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MP3 The John Laws Experience - The John Laws Experience
Australian entertainment icon John Laws time warps into the counter-culture…a musical event 40 years in the making!
His 70’s poems reinvented as retro-modern songs. A unique musical trip!
15 MP3 Songs in this album (52:52) !
Related styles: Rock: 60''s Rock, Country: Country Rock, Mood: Weird
People who are interested in The Beau Brummels The Byrds The First Edition should consider this download.
Details:
In 1971/72 John Laws was Australia’s biggest selling poet largely due to his phenomenal popularity as a radio broadcaster. The critics were less kind and ultimately his two volumes of works were almost forgotten; consigned to history as period pieces.
Enter musician/songwriter Keith Glass on a trip to Upstate New York 2006 and the unlikely discovery of a copy of Love Is An Expensive Way To Die. Flipping through the pages he read the words to Temporary and an idea was born. Maybe some of Laws writings were more suited to song lyrics than poems. Over the next couple of years Glass returned to that book and the follow-up Results Of Love inspired to link more of the words with musical motifs covering a wide ground from retro-rock to soul, psychedelic and the perhaps more predictable country influences.
There was no commercial game plan and the two unlikely (and in Laws’ case unknowing) collaborators were on the surface totally disparate. Glass was a professional hippie in the late 60’s (performing in the stage show ‘Hair’) while the establishment icon Laws casually jotted down his innermost thoughts seemingly oblivious to the massive social and cultural changes going on around him. Nevertheless there was an influence, a product of the era that could never be replicated in hindsight. The words dictated where the music went and the end result is something that says a lot about both of the creators.
After some time of solitary work on demos Glass sought the advice and collaboration of his childhood friend and fellow singer/songwriter Mick Hamilton. Mick was initially hesitant as he had actually played on a few of Laws’ own albums (none of which, besides an obscure one of Laws reciting his poetry with orchestrations by Henry Mancini, contain any original works at all.) A listen found Mick enthusiastically onboard and the two quickly finished off the remaining songs. The decision was made to form an actual band to record and hopefully go out and play the material live. Five years later and forty since the first of the John Laws poetry books was printed The John Laws Experience has become a most unexpected reality.
It is a totally unique project – a musical concept without any real comparison. The songs run the gamut in genre styles yet have a unifying thread. The lyrical content shows bravado, the confessional and in the end a strong spiritual aspect. The musical side is audacious and edgy but low on studio trickery so as to translate to a live performance and in keeping with the time it has taken to be created sounds…..timeless.
It remains to be seen what people make of this but in a musical world of predictability and sound-a-likes this is something quite remarkable. The recording artists are at pains to admit the basic philosophies of John Laws are generally quite at odds with their way of thinking but that has nothing to do with artistic endeavor and the interpretation given here. Disparate forces can create great art or at least an interesting diversion. We sincerely hope you listen without prejudice and ‘experience’ the cathartic revelation of the unexpected.
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