Posts Tagged ‘Jay Gonzalez’

JAY GONZALEZ – ” Sunspot “

Posted: March 20, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Jay Gonzalez of the band Drive-by Truckers has more in common with polished sounds of The Beatles and The Beach Boys in his solo efforts than he does with the gritty, loud rock of his main employer. As this writer offered on Gonzalez’s first solo album, 2011’s  Mess of Happiness – Gonzalez is an excellent translator. As you listen, you can’t help but hearken back to the hooks of great pop records—be it Billy Joel, Todd Rundgren, or the two aforementioned groups. In fact, According to Gonzalez, his inspiration is drawn from Paul McCartney’s“expansive vocal harmonies, multi-song suites, and bittersweet chord progressions. But a bit rawer.”  So here he is once again reimagining the sound of classic A.M. radio through his own kaleidoscopic approach.

Again Gonzalez records in his adopted hometown of Athens, GA, and this time enlists some familiar names to longtime DBT fans, Matt Lane (drums) and John Neff (pedal steel guitar) along with an old friend, drummer Joe Rowe (The Glands). Gonzalez of course can play any keyboard or guitar.  Although his vocal opportunities in the DBTs are of the supporting background variety, he steps out confidently on the lead vocals, showing some improvement from his first solos effort.  From the straight-ahead pop of “(I Wanna) Hold You” and the buoyant “Trampoline” to the emotional Robin Gibb tribute, “Crying Through The Wall,” the album is a fun-filled pop excursion, imbued with adventurous arrangements and timeless song writing.  Many of these songs would be equally at home in the ‘60s or ‘70s.

Gonzalez first arrived in Athens, GA from his native Westchester County, NY more than two decades ago. Together with his good friend and bandmate Chris Grehan, he set to work experimenting with his own brand of power pop while also playing in such esteemed local outfits like The Possibilities. Gonzalez officially joined Drive-By Truckers in 2008, first as a keyboard player and later becoming the third guitarist when needed. His contributions have transformed and broadened the band’s sound.  

Taking inspiration from such unified conceptual works as The Who’s “A Quick One (While He’s Away)” and The Beatles’ Abbey Road side two medleys. Gonzalez followed up with 2015’s The Bitter Suite EP, a seamless five-song opus hailed on these pages as “a pleasing listen through and through with emotional ups and downs, constant tempo changes, and a kaleidoscope of instruments and sounds performed almost exclusively by Gonzalez.”

Gonzalez was introduced to Portland, OR indie-rock collaborative Eyelids by fellow Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood and in 2017, contributed instrumental work as a special guest on the band’s acclaimed second album, OR. A series of tours – with Gonzalez backed by his crack live band, The Guilty Pleasures followed. And, more recently, 2019 saw the release of Jay Gonzalez Sings Eyelids Sings Jay Gonzalez, a limited edition 7” single for which each artist wrote an original song for the other to perform and record.

Listening to “Never Felt Bad,” “You Make It Hard (To Be Unhappy),” and the instrumental fare such as the opening “Sunspots” or “Loons on the Lake” is a joy; this album can lift your spirits when you’re feeling down or it can be the perfect soundtrack to a lovely, breezy, sunny Spring day. Yes, those days are coming.  When they arrive, bring Gonzalez with you.

“Sunspot” by Jay Gonzalez Released on: 12th February 2021

JAY GONZALEZ – ” (I Wanna) Hold You “

Posted: February 6, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Acclaimed musician, singer, and songwriter Jay Gonzalez has announced the upcoming release of his new album. “Back To The Hive” arrives everywhere via Gonzalez’s own Middlebrow Records on Friday, March 5th; Perhaps best known for his role as guitarist/keyboard player with the mighty Drive-By Truckers, Gonzalez is heralding “Back To The Hive” with an official video for “(I Wanna) Hold You,”. 

A self-professed “sucker for short pop songs filled with hooks and devoid of filler,” Gonzalez’s second full-length solo album, “Back To The Hive” sees the multi-talented artist continuing to push power pop into new shapes, reimagining the sound of classic A.M. radio through his own kaleidoscopic approach.

Recorded in his hometown of Athens, GA by longtime collaborator Chris Grehan, the album sees Gonzalez joined by a number of old friends including drummer Joe Rowe (The Glands) and former Drive-by Truckers Matt Lane (drums) and John Neff (pedal steel guitar) on a collection of strikingly diverse songs. From the straight-ahead pop of “(I Wanna) Hold You” and the buoyant “Trampoline” to the emotional Robin Gibb tribute, “Crying Through The Wall,” “Back To The Hive” is both invigorating and inventive, imbued with adventurous arrangements, timeless song writing, and a lifetime of pop passion.

Jay Gonzalez first arrived in Athens, GA from his native Westchester County, NY more than two decades ago. Together with his good friend and bandmate Chris Grehan, he set to work experimenting with his own brand of power pop while also playing in such esteemed local outfits like The Possibilities. Gonzalez officially joined Drive-By Truckers in 2008, first as keyboard player and later taking up the mantle of guitarist in the ground breaking band. 2011 saw the release of Gonzalez’s first solo album, “Mess Of Happiness”,

Gonzalez’s approach unmistakably evokes similarly restless classics of early ‘70s shut-in singer-song writing, like Todd Rundgren’s and Emitt Rhodes’s but so very few musicians pull off this style of ornate song writing with such lightness and apparent effortlessness.

Taking inspiration from such unified conceptual works as The Who’s “A Quick One (While He’s Away)” and The Beatles Abbey Road” side two medley, Gonzalez followed up with 2015’s The Bitter Suite EP, a seamless five-song opus through and through with emotional ups and downs, constant tempo changes, and a kaleidoscope of instruments and sounds performed almost exclusively by Gonzalez.”

Gonzalez was introduced to Portland, OR indie rock supergroup Eyelids by fellow Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood and in 2017, contributed instrumental work as special guest on the band’s acclaimed second album, Or. A series of tours – with Gonzalez backed by his crack live band, The Guilty Pleasures – followed, affirming the friendship and like-minded musical association. Indeed, 2019 saw the release of “Jay Gonzalez Sings Eyelids Sings Jay Gonzalez”, a limited edition 7” single for which each artist wrote an original song for the other to perform and record.

Jay Gonzalez’s new album, Back to the Hive, arriving March 5th

DRIVE BY TRUCKERS – ” It’s Great To Be Alive! “

Posted: November 12, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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One of the reasons the Drive-By Truckers have matured into one of America’s finest rock & roll bands is ambition; they’re solid players and write great songs, but just as important, they take storytelling seriously, and when they make an album, they strive to do more than just serve up a bunch of new songs. Most DBT releases aren’t specifically concept albums, but nearly all of them have a thematic consistency in which the individual songs cohere into a larger framework. With this in mind, it makes sense that the band would want to do something more elaborate than the run-of-the-mill live disc, and 2015’s “It’s Great to Be Alive!”, recorded during a three-night stand at the the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, California in the fall of 2014, is an oversized (over three hours on three CDs or five LPs) look at the band’s body of work so far, with a set list that reaches back before the beginning (“Runaway Train” was a tune Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley cut for their pre-DBT band Adam’s House Cat) all the way up to “English Oceans”, the album the group released just a few months before these shows.

The Drive-By Truckers have always prided themselves on a butt-kicking live show, so it’s a bit of a surprise that It’s Great to Be Alive! relies so strongly on dynamics, dialing back the tempo and impact of some of the tunes rather than making this set the full-on blowout some fans would expect. It’s Great to Be Alive! focuses less on the sweat and fire of a live gig than on the songs, as Hood and Cooley draw their portraits of folks trying to make the best of life’s situations, which is often a harder and more desperate task than one would imagine. The relatively subdued attack does make more room for Cooley and Hood’s vocals, and both are in strong voice here, and if these performances are often a bit less finely nuanced than the studio originals, nearly everything here sounds more passionate, and the musicianship is excellent, especially Cooley and Hood’s duelling guitar work, Jay Gonzalez’s keyboards, and Brad Morgan’s drumming, which is endlessly implacable and full of lean, thoughtful groove (if this band has a secret weapon, it’s Morgan).

If It’s Great to Be Alive! doesn’t rock with the usual fury of a Drive-By Truckers live set, the band knows when and where to kick out the jams (especially on the three uptempo Southern Rock Opera numbers on disc three), and this 198-minute marathon leaves no doubt that this constantly evolving band is still growing and shifting and putting new perspectives on its music. It’s Great to Be Alive! is a bit less than the definitive document of the live DBT experience, but if you want to know why this is a great band and how good it can be on-stage, this set will tell you just about everything you need to know.

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Originally released October 30th, 2015

The EXPLORERS CLUB – ” To Sing And Be Born Again “

Posted: July 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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This is an exquisite set of cover songs by Nashville-based Sunshine Pop band, The Explorers Club. Features guest vocals by former Barenaked Ladies front man Steven Page, and Drive-By Truckers member, Jay Gonzalez. Songs include huge pop hits originally recorded by The Turtles (“She’d Rather Be With Me,”) Manfred Mann, (the Bob Dylan penned “Mighty Quinn,” Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart (“I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight”) Herb Alpert (“This Guy’s In Love With You”) and Paul Revere and the Raiders (“Kicks.).
Exquisite set of cover songs by Nashville-based Sunshine Pop band, “The Explorers Club”. A Ten-song-set is chock full of hits, misses and other delights from the 1960s. Brainchild of Charleston, SC native Jason Brewer, the only constant “member” of The Explorers Club over the band’s lifespan
Album features guest vocals by former Barenaked Ladies front man Steven Page, and Drive-By Truckers member, Jay Gonzalez.Three previous albums: “Freedom Wind” (2008), “Grand Hotel” (2012) and “Together” (2016) and of course their “self-titled” album (2020) which is being released around the same time as “To Sing And Be Born Again”Brainchild of Charleston, SC native Jason Brewer, the only constant “member” of The Explorers Club over the band’s lifespan, Brewer re-unites with Freedom Wind and Grand Hotel producer, Matt Goldman (Copeland, Underoath, Smalltown Poets, etc). New contributors to this set include Shane Tutmarc (Dolour, Sean Nelson,) Page and Gonzalez, as well as vocals from former Explorers Club member Wally Reddington and past contributor Brian Langan. 

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Brewer, Tutmarc, and Goldman recorded most of the album in Nashville, at Columbia’s legendary Studio A. Additional work was done at Gem City Studios on the…  more

Released June 12th, 2020

DRIVE BY TRUCKERS – ” The Unraveling “

Posted: June 28, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The kings of country-rock and outspoken wisdom, Drive-By Truckers, returned this year with their 12th studio album, following 2016’s American Band and the 2018 release of the long-lost Adam’s House Cat album Town Burned Down, which featured Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley recorded before their Truckers days. “The Unraveling” arrives after a prolonged period of writer’s block for Hood and Cooley, easily one of the most impressive song-writing pairs in music’s recent history . On The Unraveling, they pick up right where American Band left off, with searing political commentary and a sharp look at the harsh realities of modern American life. “The past three-and-a-half years were among the most tumultuous our country has ever seen,” Hood said in a press statement, “and the duality between the generally positive state of affairs within our band while watching so many things we care about being decimated and destroyed all around us informed the writing of this album to the core.” And there you have it. It’s a new decade, but the Truckers remain dedicated to the same cause: relaying the truth—no matter how difficult it is to speak—by way of deep-rooted, multifaceted and, perhaps most importantly, southern rock ‘n’ roll.

The longest gap between new Drive by Truckers albums – The Unraveling was recorded at the legendary Sam Phillips Recording Service in Memphis, TN by Grammy Award-winning engineer Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price) and longtime DBT producer David Barbe. Co-founding singer / songwriter / guitarists Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood both spent much of the time prior doing battle with deep pools of writer’s block.

The songs that eventually emerged are among Drive-By Truckers’ most direct and pointedly provocative, tackling the myriad horrors of our new normal through sincere emotion and unbridled heart. Indeed, Armageddon’s Back in Town takes a whirlwind joyride through the whiplash of events we collectively deal with each day while the concluding Awaiting Resurrection dives headfirst into the despair and pain roiled up by these troubled times.

The remarkable songcraft found on The Unraveling receives much of its musical muscle from the sheer strength of the current Drive-By Truckers line-up, with Hood and Cooley joined by bassist Matt Patton, keyboardist / multi-instrumentalist Jay Gonzalez, and drummer Brad Morgan – together, the longest-lasting iteration in the band’s almost 25-year history. The LP also features a number of special guests, including The Shins’ Patti King, violinist/string arranger Kyleen King (Brandi Carlile), and North Mississippi All-Stars’ Cody Dickinson, who contributes electric washboard to the strikingly direct Babies In Cages.

Like 2016’s ‘American Band,’ ‘The Unraveling’ features a scaled-back Drive-By Truckers surveying the America around them. And for the most part they don’t like what they see. There’s anger (“Thoughts and Prayers”) and reflection (“Armageddon’s Back in Town”) here, but mostly there’s a renewed sense of focus and purpose after a few years of excess and bloat. Singers and songwriters Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley once again share the songs, lining up for a portrait of a country in serious need of healing – and this was before the coronavirus and George Floyd.

The Unraveling Drive By Truckers released thru ATO Records.

DRIVE BY TRUCKERS – ” The Unraveling “

Posted: February 2, 2020 in MUSIC
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Drive-By Truckers’ 12th studio album and first new LP in more than three years – the longest gap between new Drive by Truckers albums – “The Unraveling” was recorded at the legendary Sam Phillips Recording Service in Memphis, TN by Grammy® Award-winning engineer Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price) and longtime DBT producer David Barbe. Co-founding singer / songwriter / guitarists Mike Cooley and Patterson Hood both spent much of the time prior doing battle with deep pools of writer’s block.

The songs that eventually emerged are among Drive-By Truckers’ most direct and pointedly provocative, tackling the myriad horrors of our new normal through sincere emotion and unbridled heart. Indeed, Armageddon’s Back in Town takes a whirlwind joyride through the whiplash of events we collectively deal with each day while the concluding Awaiting Resurrection dives headfirst into the despair and pain roiled up by these troubled times.

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The remarkable songcraft found on The Unraveling receives much of its musical muscle from the sheer strength of the current Drive-By Truckers line-up, with Hood and Cooley joined by bassist Matt Patton, keyboardist / multi-instrumentalist Jay Gonzalez, and drummer Brad Morgan – together, the longest-lasting iteration in the band’s almost 25-year history. The LP also features a number of special guests, including The Shins’ Patti King, violinist/string arranger Kyleen King (Brandi Carlile), and North Mississippi All-Stars’ Cody Dickinson, who contributes electric washboard to the strikingly direct Babies In Cages.

Released January 31st, 2020

DRIVE BY TRUCKERS – ” The Unraveling “

Posted: January 18, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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Image may contain: 5 people, people standing, sky, bridge, shoes and outdoor

The kings of country-rock and outspoken wisdom, Drive-By Truckers, are returning this year with their 12th studio album, following 2016’s American Band and the 2018 release of the long-lost Adam’s House Cat album Town Burned Down, which featured Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley before their Truckers days. “The Unraveling” arrives after a prolonged period of writer’s block for Hood and Cooley, easily one of the most impressive songwriting pairs in music’s recent history ). On The Unraveling, they pick up right where American Band left off, with searing political commentary and a sharp look at the harsh realities of modern American life.

“The past three-and-a-half years were among the most tumultuous our country has ever seen,” Hood said in a press statement, “and the duality between the generally positive state of affairs within our band while watching so many things we care about being decimated and destroyed all around us informed the writing of this album to the core.” And there you have it. It’s a new decade, but the Truckers remain dedicated to the same cause: relaying the truth—no matter how difficult it is to speak—by way of deep-rooted, multifaceted and, perhaps most importantly, southern rock ‘n’ roll.

From “The Unraveling” out January 31st, 2020

Band Members
Patterson Hood,
Mike Cooley,
Brad Morgan,
Jay Gonzalez,
Matt Patton,

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