[James Nighthawk]

I like a bit of Melody Gardot and Madeline Peyroux, and both have sound references here. Very nice.

It is a little loose in places, and the cheesiness is largely because you dont have acccess to live recorded instruments. That aside, this is great! The sparse acoustic guitar is fabulous, and the vocal is just strained enough to work.

Very nice listening!

[benjo]

hi shineythang,

just listened to this while cooking sunday dinner
chilled me right out really nice vocals
well done pleasure to hear this piece
take care...

[ShinyThang]

Hey thanks Benjo (and others I'll get round to later)

I just took a break from re-recording this very track for the UK songwriting comp. I stuck a piano on ... think I may have overcooked it ... Hope your dinner turns out better

[Dave Bradley]

I don't know if anyone one ever did, but there's never any need to make excuses for jazz. There are the cliches and then there are just great tunes where no one cares about labels, you just listen, and chill and it's cool.

[calmlondon]

Hi Shiny, you know you don't sound like a jazz novice. This is a convincing subtle number for a jazz work in progress. I really like the lyric 'the calm in your eyes, chased the storm clouds from the skies'.  I read that this person had a stilling effect on you.

I'll need another listen to offer any pointers, but it's sounding smooth.

[ShinyThang]

Calmlondon! Hi, How great to hear from you again. Thanks for the kind words but I swear this is the first song of this type I've ever written although I have a few other sketches that sort of lean the same way. I honestly think this was the result of immersing myself in Jonny Hartman, Dinah Washington and Norah Jones before going along to a Jazz festival.  Glad you liked the lyric, I was very pleased with this one. Yes, the subject of this song is a calming, steadying influence on the singer. Could be a friend, parent, lover or favourite teddy bear.

Michael: Well, I am flattered by your comments but I think if I could settle on a style of any kind I'd feel more of a songwriter rather than just a producer of what comes out. I think I must be soaking up influences from all corners of music.

Montydog: Thanks. As I've said to others I don't know how I wrote this really so, I kinda feel unworthy of such credit. I'll take it though

Basshead: It's what I've been banging on about for the last two years ... just write what comes out. I think I gave up on a lot of ideas just because I thought they weren't what I thought I should be writing. Oh! and those chords? I'm pretty sure there isn't a difficult one among them it's hitting the harmonics that is difficult.

MOSP: Thanks. I'm not really a jazz fan either. Usually find twenty minutes is quite enough although Kate Winter (http://www.katewinter.com/) held my attention a little longer a few weeks ago in Oxford

James: Thank you. And thank you for reminding me about Melody Gardot. And I see she's going to be at Brighton Jazz festival very soon! Yeah, the looseness is irritating. I had trouble understanding what beats should be emphasised and ended up in a bit of a jumble. I also had trouble with the tempo being so slow. Funny, now I think it is too fast! My wise drummer friend says I am not 'feeling' the rhythm. I think I know what he means but still can't get it right. I re-recorded this in order to enter it into the UK Songwriting Contest. I just re-played my entry take and it's even worse than this one. I messed it up by adding a piano and giving the sax a little more to do ... Oh, and I had a heavy cold what was I thinking?

[Dogmax]

Well Geoff

I'm sitting in my wee room beside the window the evening sun still has a hour or two before she leave us for the day and i'm listening to a wonderful piece of Jazz, absolutely perfect, i'm thinking of putting to candles on the kitchen table and ordering a takeaway and then just sitting there staring into my wife eyes listening to your song, but i know she would only laugh.

Absolutely perfect Man, Absolute perfection.

Thanks for that Mate   

[theLostLad]

I'm far from qualified to critique jazz! For what its worth I enjoyed it, could have gone on for longer. Maybe the bass line should have been a bit more straight/walking? Sax solo had me fooled, I thought it was the real thing!

Iain Matthews (UK singer songwriter) recently did an album backed by a jazz quartet, I think its called Joy Mining. Reminded me a bit of that.

[Dave Bradley]

Did I already say? Nothing wrong with a bit of jazz...not sure about the new title, there's been at least one song called "Only You" before, "Blue Light" sounds more like jazz...the opposite of red light perhaps, smoky but melancholy, the blue after the red?

[Jamie]

Nicely conceived and well executed.The guitar sounds are just right for this song and complement a really nice jazz melody/phrasing.Good stuff.
Cheers

Jamie

[GTB]

Hi ShineyThang, you said it's work in progress but to me it sounds very close to the finished article, I really enjoyed listening to it and as I was reaching for the whiskey bottle I found myself feeling aggrieved that you haven't done a whole album!
more please ;-)
GTB