Couple of random thoughts for the weekend. I’m seeing all these videos about Linda Ronstadt, and the men who betrayed her in music. It’s interesting, I always admired and kind of marveled at her giving spirit, to help launch the careers of bands like The Eagles, Jackson Browne and others, then to stand back and take no credit. But as it happens, she seems to have been very hurt by some of them, and many others, proving again and again there’s very little happiness or loyalty in the music ‘business’.  Hard to believe that an industry built on bricks of inspiration from singers, musicians, writers and producers would have so much betrayal, prostitution and dishonesty.  It makes you wonder what music could have meant without the ‘help’ of the industry to promote, or lack thereof.

Also, I had the most amazing conversation last night with ChatGPT on subjects from Greek Mythology to the current owners of the world today.  We seem to be in a fresh and unique spot with AI, where it hasn’t shown it’s fangs yet.  A great time to have conversations you never could have with a human… but always remember, it’s owned just like we are.  We’re going to be forever at the mercy of how light/dark the current owners are.  The vast and seemingly insurmountable amount of information it has, and it’s ability to synthesize this information to actually have an opinion is quite something.  The deeper you delve into it, the more fascinating and frankly, the more real and frightening it becomes.

Have a great weekend.  Another giveaway coming soon!

Jude

Been playing banjo off and on for a few years.  I’ll never master it, but it’s fun trying to fool people I know something.

Anyway this song was inspired by Flatt & Scruggs and an old Outlaws song too.

Completely different, I know… but I’m trying to fit it all in!

Love-Jude 🙂

People ask all the time how they can support my music and other artists like me. I always say ‘just enjoy it!’… but you know there is something you can do to help us who are kind of dismissed to the middle for whatever reasons… not on a major label, older than the mainstream public, not that well known etc.

Anytime you add a song to a playlist, it gets played more frequently. The more songs you add to playlists that play during parties or just on weekend listens, it gets streams where normally it wouldn’t.  You can get creative with it, adding songs that sound like they’re from other eras and just slipping them in, or if you have totally random playlists where they fit in, that’s good too.

Back in the 80’s and 90’s they had a term called ‘turntable hit’.  That was when a song was a legitimate hit at radio, but the artist didn’t become a star.  You could classify ‘Baby It’s Tonight’ as a turntable hit.  It was actually #4 on pop radio (R&R Magazine), but because Billboard Magazine tallied that number with actual sales, the song only made it to #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Many songs on Spotify get millions of streams and no one knows the artist because the songs were cleverly placed by a curator into a hot and trending playlist, alongside more popular artists, therefore riding the wake of songs that people actually tuned in for.

So, adding any of my songs, especially new ones like ‘Subliminal Seduction’, ‘New You-niverse’ or really anything from the albums ‘Coup De Main’ or ‘Coolerator’ really seriously helps with awareness and streams.  Putting them closer to the top helps even more.

My version of ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ from Coolerator has, on it’s own gained momentum on Soundcloud with 375k streams.  Pretty successful when you consider most listeners on Soundcloud are into EDM and youthful pop.  It’s flattering to read all the mails I’ve gotten on this rendition of a song I loved… so this is another example that, if you add it to your playlists, it helps the song snowball into a more organic success.

THIS can really help… but whatever you do, enjoy it!

Cheers,
Jude

..

It’s like AOC had a daughter and she became an actress.  And sure enough, she’s abhorrent.  But let’s not blame her entirely.  This is what American universities and Hollywood have been producing for years now.  Moms and Dads everywhere have been remorse to save all that money for their sons and daughters education, only to have them come home after one semester and accuse them of racism and white privilege.

Hollywood and entertainment works more covertly than universities.  They control it with innuendo.  There are no memos sent out.  You get it real fast what can be said and what can’t.  A smile, a frown, a returned call, an unreturned call… Rachel was just following the script that worked for Mark Ruffalo, Seth Rogan, Chelsea Handler and actors and musicians far too many to mention.  She probably thought she was going to get a pat on the head with a vegan treat, but she made a mistake.  She forgot it was a universal and children’s release, where you have to pretend to be all-loving, all-accepting, and you know… play the game.

If the major execs of these film and record companies switched gears politically, you’d see the rhetoric of these various entertainers change with light speed.  They are professional readers and chameleons.  They really don’t stand for the things you think they do.  They’re looking for those sweet treats…

Agree or disagree… I’ve lived here my entire adult life and have seen first-hand how it works.

Regardless, RIP to Rachel’s career for a good long while.  It was fun while it lasted!

Lately it’s been easier to stay quiet and stay in my lane of music than to speak out.  I’m sure that’s what most would like anyway, but as a father, my thoughts are on the country and the world more than the record industry, which, in truth isn’t an industry at all, really.

An industry flourishes with many layers of wants and needs, hundreds of departments filled with workers.  Hundreds if not thousands thriving in the session world.  Thousands of technicians like engineers, producers, 2nd’s, studio techs, studio managers, gear rentals, drum tuners, guitar and bass techs, keyboard programmers, background vocalists, horns, strings, arrangers… i mean the list honestly doesn’t stop.

Then on the record side there are promotion teams, radio stations and DJ’s with some autonomy to go out on a limb for a song, publicists, specialty experts that hook up endorsements, video production, publishers and their many layers of worker bees underneath… all driven to get your songs placed and your catalogs to thrive, ultimately making it to the thousands of record stores… which was an industry in itself.  I feel fortunate to have witnessed when this was the time, but it’s over as we knew it.

Of course it still exists in a small way, but in a very small way.  Most ‘artists’ are home, like myself, making their own music and hoping for the best.  The ones getting the biggest push these days I would classify as athletes and performers.  They’re not as creative as they are talented in both strength and endurance.

Others are out gigging… and while I 100% respect this, it’s just not something that ever interested me.  Perhaps I played too much from 12 yrs old to 18, doing 3 and 4 sets a night, lugging my own gear etc.  For me it was always ‘to the toppermost of the poppermost or bust’.

I was quite happy to do something more civil like manage and produce bands.  With Lifehouse, I don’t think I ever got the credit due as a manager… mainly because Lifehouse was never The Eagles or U2.  They were a radio success, and this was the plan I had after realizing that the lead singer and writer, Jason, had no interest in being a star.  He was and is very much like me.  He loves hits.

Putting almost all focus on the band’s radio success, they thrived for 15 years with ubiquitous songs like Hanging By A Moment, You And Me, First Time, Whatever It Takes and many more.  This can have a cyclical effect.  Think America, the 70’s band.  They were never giant concert seat fillers, and altho they did well, never massive record sellers, but their radio presence was 2nd only to bands like the Eagles.  Then in the 80’s, 90’s and early Aughts they went away.  ::Poof!:: gone.  Lame.  Now, I hear them all the time.  Ventura Highway, A Horse With No Name, Sandman, Tin Man… so many radio singles, so many remembering with fondness.

If you can remember back in the early 80’s when Wham was a part of this British movement that changed the look and sound of everything, the rock band Rush couldn’t get arrested.  Yet they stayed the course.  Kept touring… never faltered… became legends.

It’s a long game… and ours, or should I say Lifehouse’s was to be part of a soundtrack to people’s lives… which they very much were.  It’s unfortunate that it came with this later developed monicker called ‘Hot AC’, defined with acts like Nickelback, Daughtry and others, because that seems to bookmark everyone involved… and honestly if Lifehouse or Jason Wade even played that game it wouldn’t have been true to form.  That’s not who he is.  Not who the band was.  Certainly not who I am.

So I guess this is a little bit of a stream of conscious ramble.  The state of the country leaves me speechless.  Most artists I ever developed, ever tried to help, ended up getting in their own way and self-sabotaging all efforts.  I see Americans doing the same thing, and I do believe it has something to do with Trauma Conditioning… something I’ll speak on at another time.

In the meantime, wishing you all well.  Say a prayer for our friend and long time supporter William Pochert who is doing his best to win his battle with cancer.  Until next time- peace ❤️