Month: April 2020

Broadjam Artist: Greg Lambert
Song: Tap City

Reviewer: Bob Birthisel

Positive Comments: A ton of energy – opening reminds me of Rocky Mountain Way. Well-played and the vocal is on pitch. Love the echo on the harmonica.

Constructive Comments: While it has Classic Rock influences, the chord progression is 100% Blues, so moving this to Blues Rock will likely get more of the right ears on it.

Broadjam Artist: Hartmut Oberdieck
Song: blues for the daily use

Reviewer: Bob Birthisel

Positive Comments: Very smooth groove, extremely well-recorded and plenty of dynamic changes to keep it interesting. I could hear this in a TV/film scene backdrop for sure. Nice stuff!

Constructive Comments: Not much I’d change here. If anything maybe another layer of chords lightly behind the mix.

Broadjam Artist: Third Word
Song: Your Soul Baby

Reviewer: Raquel Aleman

Positive Comments: Beautiful vocals!!! Nice arrangement. Catchy song. Hooks you pretty quickly. Strong 90’s R&B vibes (love that). Great production/engineering. I like how the bass line during the verses catches your attention.

Constructive Comments: Nice song! I can’t really say that anything should be done to improve the song. Average score for lyrical content only because the chorus is pretty basic, BUT the vocals are amazing and the production quality is great, so it didn’t sway my overall opinion on the song being great!

Broadjam Artist: StarburstRecords
Song: Pure Evil

Reviewer: Bob Birthisel

Positive Comments: Very dark. The instruments match the mood and it’s an interesting concept piece. Very strong atmospheric quality.

Constructive Comments: There’s dark, and then there’s pitch black. I get the message. But the only market value I see for this would be a terrorist slasher film. The song itself has a great sound, but even though I listen to Ozzy, Priest, Dio and plenty of other metalheads I think this needs to lighten up just a little to find any commercial success.

Broadjam Artist: Mark Tha Shark
Song: MINDWORKS OF M.T.S

Reviewer: Bob Birthisel

Positive Comments: Man – the opening 20 seconds are really strong. I couldn’t wait to hear more and the playing is very solid. Particularly the drumming which was super-steady and clean despite the Lo-Fi mix.

Constructive Comments: Some home recordings can be pretty clean – this one is filthy and it destroys any semblance of commercial potential. When a song exceeds 4 minutes, and then 5 minutes, it needs timing or progression changes to keep it interesting. Just a jam won’t get the attention of any music supervisor or A&R person. If you can’t re-record this, maybe move it to a Lo-Fi category where people aren’t expecting a pristine sound. My gut is it’s too Lo-Fi even for that, but better than leaving it in Hard Rock.

Broadjam Artist: Greg Lambert
Song: Rock and Roll (Instrumental)

Reviewer: Bob Birthisel

Positive Comments: I really enjoyed the rhythm guitar and organ sounds and the chord progression has a Classic Rock feel (that’s where I’d categorize this), almost like an early Deep Purple cut. Definitely grabbed my attention from the jump.

Constructive Comments: For some reason, the organ is buried in the mix for most of the song, even though it’s one of the cleaner elements in the song. I wish the lead guitar and organ did some trade-offs to make it more interesting. When the lead comes in around 0:45, the 1st 30 seconds or so are almost like basic quarter notes and really lost me. Later it picks up, but that’s assuming someone is listening past the minute-and-a-half mark. With some work and a better, more balanced mix there is potential.

Broadjam Artist: Signal 30
Song: Say Herrah!

Reviewer: Bob Birthisel

Positive Comments: The opening guitar riff shows promise

Constructive Comments: Obviously a home recording, it takes way to long to “do something” like a pattern change or solo, and the drum machine sounds are not in tempo some of the time. Needs work.

Broadjam Artist: Dave Haddad (CenterPeace)
Song: Thirty Year Kiss

Reviewer: John Walradt

Positive Comments: Your tune is easy to follow and has well placed orchestration. The tune works as an album cut. It’s not a filler. Beautiful vocals with longing emotion. Studio production is perfect.

Constructive Comments: Lyrically, it blends with thousands of other songs that say the same thing. I believe you can come up with new ways of saying something poignant and longing. To put rather bluntly, the tune is better than the words. But that’s okay, because the tune is extremely important in a song. You can always adjust the words.

Broadjam Artist: Uncle Spider & The Electric Dirt Clods
Song: A Masque For The Queen / Renaissance

Reviewer: John Walradt

Positive Comments: This piece has adept guitar playing that is pleasant, easy to follow, and has nice variations two thirds of the way through. I like the quarter notes at the beginning that lead into a more complex structure. That’s a nice contrast! Because I’m a songwriter and not a recording artist, I always give the highest marks for recording because I can’t do any better! By the way, the recording sounds clean and makes the melody come through and that’s what matters to me.

Constructive Comments: A nice album cut, but like my recordings, may be enhanced with some mastering. There are sites that do online mastering for free that have been helpful to me. Bandlab, if you get the free membership, has a nice mastering online software. Another I found is Master Decibel, which offers a low, decent price. Why not give it a try? You may get a kick out of it!

Broadjam Artist: Kate Carpenter
Song: Children, Obey

Reviewer: John Walradt

Positive Comments: Very nice simple and soft melodic quality in this song. Vocals are lovely. Lyrically it’s hard to go wrong with an inspired verse, but I think it is particularly nice that it is short and memorable. It does very well as an album cut. The string arrangement is sweet and works beautifully. The melody is pleasant, memorable and easy to follow.

Constructive Comments: What? This was obviously produced very well with a lot of thought put into it. Nothing has to be added here.