Month: August 2016

Broadjam Artist: Jeff Roberts
Song: Living in the Trees

Reviewer: Junior Murrell

Positive Comments: Alot of greatthings in this song. Like the vocal texture, the tones used in the instrumentation. Good choice of sounds. Chorus gives the song a kids show feel. Texture of the Rhodesish piano vamping against the bass is cool. Nice use of guitars. Overall a nice piece.

Constructive Comments: Production need to be ‘beefed up’. The compressor can be be heard sucking the life out of the instrumentation. Would recommend sitting with an engineer to get a good understanding of compression. The drums have lost their depth – hi hat sound like it’s sidechained to the vocal and ducking. Would recommend revisiting the mix. Strip back all the effect and start again with a solid drum and bass track then build on those with your grat instrumentation. Wish you the best with it.

Broadjam Artist: Bob Luft
Song: Life’s Journey

Reviewer: Lance Pluto and the Plutonians

Positive Comments: Nothing like deep dark piano to stimulate the creative nodes in our magnificent brains. I love music that makes you “feel”, especially in this numb world we live in now in 2016 and beyond. Love the work.

Constructive Comments: Don’t have anything bad to say, just keep it up.

Broadjam Artist: HarryBudini
Song: My Little Friend

Reviewer: Junior Murrell

Positive Comments: Has a childrens TV feel about it. hear a little Beetles vibe in there. Instrumentation is interesting and shows a lot of creativity. can see alot of thought went in to the peice.

Constructive Comments: Performance needs to be refined a bit. Somtimes the timing goes you want to check that. Perhaps lay your tracks down against a metronome. The production also can be a little bigger to deliver all the drama created by the interesting bits which come in and out.

Broadjam Artist: MELVIN BARHAM
Song: All In The Game

Reviewer: Junior Murrell

Positive Comments: Nice song. Has a great feel. Can see it in a show, musical. Like the texture of the background vocal. The overall song is nicely put together.

Constructive Comments: The production needs a bit more refinement. Was a little difficult at times to make out the hook and sometines the lyric. Perhaps sitting with a sound engineer for a bit would give you a good ear for the sound you’re after.

Broadjam Artist: Bob Higgs
Song: Dreambody

Reviewer: Lance Pluto and the Plutonians

Positive Comments: First off, the intro to this song reminded me of “take my breathe away” from Top Gun. That was a monumental song! You can’t go wrong with that. Love the tone of the vocals. “Don’t call for me”…haha.. Love it. Too bad this music isn’t what is popular these days…

Constructive Comments: I would definitely look into releasing an instrumental version of this song as well. It was very moving. I “felt” the musicians playing the instruments. That is the power of music!

Broadjam Artist: FRED GROSS
Song: I Remember When (female vocals)

Reviewer: Margie & Art Corey, S. & A. Corey

Positive Comments: Has a nice sound,not quite sure of the piano part, doesn’t sound like Blues/Country riffs….ugh!! Good playing though, just not the style for this arrangement….The vocalist has a pleasant voice, good pitch, the lyrics work, reflective love….cool. It’s all good, but again….the composer might want to consider a more country vibe for the tune!! Just a thought??

Constructive Comments: It’s all good, but the composer might want to consider a more country vibe for the tune!! All the right elements are there, if the composer wants Country, listen to more slow country ballads, hopefully my suggestions have been helpful…….ALWAYS KEEP WRITING!! No matter what other people say!!!!!!!!!!

Broadjam Artist: Kate Carpenter
Song: Jessamine

Reviewer: Jeff Roberts

Positive Comments: Gotta be Kate–happy, bouncy, bushy and chirpy with lots of kids chiming in. This is perfection in action–really superb acoustic guitar fingerpicking arrangment and sound. Great dobro and harp/harmonica in the prairie style. The lyrics, melody, vocal performance and phrasing are so catchy and enthralling here. I think this is probably the best song of hers I’ve heard out of many very strong ones.

Constructive Comments: Nothing–it’s fantastic!!

Broadjam Artist: DENNIS MAKEPEACE
Song: Words can’t wait

Reviewer: Jeff Roberts

Positive Comments: If you told me this was David Gates I’d believe it (there’s a tribute to Baby I’m a Want You in the guitar hooks). Wonderful vocals and melody work. Also there’s a very Fleet Foxes sound in the harmonies. Great staging of the bass and drums and both come in totally supporting the song. Very subtle and tasty guitar soloing.This is fantastic–what else you wanna know?

Constructive Comments: Nothing. I LOVE this!

Broadjam Artist: Bob Higgs
Song: When These Days are Done

Reviewer: Jeff Roberts

Positive Comments: Great lyrics and voice in a very compelling song that sounds so much like Bobby Z himself! But really the voice here is much more musical. It has a live sound which is less than perfect but completely authentic, which is probably more important. It’s a song I like better with each listen, and it has a wistful lost love vibe that so much like Dylan and also Bert Jansch. Excellent work!!

Constructive Comments: Like Dylan this goes on a loooonng time. I’m not a long song fan unless it’s James Brown groove, but that’s me. The D sus4 strummning work on the guitar is a bit cliche (it’s hard to avoid that with the Dsus4). What about going F# to E (open string) for a more undefined and fresh sound?

Broadjam Artist: HarryBudini
Song: Rainbow Bridge

Reviewer: Jeff Roberts

Positive Comments: Well of course it’s Harry! I doubt this is a sincere lullaby but rather something subversive and devious. There are some really great moments in here, particularly the phrasing, melody and harmony on “wherever you are”, which is also a great hook. I wish I could follow the lyrics better. This is such a Sgt Pepper vibe and there is so much potential for this to be an even more strong and compelling tune!

Constructive Comments: I think you’re overtracking the vocals. I think it’d be better to have just the one vocal track for the principal vocal. The chorus needs harmony vocals of course, but not double unison vocals, and make sure all the syllables start and stop together. That other song I reviewed recently had such a good utilization of your voice. Without sitting in the same room it’s hard to know how you could do the singing better but I’m sure you can.The arrangement gets a bit scattered and wandering because it’s long and doesn’t stay focused.