tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9366779146119275612024-03-21T19:17:04.861-07:00Jack Nielsen Singer-SongwriterJackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-40258560512418560952016-07-01T18:38:00.000-07:002016-07-01T18:38:11.268-07:00Neckbrace: Tales of Brutality from Pocatello, ID<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cHoeRaYjsoU" width="420"></iframe>Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-14502752790276579582015-09-19T11:49:00.001-07:002016-07-10T11:18:37.394-07:00The Music 'Industry'<span style="color: rgb(69 , 69 , 69); font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;">Dear pop music,</span><br />
<br />
I'm kicking you out. It's not me, it's you. How do I say this? You're fickle, predictable, profit driven, and when it comes right down to it, you're pretty damn shallow. To tell you the truth, I've been meaning to say this for a while: you just don't have anything to say. Yes, yes: all of us adults have been in love – it's nothing new, and frankly, the only thing truly remarkable about love, is when it lasts for several decades. Funny how that never gets more than a footnote from you (i.e. "happily ever after," etc.).<br />
<br />
Long before the record guy came along, we were making music and telling our stories. Most of these were not about love. Most of the stories we told about ourselves were about our lives, our jobs, our families. We didn't play to sold out arenas; our music never appeared on records, nor was it ever broadcast over the airwaves – most of us never saw a dime from our music. If we were lucky, our people took time to stop in to see us at the local beer joint or come to a barbecue to watch us play.<br />
<br />
Why did we play, if not for fame? Why did we sing, if not for accolades and/or money? We did it because the newspaper, the radio, and later, the television, were all tools of propaganda. We did it because we are the only people who will tell the truth about ourselves - we are the only people who can be counted on to tell the stories of the forgotten poor and working folk.<br />
<br />
Dear pop music, you were, yourself, quite the distraction. Remember when we used to spend 10 bucks on an album with only two or three good songs on it? Yeah, your fault! I believe your industry even coined the term "throwaway" for songs meant to fill up your crappy pop albums. And now, the makers of these "throw away" pop songs are whining because they're not millionaires anymore. Funny: we used to share cassette tapes all the time and it didn't hurt the industry at all. Not that any industry has a right to exist: you can't force consumers to demand a good or service. And let's face it: you've been giving us the same crap since the 1950s.<br />
<br />
So later days and better lays, pop music! And don't let my foot hit you in the ass on the way out.Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-14141402405182296892014-09-16T12:30:00.003-07:002014-09-16T12:30:58.195-07:00Lyrics - "Needle's Eye"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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©2014 Jack Nielsen</div>
<br /><br />
Christian Junior was three or four<br />
When the Navy called his daddy off to war.<br />
When it ended they made their way<br />
To the Ghost Creek Ranch<br />
Up in the North<br />
He found his place in the mountains<br />
Their glory shone all around him<br />
He found a lady, they married,<br />
He brought her home and they<br />
Touched the bluest sky<br />
Through the Needle's Eye<br />
<br />
Little Christie was only two<br />
When tragedy ran her parents through<br />
Christian and his wife were broken<br />
And Christie would never<br />
Leave the Mountain's view<br />
Their anguish rang through the mountains<br />
The joy, the love and the promise lost<br />
He struck an arc on the cold stone<br />
Hot slag rained down on him<br />
And the bead he ran on high<br />
Shut the Needle's Eye<br />
<br />
No happy ending--that's just how the story goes<br />
Find your silver lining in some other thick, black cloud<br />
He thought he'd leave it all behind<br />
If the Needle's Eye was blind<br />
Or at least that's how the story goes . . .<br />
<br />
Christian Junior and his wife moved on and left<br />
The Ghost Creek Ranch behind<br />
He thought there were no landmarks watching him<br />
Because the Needle's Eye was blind<br />
But the Mountain stalks its children,<br />
Knows when everything is wrong,<br />
And so it was the younger Christian<br />
Came home.<br />
He touched the face of the Mountain<br />
He swung his hammer with all his might<br />
And broke the bead of his sorrow<br />
The sun shone down on him<br />
And he saw the bluest skies again . . .<br />
<br />
No happy ending--that's just how the story goes<br />
But there's a silver lining once the storm has passed<br />
It was with him all the years--<br />
The Mountain washed away his tears:<br />
'Cause the Needle's Eye<br />
Knows the story doesn't end.<br />
<br />
Yes, the mountains are a story . . . .<br />
<br />
Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-79027388628917261212014-09-11T22:37:00.000-07:002014-09-12T13:52:18.214-07:00Friends in the IndustryI managed to make contact again one of the best singer-songwriters in the business. I remembered her from the Guitar Center Singer-Songwriter III contest. We talk in music about "leaving it all on the floor". If you aren't sure what that means exactly, I'm sorry to say that there is no textbook for this, much less textbook examples. Fortunately, however, I can show you what it looks and sounds like:<br>
<br>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/TfpDpP82gWk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<br>
If your mouth is still open when you start reading this, it's because you've just witnessed an honest-to-Christ, visceral performance of passion and conviction meeting cultivated talent. It's okay, you can play it again. We'll still be here when you get back.<br>
<br>
I got to know Lauren Adelle after the contest, mostly only through a few short exchanges that passed between us on SoundCloud. She is currently at work within the music industry, still writing songs, still singing and still performing. I am competing in this year's contest, but Lauren, despite her magnificent talent, will not be returning. While I can understand her reasons, I will miss having her in this event: there's no one else in the business like her. Last night I posted a link to the above video on twitter: "Please RT! THIS is what we mean when we say 'Leaving it all on the floor.'" Tonight, she returned the favor: <br>
<br>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Everyone watch this 800 times <a href="http://t.co/7aAG3sxzfv">http://t.co/7aAG3sxzfv</a></p>— Lauren Adelle (@Elladelle) <a href="https://twitter.com/Elladelle/status/510269583878803457">September 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><br>
<br>It's great to have friends in the industry!Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-37476381436860274712014-02-01T13:40:00.003-08:002014-02-01T13:42:28.606-08:00New Track - "Big War (Shining: Part 1)"There's a song I've been writing over the past few weeks. I recorded the demo last night. If you've been following us, please take the time to give it a listen. If you like it, please feel free to download it.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/jacknielsen/song/19950296-big-war-shining-part-1--2014-jack" target="_blank">http://www.reverbnation.com/jacknielsen/song/19950296-big-war-shining-part-1--2014-jack </a><br />
<br />
--JackJackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-68825440725575600742014-01-27T21:56:00.000-08:002014-01-27T21:56:54.641-08:00Plans for 2014Hey family and friends, I've written two new songs and have three or four more (conceptually) in the pipe. I'll try to get as many of them written and recorded as I can by year's end.Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-52617122918915858392013-12-07T20:24:00.002-08:002013-12-07T20:24:25.669-08:00Guitar Center Contest winnings<div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>
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Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-17964121804210783122013-11-17T12:28:00.001-08:002013-11-17T12:28:07.291-08:00The MusicopalypseA lot of people see music as a commodity. There's nothing wrong with that. A lot of men and women have put some good music into the world through the machinery set in place by the record and advertising industries. <br />
<br />
When we could buy a product, such as a record, a CD, even an 8-track or cassette tape, we knew exactly what we were getting. The big LPs had album art, high-quality sound and the excitement of anticipation. Music as a commodity was distributed, by and large, through brick-and-mortar stores. You would pick up the media in your hands, turn it over, read the names of the song and examine the artwork through a thin jacket of cellophane. Sometimes, there was a sticker that prevented you from seeing the media's whole container. Whether by accident or design, this opacity--including the fact that you were usually only permitted to hear a few singles from the radio to engage your interest in the collection--created a sense of mystery. You had to not only that period of excitement from the moment you committed to the purchase, but that period of anticipation often lasted until you arrived home with the media. The cellophane was never easy to get through, though the folds and seams were often apparent. Like gift wrapping, the cellophane was torn away and absently discarded as the layers secreting the media were opened and removed. Finally, the naked media was in your hands and the excitement of the purchase had reached its apex. An LP required a gentler, more ritualistic approach than tapes: the record had to first be cleaned, the needle positioned, then eased down into the outer grooves. Seconds ticked away and all was silent, except for sound of friction, making its way through your speakers. Then, quite unpredictably, the music began.<br />
<br />
Music cost more, because more went into it. Singers and musicians were recording to analog tape, which unlike digital media, won't stop on a dime. This means the recording of the performance you paid for usually happened, start to finish, in real time. Engineers mixed the analog tapes by ear; volume changes were spontaneous and manual. Record companies paid for this studio and engineering time to generate a product with physical properties (as opposed to bytes). Musical acts that toured, did so to drive album sales. Fans who attended the concerts often paid a comparable price for the concert ticket as they did for the record.<br />
<br />
The CD, which most audiophiles hailed as the greatest invention since the advent of high-fidelity, stereophonic sound, was the death knell for music as a product-oriented industry. Ultimately, the CD merely contained sound files that could be saved to a computer and reformatted into other sound files. This was nothing new to the industry: we'd been permitted to transfer our records and other media to mass-market cassette tapes (e.g. Maxell, TDK, Certron and Memorex). But where a cassette copy of the record or other media lacked authenticity due to generation loss, a CD could be replicated: the copy sounded <i>exactly</i> like the original. Moreover, CDs could be copied at several times normal speed. And once reformatted, a sound file was easier to distribute and harder to track, making the collection of royalties more difficult for the people who had generated the intellectual property that the files contained. If you made a substantial living from the production of music, this event was nothing short of an apocalypse.<br />
<br />Even so, I don't believe Napster or any other music streaming websites, were responsible for the dramatic changes to the business of music. Case in point: for a few hundred dollars, I built <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">N-7 ™</span> Studios</i> in my own house. Since 2011, I've been engaged in a musical project, known on <a href="http://www.reverbnation.com/pawnslogic" target="_blank">ReverbNation</a>, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/pawnslogic" target="_blank">SoundCloud</a>, <a href="https://myspace.com/acousticentropy1" target="_blank">Myspace</a> and <a href="https://www.twitmusic.com/pawns_logic" target="_blank">TwitMusic</a> as <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://pawnslogic.blogspot.com/2013/11/explaining-pawns-logic.html" target="_blank">Pawn’s Logic™</a>. The only goal I had for this "band" (if it can be called that) was to take advantage of the current online music distribution structure so we could share the music we made with folks back in Idaho (and elsewhere), without having to pay for it. We never expected to get rich or famous and we still don't. However, the unintended consequences of our behavior, no matter how altruistic, was that we created competition for all of the folks out there who really <i>did</i> nurture dreams of fame and fortune. That being the case, it really won't matter if you sell your music on vinyl or if iTunes can copy guard your music so that no one except registered buyers can ever access it, because if you won't give your music away, somebody else (like me) will. Technology might be what let this genie out of the bottle, but it's us online musicians and music consumers who've made it unlikely that he'll go back in any time soon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">There's a joke that the pessimist thinks the glass is half empty, the optimist thinks it's half full and the opportunist drinks the contents of said glass while the other two argue semantics. The music glass has never been completely full and it will likely never be completely empty. The music-makers now make a larger portion of their living from live performances than from music royalties and concertgoers attend fewer events and buy more music files, but that's just basic economics. What's really come from the "Musicopalypse" for the music-makers and the music consumers is an opportunity to build a music industry--or not--from the ashes of the old.</span>Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-62900066046721226872013-11-13T13:26:00.001-08:002013-11-13T13:26:12.052-08:00Nice Surprise<div id="fb-root">
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Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-1971421200900438832013-11-11T10:53:00.001-08:002013-11-11T10:53:30.504-08:00Our Champions<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's November, which means Thanksgiving, and it's Veteran's Day, which means thanking the men and women who did us a solid when they served.</span><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">You don't have to share or repost or like if you agree. Just take the time to thank our champions. It won't take but a minute and it's the right thing to do</span></div>Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-8373280992197311122013-11-07T20:08:00.001-08:002013-11-07T20:08:38.579-08:00On Down the Road by Ted ElrickOne of the best things about this contest was the opportunity I had to hear such great music from so many different people. This was hands-down one of my favorites.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/DQeacjhpHEQ?rel=0" width="480"></iframe>Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-66397543648408672522013-10-22T19:24:00.003-07:002013-10-22T19:27:47.797-07:00You DID IT!!<div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>
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Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-84454087481246266022013-10-14T20:15:00.002-07:002013-10-14T20:15:49.341-07:00Beyond Words<div id="fb-root"></div> <script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>
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Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936677914611927561.post-85437181243298064432013-10-12T10:39:00.002-07:002013-10-12T11:03:53.295-07:00Nearing the Summit<div id="fb-root">
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Thanks
to all your help, our views for this week might be just enough to get
us in the weekly top 10--IF we can manage a push. I know it's a lot to
ask of you all on a Saturday, but we've just entered the top 20 most
viewed channels, so if you can please give us a minute of your time--and
a few megs of bandwidth--we stand a very good chance of clinching this
thing TONIGHT! You are our family and our friends, and we wouldn't be
this close if it weren't for all of you. Our deepest thanks to you for
your tireless support in this endeavor.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://songwriter.revimage.com/channels/Jack+Nielsen" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://songwriter.revimage.com/channels/Jack+Nielsen</a><br />
<br />
Be sure to join us tonight for <b>Midnight Under the Mountain,</b> when we release our latest bi-weekly challenge video! You can find us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharethemountain">Facebook</a> and/or <a href="https://twitter.com/Pawns_Logic">Twitter</a> for live interaction with friends & family. For twitter, use the designation (hash tag) #UTMAlt and for Facebook, go to the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharethemountain">Jack Nielsen Singer-Songwriter</a> page and add your comments under the iconic image of the Mountain!<br />
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Hope to see you there!!<br />
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Jackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13645275009532730770noreply@blogger.com0