Boston
based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jerry Velona has
released his sixth album entitled Love Radio. The record contains 9
tracks ranging from rock to funk, soul, country and blues.
Boston,
MA, USA (November 12, 2014) -- Boston based singer/songwriter and
multi-instrumentalist Jerry Velona has released his sixth album
entitled Love Radio. The record contains 9 tracks
ranging from rock to funk, soul, country and blues.
Love
Radio features six original compositions by Velona as well as
three covers including the lead track, Looking for Lewis and Clark
composed by Sid Griffin and a hit for his band The Long Ryders in the
mid 1980's. Velona updated some of the song's lyrics with Griffin's
permission and about Velona's version he commented: "Jerry
Velona once again proves his musical worth in a balls-to-the-wall
cover version of the Long Ryders' 'Looking For Lewis & Clark', a
pounding yet melodic take which begs the question: where are the
great and fearless leaders of the present day? Velona's committed
vocal and approach to the lyric may not provide a complete set of
answers but oh Mercy, they frame the question so very, very well."
A video for the song can be viewed at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmAAaMoalag&feature=youtu.be.
The
record features an assortment of some of the finest musicians in the
Boston area including several faculty members of Velona's alma mater
The Berklee College of Music. Local singer Debbie Pierre is featured
on background vocals on many of the tracks as well as the lead vocal
on The Ghetto (ain't going back). Hip hop artist and spoken
word poet J Ivy is also featured on the same track which was adapted
from the Donny Hathaway tune Ghetto first recorded in the 1970's.
"I've
spent a great deal of time over the past couple of years composing,
arranging and recording these songs," said Velona, "I'm
very proud of the record and I think some of the tracks represent my
best work to date."
Velona
produced the record in addition to singing most of the tracks and
playing drums and percussion on many of them. The songs were recorded
at Woolly Mammoth Sound in Waltham, MA and Q Division Studios in
Somerville, MA. Mastering was done by Bill Bromfield at Clockwise
Records, Nashville.
In
addition to Looking for Lewis and Clark, Love Radio features
several straight-ahead rock tracks including the humorous When I
Wake Up, the semi-biographical First to Last and the
subtly political The Bureau of Whatever.
Other
highlights include the deft funk of Our Own Devices which
Velona playfully describes as, "our ode to analog fun." The
album also features the bluesy Just Don't Feel Like Christmas
about which Velona says, "I was trying to express the melancholy
that often accompanies the Christmas season." The record is
balanced out by covers of the Robbie Robertson song Forbidden
Fruit and the somewhat obscure soul chestnut Baby What'cha Got
(for me) recorded by the late soul singer Darrell Banks in l967.
Love
Radio is available for sale at CDBaby.com
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jerryvelona5.
More information on Velona and the release can be obtained at
http://www.jerryvelona.com.
Jerry
Velona is a Boston area singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
He's played and sung in a number of Boston bands and has written
songs which have appeared on HBO, MTV and elsewhere. His voice has
been featured in commercials and the theme song for the independent
film "Lifestyles of the Poor and Unknown". He can be
reached through his website at jerry@jerryvelona.com.
Media
Contact:
Jerry
Velona
781-789-1444
