not a real guitar

I realized that this girl was just trying to find some way to relate to me as a musician, but for me it was like knowing how to drive a car and having someone who doesn't know how, ask you "Hey, have your ever driven a big wheel"?

I didn't say any of this to her or course, because she was only trying to be friendly (She was also terribly cute). So I just said politely "No, but I already know how to play a real guitar".

She told me that (the game) is really fun and that I should try it some time. A waiter who obviously saw the absurdity to what she was saying, jumped in and said (referring to the controller)"It's 3 buttons"!

I laughed, and she suddenly became embarrassed (I think it suddenly hit her how silly this was) and she sheepishly retreated saying "I wanna learn how to play a real one".

Just recently South Park did an episode where Kyle and Stan are playing this exact game (to the music of Kansas's Carry on a wayward sun) at Stan's house. All their neighborhood friends are there too and they are all impressed by this. Stan's father comes home and sees this. He pulls out a real Gibson guitar and amp and asks the kids if they want to see something really cool?

He plays the same Kansas song but he is really playing it.

The kids tell him that his playing the guitar is gay.

The rest of the episode follows how a record label decides to sign Stan and Kyle after they score X number of points on the game.

It was hysterical, but it made me remember that conversation with the waitress a while back and I had to wonder if South Park was that far off in their satire.

And this got me back to my previous comments on music education in schools and I have to wonder if there are kids who can't tell or appreciate the difference between a video game controller that is shaped like a guitar and a real guitar?

There has always been a lot of talk about what has killed music, and I have done a lot of thinking on this lately. There is a lot of talk about radio, MTV, the record labels and they have all played their part in this....but and I think a deeper answer to this in our (US) culture is the cutting of music programs in our public schools.

I am not a parent, but my understanding is, is that there is little to no music education in our public schools anymore, and that there are no serious classes in even music appreciation. Even when I went to high school all there was, was the school marching band and the school choir. I was not in marching band I was in the choir and I remember we learned all our pieces by rote.

The end result is that kids have little to no appreciation for music or musicianship. They grow up with no appreciation for what it takes to become a professional or great musician.

The parallel that I draw to this is that sports are never cut. Sport flourish in our public schools, so kids grow up with a real appreciation for what it takes to be a professional athlete. They understand it because they have spent a lot of time trying to play these sports themselves whereas (unless the parents have enrolled them in private music lessons) they have spent no time trying to play a musical instrument.

So we have a generation of kids who grow up this way. For me this is evidenced by the fact that I see and hear from people who think that music is created as if by some magical means or that all music is created in a studio with samples.

Another thing that evidences this for me is some of the talkbacks I have read on youtube musical performance videos. A good example was a video I saw of Jewell performing one of her songs solo acoustic. There where endless comments about how pretty she is and how great she sings, but nowhere was there a comment on her guitar playing, or her songwriting. They understand singing (and pretty) but they show no appreciation for songwriting or musicianship

I get a lot of young people who ask me if playing guitar is hard. I am startled that they would even ask, but then I shouldn’t be. They have no music education.

I would be curious to hear from parents on this about what kind of music classes are offered (or not offered) in their kid’s public schools.

IN THE PAPERS

The OC Register gave my new CD a review.

Here is a link to the article

http://www.ocregister.com/entertainment/tjr-www-information-1912664-band-rock

....Ahhhhhh, nothing like getting your name in print to help justify
your existence LOL.

I think the words I would use the most to describe the trip would be:
"Eye opening".

I am going to post some pics and vid soon, but now I am just going to
write some random paragraphs of some of the first things that come to
mind.

I played three dates in Dublin and three in London. Then I went to
Paris and visited some of the greatest Art museums in the world.

Playing the gigs was great, but more than that was meeting the people
and experiencing the culture.

When I got to Dublin the first thing I noticed was how much better
raw food tastes over there. Eggs, Vegetables, Meats, etc.

The air in Europe definitely tastes and smells cleaner over there
(something I realized when I got back home).

Not once in Europe did I ever hear anyone playing their music
obnoxiously loud while driving in their car.

Here is one of my favorite antectdotes about my recent trip: I had
just finished playing a gig in dublin and was sitting talking with
some kids who where partying in the audience. One of them was very
interested in my guitar playing and he asked me about guitar players
that influenced me. I talked about a number of players and when I
brought up The Edge from U2 he asked me if U2 was as big in the US as
they are in Europe? I assured him that they where. He chuckled and
said "You know it's funny. We Europeans think of ourselves as the
center of the world stage, but we forget about our cousins in the
States.

I laughed and told him. "That's funny, because most that's what most
Americans think".

I just got word that a couple of songs from the new CD will be used
in an indie horror film entitled "Absolute Horror" that is now in post
production. The film will then make it's way to the film festivals. I
will let you know more on this as it develops. The same filmmaker
wants to use my "Peace Love And Don't Trust MTV" song for a comedy
that he is going to work on called "True Hollywood". once again more
on this as it develops.
That's about it for now

Part of what is wrong with so much of the music being played on the
radio today, is that it sounds great.

Seriously.

I hear this all the time. I ask someone what they think of a song
that is playing on the radio. They listen for a second and say "It
sounds good".

"But do you think it's a good song"? I ask.

They don't answer "Yeah, I love that song" or "Yeah this song kicks
ass"! Instead they pause for a bit, maybe listen for a few seconds
more, and then say something like "I don't know......It sounds good
though".

A great song is a great song. No matter how well it is, or isn't
recorded. The Beatles recorded most of their albums on 4 track tape
machines. They used technology that is considered prehistoric
compared to recordings made in today's slick digital audio world of
60 + tracks and up.

Yet when you hear a song like Yesterday, it doesn't matter that the
technology used to record it was vastly inferior to today's
technology, because in the end, a great song (and an equally great
performance) shines through all of that. No one has any trouble
hearing a great song.

But we live in a world where audio technology can make the mediocre
sound great. In today's music world it's about the production. And we
can do this in spades. But this doesn't make it a great song. It just
makes it "sound" great. Sound being the operative word here.

Back in the day, it was about the song. You didn't have the
technology to hide behind. The song had to be good. This didn't stop
bad songs from being recorded, but I think the lack of technology
made it easier for the casual listener to discern the mediocre from
the good.

A good analogy to this is movies. With today's technology you can
create great special effects undreament of 10 years ago. You can
color correct your movie to make the cinematography look beautiful.
But without a good story it's just empty eye candy. But if you don't
look at it with too critical a mind you might be fooled into thinking
it was a good movie, when in actuality it was just a good looking
movie.

The same holds true for music. Today's production values will make a
mediocre song sound good. And if you don't think about it, you might
be fooled into thinking it is a good song. But a good song stays with
you. You can remember the melody. A good song can move you across the
dance floor but it can also move your soul. For many, music is
background noise and you can use good songs for this too, but a good
song can also stop you in your tracks. It can stop your train of
thought, and make you want to follow that songs musical path/journey
from beginning to end.

Admit it; it's hard to start "American Pie" by Don Mclean and then
turn it off half way through. You have to finish it.

So the next time you listen casually the latest flavor of the month,
ask yourself: Is this really a good song, or does it just sound good?


Does the melody really stay with you?

And when you hear it again does it groove and excite you enough that
you want to hear it from start to finish?

What is it with contests?

Star 98 is having one and I thought I might enter it. So I read
their contract/entry rules and this paragraph is in the middle of it.


I understand that by entering and submitting my Entry, I have granted
to the Released Parties, a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive,
royalty-free, sub-licensable (through multiple tiers) right and
license to use, publish,
reproduce, display, perform, adapt, modify, distribute, have
distributed and promote such content in any form, in all media now
known or hereinafter created, anywhere in the world, for any purpose.


If I read this correctly, It sounds like I am giving away my song to
them use in any way they want.

I have written a letter to them. It will be interesting to see if
they respond.

While searching for work as a musician and songwriter, I came across
this ad.

This ad is real. I did not make it up. Below is the entire ad
verbatim

Check it out and then read my follow up commentary:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
We need a songwriter to write some songs for one of our singers. They
need to be either hip hop, pop, or r&b songs. Your name will be
credited and shown to other singers. You'll also get $150 per song.
You'll just need to write the song, send the lyrics to me, and if we
decide to use your song we'll send you the money however you chose.
These songs are going to be for a teenage girl. Here are the songs we
need:

1). rich & awesome (kind of about being conceited)

2). can't stop loving you (about wanting someone who doesn't want you
back but you don't want to give up hope)

3). im just me (about not wanting to change for someone else)

4). rumors (about being tired of all the rumors going around)

5). the perfect lie (about you being a mistake)

6). forever a true friend (about having one friend who's always been
there)

7). party girl (about just wanting to have fun)

8). drama queen (about being a drama queen)

9). this is life (about all the troubles life brings but also about
the good times).

If you can help with any of these songs please email me! We do not
have any samples of the singer to send but if it helps she sounds
like
Christina Aguilera.
>>>>>>>>>>>

Now what struck me about this ad, besides the unbelievable and
outrageous fact that they are buying you out for $150 dollars a song,
is the formula they have presented.

Basically they want to produce a 9 track album and they already know
what each song needs to be about.

We always knew these acts where formulaic, but this ad spells out the
album formula for every Brittany/Hillary/Ashley pop princess in the
making.

Every record label owes the author of this ad a debt of gratitude for
their efforts to further the formula that is the product that we call
pop princess.

All you have to do is find a teenage girl that will do what you tell
her (Who cares if she can really sing or not, it hasn't hurt Ashley
any). Add some slinky clothes and follow this album recipe and
Walla!.... Instant pop princess.

The Following 3 internet stations are playing my music in regular
rotation

WIRN1 http://www.wirnonline.com
WIRN2 http://wirn2.cayaent.com
nVasion Radio http://www.nvasionradio.com

YEAH!

Let us celebrate stations with good taste.

.....OK, that isn't happening LOL. I know I said that back in Jan,
but that was before flu knocked me down for two months. We have
completed the first mix on all but three songs. And we will be
getting to those this week.

The plan for mixing this CD is simple: We will mix each song once.
Then we'll see what needs to be corrected and mix it one more time.

I'm serious. This is what we did on the last CD and it worked out
well.

...It's getting there. And it will be worth the wait!

I was browsing the CD racks today when I noticed that Beyonce has
released an expanded edition of the same album she released earlier
this year. It has 4 new songs on it.

Honestly why do they this to the fans? Re-release the same CD that
they released 4 months ago with some new songs on it, so that you
have to buy it all over again.

It's one thing to (years later) re-master and rerelease your CD with
some cool bonus tracks on it. But to do it within the same year?

Short term greed = Long term failure.

I looked out this morning and the sun was gone
Turned on some music to start my day
I lost myself in a familiar song
I closed my eyes and I slipped away

**************************

I was on an online music forum that I read and post on frequently,
when I read that Brad Delp, the lead singer of the band Boston had
passed away at 55.

Boston was one of my favorite bands. And Brad Delp was one of my
favorite Rock Singers. He had one of those rare amazing voices (not
to mention ranges) that few male singers can ever attain.

I read once where someone mentioned that he would have been a great
replacement for Freddie Mercury of Queen (Another one of those rare
and amazing rock vocalists to be sure). I couldn't have agreed more.

I know that Boston was not just Brad Delp, but I would guess that his
contribution was was close to 50% of it. The other 50% being Tom
Sholz. The bands lead guitarist, whose guitar sound and playing had a
huge influence on my own.

Their first 3 albums (Boston, Don't Look Back, and Third Stage), are
three albums that I never tire of.

Their first album is still considered to be one of the best Rock
albums ever recorded and (for me) the latter "3rd Stage" reaches near
sonic perfection. It's one of those albums where: The more I listen
to it, the more there is to hear.

Brad left the group after "Third Stage". The bands 4th album "Walk
On" featured Fran Cosmo on lead vocals. I bought the CD; I liked a
lot of the songs on it. Fran is an excellent singer, but (for me) it
wasn't the same band anymore.

When I read about his death, the first thing that entered my mind was
"How"?

A few days later the news would come out that it was suicide.

This is unfathomable to me.

I struggle in relative obscurity trying to get my music out there.
Working against a system that doesn't care about new music. I have no
large Machine in place and have to do the work myself.

I still have to work a part time day job to support myself, and every
day I think to myself, if music was full time I would be the happiest
person on earth.

I don't know why Brad Delp killed himself. And I don't want to come
off as judgmental about his suicide either, because I don't know the
man. There must have been some other greater pain in his life, or
maybe he suffered from something uncontrollable like clinical
depression....who knows?

I just find it sad to think that someone who got to do what he wanted
to do with his life, would also have to end it.

Brad Delp came back for Boston's 5th album and word was, that he and
Tom Sholz where working on the 6th. That 5th album "Corporate
America" was a mixed bag of 10 songs. In my review of it I said that
half the songs where Awesome! And the other half Crap! But I still
wanted to hear that 6th album.

I was at that dreaded day job, when I read the posting. After I got
off work, I turned on my ipod and played those first three albums and
listened to that amazing sound.

R.I.P. Brad Delp.

So many people have come and gone
Their faces fade as the years go by
Yet I still recall as I wander on
As clear as the sun in the summer sky
(Boston: More Than A feeling)