MR

Would love for people to check out this demo I've been working on the past couple of days. I suspect there may not be a lot of love for Tom Petty here in a melodic rock forum, but since a lot of you have followed the changes in my voice over the past year, thought it would be appropriate to post this here and see what you guys think.

Anyway, check the tunes out here:

Samples include

Free Fallin'
Breakdown
Don't Do Me Like That
The Waiting
Even The Losers
I Won't Back Down

I will be the first to mention that this probably doesn't sound like Steve Perry at all LOL....

Here's the link

http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/13803559


Thanks!

Those are some classic songs here man. Question: are these karaoke tracks or "real" tracks (for lack of a better word)? Either way, they sound quite good. And it's good to hear you sing again.

Jeremey wrote:Would love for people to check out this demo I've been working on the past couple of days. I suspect there may not be a lot of love for Tom Petty here in a melodic rock forum, but since a lot of you have followed the changes in my voice over the past year, thought it would be appropriate to post this here and see what you guys think.

Anyway, check the tunes out here:

Samples include

Free Fallin'
Breakdown
Don't Do Me Like That
The Waiting
Even The Losers
I Won't Back Down

I will be the first to mention that this probably doesn't sound like Steve Perry at all LOL....

Here's the link

http://www.reverbnation.com/open_graph/song/13803559


Thanks!

Well I'm a big Tom Petty fan and no, it certainly doesn't sound like Steve Perry. LOL Personally, I like covers that are unexpected or out of an artist's comfort zone. I also like when some artists take a familiar song and flip it on it's ear and change the tempo, orchestration or melody. Of course it doesn't always work, but when it does it can be great. Some examples of what I mean would be Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt", Jimi Hendrix's "All along the Watchtower" or the Gipsy Kings' "Hotel California".

Ehwmatt wrote:Those are some classic songs here man. Question: are these karaoke tracks or "real" tracks (for lack of a better word)? Either way, they sound quite good. And it's good to hear you sing again.

Hey man, thanks - Those are just karaoke tracks, I was just basically doing the equivalent of a "screen test" for my voice on these songs. Definitely classic songs. Petty & The Heartbreakers are one of the few acts that can do a 2 hour concert and play practically nothing but hits.

Peartree12249 wrote:
Well I'm a big Tom Petty fan and no, it certainly doesn't sound like Steve Perry. LOL Personally, I like covers that are unexpected or out of an artist's comfort zone. I also like when some artists take a familiar song and flip it on it's ear and change the tempo, orchestration or melody. Of course it doesn't always work, but when it does it can be great. Some examples of what I mean would be Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt", Jimi Hendrix's "All along the Watchtower" or the Gipsy Kings' "Hotel California".

Thanks - Johnny Cash covered a few of Petty' songs, including "I Won't Back Down" and "Southern Accents." Love his version of "Hurt." I also really like what Adele & Rick Rubin did with "Lovesong."

Sounds great!

Now I wanna hear you do "Listen To Her Heart", "Here Comes My Girl", and "Even The Losers"...

You should sing "Change of Heart". That's my favorite Petty and the Heartbreakers track. Wish they did it live more.

Love Tom Petty classics, Sounds really good Jeremey!

slucero wrote:Sounds great!

Now I wanna hear you do "Listen To Her Heart", "Here Comes My Girl", and "Even The Losers"...

Thank you man - "Even The Losers" appears for a bit in that medley I posted. I would love to sing "Listen To Her Heart," but cannot find any tracks for the song. Maybe I can convince some of my fellow musician friends to play it sometime LOL. "Here Comes My Girl" is a really fn tough song to sing actually. The rhythm of the spoken word part is kind of tough to get, then the pre chorus where he's basically yelling is a real bitch.

AR wrote:You should sing "Change of Heart". That's my favorite Petty and the Heartbreakers track. Wish they did it live more.

I love that song too, Ed. If I was making up a set list for Petty I would certainly put that in his concert. Probably between two awesome songs like "I Need To Know" and "Free Fallin." I think it would fit great between those two.

RPM wrote:Love Tom Petty classics, Sounds really good Jeremey!

Thanks so much!

Crawling after you and the last Dj are two of my lesser known favorites

Jeremey wrote:

slucero wrote:Sounds great!

Now I wanna hear you do "Listen To Her Heart", "Here Comes My Girl", and "Even The Losers"...

Thank you man - "Even The Losers" appears for a bit in that medley I posted. I would love to sing "Listen To Her Heart," but cannot find any tracks for the song. Maybe I can convince some of my fellow musician friends to play it sometime LOL. "Here Comes My Girl" is a really fn tough song to sing actually. The rhythm of the spoken word part is kind of tough to get, then the pre chorus where he's basically yelling is a real bitch.

Oh hell yea!...

(yer gonna have SO much fun doing this...)

Keeping it real... Your voice does sound much different. Some of those higher notes in chest voice sound strained. If you're going for a national petty tribute, I would expect better vocals. But for a local 2nd gig around town, I'm sure you could get bookings. Hell...there's a Petty band in the Dallas area that gets plenty of work and the singer doesn't sound a thing like Petty.

Good to hear you singing again, but I hope your more melodic voice makes it way back.

texafana wrote:Keeping it real... Your voice does sound much different. Some of those higher notes in chest voice sound strained. If you're going for a national petty tribute, I would expect better vocals. But for a local 2nd gig around town, I'm sure you could get bookings. Hell...there's a Petty band in the Dallas area that gets plenty of work and the singer doesn't sound a thing like Petty.

Good to hear you singing again, but I hope your more melodic voice makes it way back.

Thank you man, I guess maybe I should explain that I just started working on these Tom Petty songs about a week ago, so certainly there's room to grow. One thing I've learned so far is that there's no shortage of guys in top hats and wigs around the country getting paid to perform Tom Petty songs, including Petty Theft in Dallas, which is headed up by a popular local DJ from what I've heard and they are a popular local draw due I guess in some degree to his local celebrity as well. One need only look around YouTube to see where the current bar is set for Tom Petty tribute shows. If I ever decided to perfect the impression and get a band together, I guess the marketplace could decide how far it could go. I have to say I would not be wearing a wig or using costumes and props, so the focus on the voice and music would have to be held to a pretty high standard.

For now I'm still working on my voice and looking for ways to continue challenging myself. I've always considered myself a performer as much (if not more) as a singer, so I guess it's just a matter of finding the right combination of things that will work.

Jeremey, sounds like your voice is coming along nicely enough to where you can go through some songs (was only able to find the one demo clip you did, never did find the others). I'm not sure how feasible it is for you to nuture your solo career right now (you can write songs that caters to your voice as it is now), but you could maybe keep that going. With Frontiers, did I read that right on another post that you're doing keyboards during a performance? Any thought to shifting to keyboards while you keep a different vocalist for Frontiers? Greg Rolie did that for Journey and they turned out okay. I mean given that you have the talent to shift instruments, write songs and stuff, you can plug in where you want and still keep things going. At least that way you keep Frontiers going until your 100% and keep some momentum going (and your 50 to 75% that you're at right now is better than many people at 100%).