Jordan Martin™ News

With a day or so to reflect on the alternating praise and criticism of a ReverbNation Crowd Review of one of my songs, I think it was money well-spent. I say that despite the fact that the premise of the review is the radio-worthiness of a song and I knew mine wasn’t going in. 

For the record, it takes about 7 for a song to be considered ready for air play and mine rated a 5.2.  That’s not too bad since addressing the common negative comments would no doubt put the song in range for success, and because the piece is probably more of an “album cut” than a “hit song”, that’s actually pretty cool.

Of course, the accolades that stoke the ego are nice strokes given the completely anonymous format. I don’t know where they get these folks who listen & comment on songs, apparently not even knowing they are participating in market research.

But that is the very essence of what trips my trigger on the concept. These people don’t know me and could care less about hurting my feelings.  Some loved it. Others were not so thrilled and said so, many gave constructive criticism.

Most of what the reviewers said I knew beforehand, but hearing it from others is reinforcement that has forced some focused thought on the matters at hand.

• I need to learn to trust my voice and bring it up in the mix.
• It’s about time to acquire a guitar that sounds brilliant with no effects.
• I need to reconcile home versus professional recording.
• It could be time to bring in other players.

The most keyed phrase in the comments was ‘guitar playing’, and that is a great deal of my shtick. On the one hand, a good percentage of reviewers thought that my one guitar was more than one instrument. On the other, one comment said that if the thing was all about guitar playing, it wasn’t that great. And I can’t argue with that, I’m no shredder. It is a rough demo done in a single take with no overdubs. One guitar, one voice, doing it together. That’s the ‘thing’, and indeed, one reviewer remarked that I probably put on a good live show. Maybe…

It’s all what the listener knows, hears, likes, and dislikes that will contribute to their review, including the equipment used to listen to the recording. Mine is about headset-worthy and sounds good in the car, but it has none of the stuff that an engineer does to make a recording sound its best on any system.

For me, rating higher is a matter of increasing the production values of my released works. Glad I haven’t released too much yet. And this is the reason why. I know all this and just haven’t gotten there quite yet. This is also the reason why I’m not pushing my stuff on Amazon, iTunes, CD Baby, etc. Frankly, it’s not ready for prime time. Could be it never will be.  We’ll find out.

But I didn’t need to put someone On The Spot by asking them directly. They will only tell you what they think you want to hear. That’s not much help, and if you think about it, kind of rude.

I think if someone in your sphere is moved, they’ll let you know. Asking won’t provide actionable information or win friends & influence people. I fear many people do not know this and operate under the misconception that asking for a “qualified opinion” is a sign of respect. Maybe but putting someone in an awkward position is a funny way of showing it.

Now, if they just had an option that indicated that the artist wanted to know if the recording was “demo-worthy” rather than “radio-worthy”. There I go thinking again.

Since my last installment: Did I ever underestimate the downtime from the worst bad back from hell.  So I’ll add April (in pen) to the list of months with significant stuff kicking the posterior of yours truly.

But fret not ye faithful friends. There’s nothing like the torture of chronic, acute pain to make one truly appreciate feeling normal! And, as I was ready to record a bunch of stuff prior to this succession of impediments, I now return to that endeavor.

I will fully admit that since I started with my first releases back in 2010, I haven’t put out a whole lot of music. I just haven’t been able to play my stuff well enough to satisfy myself until just recently.

I was on the right track 23 years ago when I laid off serious playing. But it was frustrating to be unable to break through those musical barriers and play what I heard in my head. The ability to do that just seemed too far away.

Then, three years ago, it didn’t matter that I couldn’t play the stuff well. I had the excuse of a 20 year lay off, the sounds were still up there in my head, I could approach it on my terms.

I got swept up in the “Viral Star Sweepstakes”, like so many, and strayed away from the real reasons for my return to music.

• To draw nearer to G-d.
• To record my music so that it justifies the effort.
• To leave an artistic mark of note that enriches those who hear it.

I challenge myself towards ever greater ability to focus and create to achieve these aims. That seems to take a physical toll as the envelope gets pushed further to the limits. I suppose the worst thing one could do during this renovation process is to expose it to public display before it’s ready. That, I have pretty much avoided.

However, not without some ill-conceived detours like chasing charts & fans & gigs & likes & followers & lions & tigers & bears, oh my!  It is so easy to get sucked in because that is what it is there for.

The fact is that I’m not a professional touring recording artist, although someday maybe I will have the luxury of that being my job. But that won’t happen without more spit & polish on my act so here I sit in my little office/studio working it and I am beginning to like what I hear played back.

I did knock out a quickie recording of the most covered song in human history, Paul McCartney’s Yesterday.  Not bad, a little strained in parts of the vocal but never really out of breath or control.  I stuck it up on SoundCloud, which I use as a test area for releases. So there is something musically to show for April I suppose.

Yes, it’s less about a presence on social media these days and more about heads-down grunt work for a living and playing when I feel up to it and able to do it in a way that is congruous with my bullet-pointed reasons above.

They don’t come knocking unless they think they can sell what you have. After an extended R&D period, including legal groundwork, it’s production time; which is where I came in about 3 years ago.

All that, just to make it to the start.

Music career-wise, 2013 looked to be an interesting year for me after laying off last December to allow my left wrist to heal.  Too long and atrophy began to set in, but it really wasn’t quite up to the rigors of my existing catalog.

At Christmas time 2012, I moved the capo up a couple more frets to reduce strain and not suffer too much of the use-it-or-lose it syndrome. A pretty little lick came out – while I was messing around with the expanded stretch range when capo’ed at fret #5 – which struck the spiritual chord of the season. 

Spiritual and Christmassy, I wanted it finished, cut, and released immediately! 

Something old, something new, with a simple message spoken as much by the music as the simple lyrics reflecting my appreciation of G-d’s many blessings. It took 3 more months to release it on March 1st, 2013, and He didn’t make it exactly easy! 

Just for the record, I’m not complaining, but since the year started it’s been:

• January – Major flu to scotch a block of recording sessions that a local studio and producer were very interested in doing.  Maybe we can get back to it. 
• February – Job change. But yours truly is never truly unemployed with back-burner business prospects. This is beginning to work out really well now. Digging it.
• March – In like a lion and out like a crippled lamb with a complete week of work lost to back injury. I slept the wrong way or something. I need to get one of those inversion tables pronto!

April Fools Day has yet to arrive. Do I somehow wend my way back to that place in late February when I recorded Home in a single Take #2? When, musically speaking, everything was operating better than ever?

If so, the material will begin to spill in a series of similar “live” cuts. One guitar and one voice. No retakes, no overdubs, not overly produced. Just the songs the way I play them here, and exactly what they sound like to me when I’m playing them.

The ReverbNation charts are finally interesting, I believe they are now simply rated on the Band Equity Score over a 14 day moving average.  I’m not working it, so at this writing I’m down locally to #15 – oh no Mr. Bill! An all-time low!!  Ha! 

Actually, minimal activity to support my last release brought my slot up from #14 to #5 rapidly.  I was hoping to follow that up with another release to see about jumping further, but not with a bad back! 

What have I left out here in the newsy department since last blogging last December?

Oh, tried out a songwriters circle.  Nicest folks. Seemed to enjoy my tunes. I discovered I have little desire to perform in public any longer.  I need to fully examine all the reasons in another post. Maybe this could Change given the right circumstances. After all, He’s Never Ever Really That Far.

Back in the saddle again, I’ll be moseying easy down the trail now and hoping we meet up again real soon.