MP3 Flint Zeigler - New Harmony Sessions
Acoustic and rootsy, raw and exposed, ragged and honest, what real music should be.
11 MP3 Songs in this album (42:55) !
Related styles: FOLK: Folk-Rock, COUNTRY: Americana
People who are interested in Bruce Springsteen Neil Young Jakob Dylan should consider this download.
Details:
The title of Americana/roots rock singer-songwriter Flint Ziegler’s highly anticipated solo debut The New Harmony Sessions was named for the small Indiana town where he and his producer/engineer, David Foreman, recorded the essential tracks of the album’s 11 heartfelt and soul stirring songs with an exciting array of musical talent. Camped out in the den of the historic 1898 Grimm House, they gathered inventive players like drummer, percussionist and all around dazzling “noisemaker” Mickey Grimm and added colors like cello, violin and electric guitar to Zeigler’s intimate and rhythmic acoustic lines.
Beyond the actual location, however, there’s a compelling spiritual story behind the album title that perfectly captures the Tennessee based multi-talented performer’s overall spirit of redemption and his rich reflections on the things that matter most to him: family, marriage, God, faith, and loss and failure ultimately leading to hope and striving for something better. The town of New Harmony (near Evansville) was named by its original inhabitants, a tribe of Indians who believed the veil to the next world was thinnest at that spot and closest to heaven.
Considering that Zeigler has been playing in churches his whole life, his spiritual approach to songwriting is hardly surprising. Nor is his faith that his musical ponderings of the soul on The New Harmony Sessions have the ability to bridge the gap between people, the religious and non-religious, the ragamuffins and the CEOs, the depressed and the impressive—all traveler’s on life’s crazy journey. Some of those lucky travelers have been able to check out Zeigler this past year as he’s performed regional shows at cool, off the beaten path places like The Town Pump in Black Mountain, North Carolina, the Acoustic Coffee House in Johnson City, Tennessee and King Street Coffeehouse in North Umberland, Pennsylvania.
“I want the music on this album to feel good and give listeners from all walks of life a powerful emotional experience but also a sense of calmness and connectivity,” he says. “I hope that the songs can touch people spiritually and also inspire them to think of things beyond themselves. David and I both wanted the sounds and vibes reminiscent of old jazz and country recordings. As the producer, he gave me the freedom to let these songs develop very naturally and took the vibe to the next level by bringing in some amazing outside musicians. It’s my vision, combined with their personalities, which make The New Harmony Sessions a project to be very proud of.”
Zeigler was attending a concert of Over The Rhine in Annapolis, Maryland when he first hooked up with Foreman, a veteran engineer for artists like Dwight Yoakum and John Hiatt who was doing sound for the veteran band. The start of their friendship and budding musical relationship happened at a time when Ziegler was feeling slightly stifled creatively despite the success of his popular group Grantham Road. The Harrisburg, Pennsylvania based band played shows with Hootie & The Blowfish, Saving Jane and the Badlees, released two independent albums (Desperate Times and Parade) and earned airplay across the country. In June 2006, Parade hit #26 on the Roots Music Report, a national airplay chart; Zeigler’s songs were spun everywhere from Philly and New York to South Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Alaska. He started writing the songs that developed into The New Harmony Sessions while still with Grantham Road, but as he kept going, it became clear that his future lay in a solo career.
Zeigler’s powerful writing and performing style come across throughout The New Harmony Sessions, whose overdubs were done in different places and with different people throughout Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The intimate, gently rhythmic “Gone Away” is essentially a play by play account of a night with his wife--the yearning to be so close to someone that you can’t be separated, like ingredients that have been used to make something. It’s about commitment, hope, trust and the giving of one’s self to fuse with another. The haunting, classical-folk influenced “In These Days” was inspired by the artist’s many years of reading Christian authors like A.W. Tozer, Brennan Manning, Henri Nouwen, John Bevere; Zeigler has come to the conclusion that either God has stopped speaking or we have stopped listening. Is there anyone out there that will truly lay down his or her selfish agenda and live a life that is the will of another? The eloquent, mandolin-enhanced “Felt Like Rain” expresses his views on spirituality, the self, family and marriage. All of these are integral to his life and he is always looking to find a balance in each one and between each one.
“In the years when I was playing with Grantham Road,” Zeigler says, “I always looked forward to the day when it would just be me and my guitar up there, singing and speaking directly to people’s hearts with songs that mean a lot to me. There were a lot of memorable moments along the way, but my favorite part of The New Harmony Sessions was meeting so many wonderful people and musicians from across the country and being inspired by them and their own life experiences. The best thing for me is always playing live and getting to know members of the audience as they share their own interpretations of my songs. I might have meant it to mean one thing, but everyone’s own interpretations speak to their unique and fascinating personal histories.”
TENNESSEE BASED SINGER/SONGWRITER
FLINT ZEIGLER EMERGES FROM A
SUCCESSFUL RUN IN A SOUTHERN ROCK BAND
AND GETS PERSONAL ON HIS
SOLO DEBUT ‘THE NEW HARMONY SESSIONS’
The title of Americana/roots rock singer-songwriter Flint Zeigler’s highly anticipated solo debut The New Harmony Sessions was named for the small Indiana town where he and his producer/engineer, David Foreman, recorded the essential tracks of the album’s 11 heartfelt and soul stirring songs with an exciting array of musical talent. Camped out in the den of the historic 1898 Grimm House, they gathered inventive players like drummer, percussionist and all around dazzling “noisemaker” Mickey Grimm and added colors like cello, violin and electric guitar to Zeigler’s intimate and rhythmic acoustic lines.
Beyond the actual location, however, there’s a compelling spiritual story behind the album title that perfectly captures the Tennessee based multi-talented performer’s overall spirit of redemption and his rich reflections on the things that matter most to him: family, marriage, God, faith, and loss and failure ultimately leading to hope and striving for something better. The town of New Harmony (near Evansville) was named by its original inhabitants, a tribe of Indians who believed the veil to the next world was thinnest at that spot and closest to heaven.
Considering that Zeigler has been playing in churches his whole life, his spiritual approach to songwriting is hardly surprising. Nor is his faith that his musical ponderings of the soul on The New Harmony Sessions have the ability to bridge the gap between people, the religious and non-religious, the ragamuffins and the CEOs, the depressed and the impressive—all traveler’s on life’s crazy journey. Some of those lucky travelers have been able to check out Zeigler this past year as he’s performed regional shows at cool, off the beaten path places like The Town Pump in Black Mountain, North Carolina, the Acoustic Coffee House in Johnson City, Tennessee and King Street Coffeehouse in Northumberland, Pennsylvania.
Zeigler was attending a concert of Over The Rhine in Annapolis, Maryland when he first hooked up with Foreman, a veteran engineer for artists like Dwight Yoakum and John Hiatt who was doing sound for the veteran band. The start of their friendship and budding musical relationship happened at a time when Zeigler was feeling slightly stifled creatively despite the success of his popular group Grantham Road. The Harrisburg, Pennsylvania based band played shows with Hootie & The Blowfish, Saving Jane and the Badlees, released two independent albums (Desperate Times and Parade) and earned airplay across the country. In June 2006, Parade hit #26 on the Roots Music Report, a national airplay chart; Zeigler’s songs were spun everywhere from Philly and New York to South Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Alaska. He started writing the songs that developed into The New Harmony Sessions while still with Grantham Road, but as he kept going, it became clear that his future lay in a solo career.
Zeigler’s powerful writing and performing style come across throughout The New Harmony Sessions, whose overdubs were done in different places and with different people throughout Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The intimate, gently rhythmic “Gone Away” is essentially a play by play account of a night with his wife--the yearning to be so close to someone that you can’t be separated, like ingredients that have been used to make something. It’s about commitment, hope, trust and the giving of one’s self to fuse with another. The haunting, classical-folk influenced “In These Days” was inspired by the artist’s many years of reading Christian authors like A.W. Tozer, Brennan Manning, Henri Nouwen, John Bevere; Zeigler has come to the conclusion that either God has stopped speaking or we have stopped listening. Is there anyone out there that will truly lay down his or her selfish agenda and live a life that is the will of another? The eloquent, mandolin-enhanced “Felt Like Rain” expresses his views on spirituality, the self, family and marriage. All of these are integral to his life and he is always looking to find a balance in each one and between each one.