Dive into a brand new genre bending ballad of nostalgia!
Outlaw Jazz, a new album by the pianist and composer Erik Deutsch, set to drop on February 24th, is an eight-song showcase of the distillation of country, psychedelia, jazz and tremolos. The album will once again feature what has come to be frequent collaboration that the pianist enjoys with Waylon Jenning’s song, Shooter Jennings, who belts on a newly released track from the album, called “Whistlers and Jugglers”, which premiered on Rolling Stone Country yesterday, the 29nth.
The song starts with a slow building country ballad feel that evokes some classic Elton John piano. Then, there begins a swirl in the background, that sounds like a phasing pedal steel guitar, which adds this tracks first touch of psychedelic taste. The instrumentation builds and adds a quickly strummed nylon guitar motif that sounds a bit like something that could be off Bob Dylan’s Desire. As Shooter continues along with lyrics originally penned by none other than Shel Silverstein, the track leans more towards a darker and heavier yet very self assured cosmic build up. A heavily effected guitar tells a sad slow solo story, sometimes with a reverse effect and sometimes straight ahead. After this story is over, we really break into a fully fledged marriage of “The Great Gig in the Sky” and “Any Colour You Like”, both from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon. The song ends in this vein, and the echoes of heavy chord progressions and Nick Mason style drums reverberate through us long after it is over.
Deutsch said about the piece
When I was first introduced to Shel Silverstein’s song ‘Whistlers and Jugglers,’ I was instantly mesmerized by the imagery of the lyric: a love lost, a lesson learned, and a girl’s enchantment with ‘whistlers and jugglers, and singers of songs. Shooter brings so much passion, intensity, and honesty to everything he sings, and this performance is certainly no exception. Waylon’s recording of ‘Whistlers’ is bouncier, quicker and more swinging than our version. Somehow we naturally, without discussing it, dug into the dark, slow, more mysterious side of the composition, ending up in a place reminiscent of Pink Floyd.
Check out the tune below!
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