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MP3 Buddha's Brother - Misfits & Eccentrics

Buddha''s Brother is a singer-songwriter, with emphasis on the writing, but the singing''s fine too. The songs come in a variety of genres: folk-rock, blues, ''80s pop, world beat, folk, and jazz, linked by one voice, a unique guitar style and one theme.

10 MP3 Songs in this album (47:15) !
Related styles: ROCK: Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, FOLK: Folk-Rock

People who are interested in Bob Dylan Elvis Costello Lou Reed should consider this download.


Details:
**** Every purchase of the CD is an entry to the “Identify the Misfits & Eccentrics” Contest, described in the CD. In the event that sales of the CD make a very good profit, the grand prize will include a monetary bonus, to be determined (percent of profit).****

****12-PAGE BOOKLET WITH COMPLETE LYRICS INCLUDED****

Buddha’s Brother’s Bio

Born in Britain, Buddha’s Brother (aka Dr Montreal) stays true to his roots. A fine mixture of early rock-‘n-roll meets up with a heavy blues base. For fun, Brother throws in some mathematically challenging jazz, traditional yet artistic folk and heart-thrown-in-the-depths-of-despair ballads. You will most definitely not “Get Bored With” his about to be released CD, which was long in the thought process. Making his home in Montreal, Michael deBurgh Edwardes’ (ie, the Brother himself) day job is as a highly sought after biostatistician. He is often seen on his bicycle battling the traffic, as reflected in his infamous song “In Cars”, which caused a Toronto Radio show to be shut down, and/or drinking from his collection of German wines after a hard game of handball. (Bio by April Defalco)

I wince every time someone asks “What kind of music do you do?” I would like to avoid long explanations and just say JARBLUFF music….Jazz-Rock-Blues-Folk-Fusion; but I nearly always go into the long explanation.

The original inspiration was definitely the Beatles, for me and my two younger brothers. I started writing songs at 10, and my first professional band was a Blues band, so I had some good blues exposure early. Then I got into folk and folk-rock, the whole idea of songs with a social message (Paul Simon, Phil Ochs, Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy Sainte-Marie). Then came jazz-rock fusion (my guitar heroes: John MacLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Larry Coryell, Sonny Greenwich and Ralph Towner). Jeremy, the middle brother, leans towards the Jazz side. He was long known as the Cowboy Buddha, and there was a Cowboy Buddha Band, now defunct, which played “rodeo jazz” (included steel guitar). He plays clarinets and harmonica on my CD. Lastly, I got into modern classical guitar, electro-acoustic, new music and musique actuelle, especially those with a social message (Frederick Rzewski, for example)

In her review above, April is referring by “Get Bored With” to a song of mine (Bored With Me) not on the CD. Hopefully, it will be on another one. It is not on because I prefer my CD and my concerts to be based on a cohesive theme, and it didn’t fit.

Misfits & Eccentrics

The theme of Misfits & Eccentrics is the title. The central song is Unentitled, and the other songs radiate to and from it. Unentitled is about the pain of shyness, I think.

The Wisest Man is one of my “Sci-Fi” songs, and has a classic sci-fi theme. Gerry Goodine, a great unknown songwriter and friend, sings harmony. Gerry turned me on to country artists such as Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, and that influence shows in Unentitled.

Chamber of Sand shows off my brother’s harmonica artistry in a blues song about the loneliness of the “individualist”. It has some Bob Dylan style, except that I sing smoothly.

Prince of Queens, if I had any access to Hollywood at all, would have been the best theme song for “Brokeback Mountain”[1]. Prince of Queens is sung as a duet with Gerry Goodine. He sings verse two alone. The song is a tribute in memoriam to David Essiaume, a best friend of my youngest brother, Richard[2]. David was a vivacious gay queen who was an AIDS victim, as was Richard later in 1995. The chorus deliberately uses the same chorus music as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”, and when sung live, I am often tempted to sing “Gay in the USA”.
[Footnotes below]

Convict is a favourite of my GOTH fans. It is dark, bleak, builds up very slowly and is lifted by a chorus of angelic voices in the end (which sound remarkably like F1 racing cars). For percussion, I used a stop watch, recorded jail cell doors slamming, a gavel, and finally a heavy stone door slamming shut.

Unentitled was written at sunrise at a bus stop on Burnamthorpe, Mississauga, waiting for a very slow bus. This was after an all night party at Richard’s, who lived there, and I was headed home. It started with the changing colours of the sunrise.

Today, Sunny Day is one of my oldest songs, from my folk phase. It could also be counted as one of the “Sci-Fi” songs, but its origin was more precisely the Twilight Zone.
In retrospect, it can be simply seen as about mental health; and if you take out the third verse (which I sing as a background to the la-la-las in this recording), the song could be taken entirely as just a gentle song about children, sort of like Donovan.

Speed was written for the blues band I sang for. I usually do it solo at a slower pace, but decided here to fit with the title.

Mechanical Doll is obviously a Sci-Fi story, and is in an 80’s rock style. Christina Earl (from New Zealand) does a magnificent job singing the part of the Mechanical Doll. Problem: she lives in New Zealand. Who can I get locally to do that?
Obviously, in concert, every different candidate will sound very different.

(Why Don’t You) Start Dancin’? is my jazz tune, and I get to play acoustic guitar counter-point to super sax man Chet Doxas, who is a rising jazz star, along with his brother Jim, who plays drums on various pieces in the CD. This tune was about my relationship with a certain female misfit who really pushed my buttons.

Charles Yacoub takes the Greyhound to Ottawa via Plattsburgh is the only tune I regard as incomplete on the CD, because I never did get the large chorus of Lebanese singers that I wanted for background. It still has lots of layers, though, especially in percussion, and I’m proud of my solo. What you hear is a first take, with me falling in love with a La Patrie guitar which belonged to The Rogue Studio in Toronto. The lyrics are taken verbatim from an article in La Presse about the bus-jacking in 1990 done by Charles Yacoub, regarded as a patriot in Lebanon. No-one was injured. The man was just frustrated at how his country was being torn apart by idiots.

One other song which I have a great recording of was not included, and that is a cover of Ray Davies’ Art Lover. I consider Art Lover a masterpiece, and very much in the theme of the CD, but it upsets too many people, and I did not want to take focus away from my own songs.

Michael D Edwardes (Buddha’s Brother)
2008

[1] In fact, now my brother does have some limited access, as half-owner of Coptor Productions (https://www.tradebit.com), and co-winner of an Oscar for Best Animated Short (“Ryan”).
[2] The tribute I wrote for Richard is much too personal for public broadcast, but I do play it from time to time.

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