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MP3 Garry Novikoff - A Normal Life

The long-awaited debut from a truly unique singer/songwriter. Garry''s intense, lyrically-driven songs blend both humor and pathos in an eclectic mix of moods and styles. A master story-teller.

17 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Acoustic, FOLK: Alternative Folk

Details:
A customer service rep suffers pangs of jealousy and regret when he encounters a dog more successful in life than he is. A grown man continues to be haunted by an embarrassing incident from kindergarten. Two downtrodden New Yorkers search for a little happiness on the Internet and get more than they bargained for. And a young boy finds safety with his beloved pet rabbit in a scary world of adults. These are only some of the stories that singer/songwriter Garry Novikoff brings to life with his unique brand of humor and pathos on A Normal Life.

Garry’s success started with “Dog on the Moon,” one of the standout songs on A Normal Life. Originally released on the compilation CD To Touch the Stars, “Dog” is a brilliant science-fiction song and character study about history’s first canine space tourist and the man who envies him. “Dog” found an immediate champion in singer/songwriter Christine Lavin. Soon the song received radio airplay from DJs across the country, including the legendary Jonathan Schwartz on WNYC and Bob Sherman on WFUV. “Dog” was featured on Daily Planet, a TV news program on Canada’s Discovery Channel, and received rave reviews in Popular Science and Smithsonian Air and Space. Writing about To Touch the Stars in Science Fiction Weekly, Jeff Berkwits offers, “My favorite ditty is unquestionably Garry Novikoff’s joyous “Dog on the Moon.” It hilariously condenses both the media circus that accompanies space ‘celebrities’… and the ‘what might have been’ feeling held today by so many of us who grew up during the Apollo era.”

“Dog’s” notoriety soon had him sharing a stage with Pete Seeger at a concert in New York’s City’s Merkin Hall. On her website, attendee Christine Lavin described Garry’s performance as his “A Star Is Born” moment.

Garry’s follow-up song was a deceptively innocent anthem called “I Like Men,” now available for the first time on A Normal Life. The song was recorded with producer (and former Bongos front man) Richard Barone and has been heard all over the country on satellite radio’s Sirius OutQ station.

His mother a professional nightclub singer and his father a blue-collar amateur bongo player; Garry was destined for a life in music. He began composing at the age of six on the piano in the foyer of his family’s Bronx apartment. He later taught himself the guitar as well, and began putting words to melodies. After graduating from college with a degree in languages, Garry moved to France for a few years, first teaching English at a French university and later working as a singer/pianist in the piano bars of Alsace-Lorraine.

“While living in France, I was exposed to certain kinds of songs I might not have known
about,” says Garry, who includes Edith Piaf among his many influences. “Piaf was the
master interpreter of the ‘chanson realiste,’ story songs about everyday people, told in an everyday language. These songs made a big impression on me. They were like these amazing three-minute plays. I wanted to write songs like that.”

Like Piaf, Garry brings a rare intensity to his live performances with a style that is theatrical yet deeply connected. Unlike the French chanteuse, however, Garry’s songs often blur the line between comedy and tragedy. Amused at first, the listener may be blind-sided by the unexpected. The title track on A Normal Life, for instance, about a man on mood-stabilizing medication, begins humorously enough:

I’m not so bad now, I used to be worse,
I was obnoxious and I was perverse.
I’d sleep with your lover, I’d drink and I’d curse.
I’d eat all your ice cream and steal from your purse.

But by the end of the song, the character mourns his former insanity:

Now I live in a place that’s not heaven or hell,
Without highs and lows and less stories to tell.
And these days it seems I just go through the motions,
But how I miss riding those wild emotions.

Garry’s musical style has been described as “Harry Nilsson meets Barenaked Ladies over at the Fountains of Wayne on Avenue Q.” “My songs run an eclectic gamut,” says Garry, whose influences beyond Piaf include everything from punk rock to musical theater. Garry uses this diverse musical palette to paint his colorful, haunting character studies and create his off-kilter tales. Both his story songs and his autobiographical ones delve deep, brimming over with honesty and humanity. They come together on the seventeen tracks of A Normal Life to form a truly unique work.

People who are interested in Christine Lavin Nellie McKay Harry Nilsson should consider this download.
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