Tag Archives: Living in Some Strange Days

Spaceship Flying Saucer Bluze/AB Records Issue #105 (June 2023)

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Very pleased to be featured in the latest Aldora Britain Records – AB Records e-zine, The Independent and Underground Music e-Zine, Issue 105.

Tom Hilton champions true independent music from all over the globe. He obviously understood what I’ve been trying to do, especially the past two releases. Thanks, Tom!!

Spaceship Flying Saucer Bluze
Indie rock is an infinite field of sonic possibilities. It is a bracket that has been employed by thousands of bands and artists from all around the world. Some have lived up to its legacy, and some have fallen behind.

Out of Lynchburg, Virginia, contemporary singer-songwriter JIM BAUMER carves out his very own space on the alternative indie spectrum. Outings such as 2022’s Living in Some Strange Days and this year’s Home Sweet Home have stood up and been counted.

These selections showcase Jim’s fantastic approach to music, a glorious crossover of experimental rock, lo-fi pop, and one-man band indie. This musical approach provides a strong foundation for tales of darkness and pain, but also hope and real-life optimism. It is this relatable edge that really brings these LPs, and Jim’s music, to life.

Earlier this year, following the release of Home Sweet Home, Aldora Britain Records had a chat with this underground artist to unearth his journey so far.

Jim Baumer has previously contributed his track ‘Kick the Darkness’ to our ‘Knighted’ compilation. Listen or download HERE.

[If you enjoy this content, please consider making a small, magazine-sized donation at the following link. Thank you!]

Aldora Britain Records: Hello Jim, how are you? I am excited to be talking to such an innovative and creative contemporary artist. Thank you for your time. Let’s start off at the very beginning. What are some of your earliest musical memories and what was it that first pushed you towards pursuing this passion of yours?
Jim Baumer: My first memories of music were when I was eight years old, listening to my local AM station in the early 70s. Back then, you heard a great deal of rock on AM radio, not like today in the US where it is all talk radio garbage.

[Jim Baumer live, Loose Shoe Too, Appomattox, VA, May 2023]

I can remember one Thanksgiving, hearing the full version of Arlo Guthrie’s ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ and thinking his talking blues was the greatest thing ever. Then, bands like Blue Cheer with their version of ‘Summertime Blues’ blasting out of the stereo console at my house. Also, our local drug store downtown carried rock mags like Creem and I remember reading about Marc Bolan and Lou Reed when I was like nine or ten.
Aldora Britain Records: And now, let’s take a leap forward to the present day and your impressive solo output. I love the lo-fi and DIY attitude that you have. That really appeals to me, for sure! Where does this drive come from, and what would you say this DIY approach brings to your musical output?

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A New City/A New Home (JimBaumerMe Newsletter)

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Bunker Rock/JimBaumerMe

Movin’ On (A New Musical Home)
Vol. 3/Issue 1

November and December was music-free for me. Rather than playing music, I was immersed in holiday nostalgia via movies like Feast of the Seven Fishes and of course, the most nostalgic of all Christmas movies—It’s a Wonderful Life—while coming to terms with living in a new state and region.

In September, Mary (my wife) and me drove to Central Virginia to look at houses and scout out places like Roanoke and Lynchburg. Lynchburg is where we found a house we wanted to buy, so JimBaumerMe is no longer in ME, but VA. It may necessitate a name change. But perhaps not—Matt Pond PA never changed his moniker despite changing geography. Actually, Matt Pond PA is on hiatus until 2025/26 according to his website.

[New house, new city]

Here’s hoping that gigging in this area in 2023 is as good to me as New England was the past two years. I’m sure it will be.

I’ve yet to play an official “gig,” but I have been making it out to some local open mics. It’s been good meeting some of the local musicians. I also did a live stream on New Years Eve.

Given that my music is oriented towards indie rock and not just cover fare, I think Charlottesville and Roanoke offer possibilities. Then, I’m only two hours from the music hotbed of Raleigh-Durham and even Greensboro in North Carolina. We’ll have to wait and see how the booking turns out.

A resource that’s really meant a lot to me in 2022 is Zen Guitar, written by the late Philip Toshio Sudo. To say it’s a self-help book for guitar players diminishes the scope of the book. But that’s a good starting point. The author helps readers understand the guitar-playing isn’t just about virtuosity but infusing your playing with soulful spirituality. Or something like that. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to be a better musician.

I closed out my playing dates in Maine (and Mass.) with fair dates in Fryeburg (for the second straight year) and Topsfield (for the first time). I also played the Bolton Fair in Bolton, MA in August. Overall, I played fewer dates in 2023 (about 40) than 2022 (when I crossed the 60 gig threshold), but I began figuring out where I wanted to play rather than simply accepting a date for the sake of having one. Some of my favorite places to play in 2022 besides the fairs were SoPo Seafood, Tumbledown Farm to Fork, Side by Each Brewing, and participating in Newton’s Porchfest in June.

[Rockin’ at the Topsfield Fair]

My CD, Living in Some Strange Days, got some radio airplay on MIT’s outstanding college radio station, WMBR. I also got an invite from Lorenzo at WMPG to play live at the station in May.

Stay tuned for the next JimBaumerME musical chapter. Looks like I will be participating in the RPM Challenge 2023. I’ve already got one song in the can.

Happy 2023 from Central Virginia.

-JimBaumerMe

Merchant Page: Living in Some Strange Days

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I created this page for those who for whatever reason are averse to Bandcamp. One advantage of having this page on my website is that everything that gets paid to me stays with me, save for a small fee PayPal takes. I have no issues with either Bandcamp or PayPal for that matter. Both are equitable in my opinion. And you can choose what one you prefer.

Did I tell you how much I appreciate Jonathan Braden’s artwork?? It’s amazing!

[CD cover-Jonathan Braden design]




Releasing (hit) Singles

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Spent the month of February recording a record/CD. I still say “record” because I grew up with records. When I mention that I have a “new record” what I mean is that it’s a grouping of songs with some thematic consistency—just like rockers used to make. Actually, musicians still do it apparently, as there is this thing called the RPM challenge. This year’s February call motivated me to get off my duff and cobble together some new material, and gather an assorted unreleased track or two that’s been sitting there for a year or more. I also re-recorded a new version of an older song.

Full discloser…I didn’t complete my project in February so technically I couldn’t pimp my new release along with all the others on RPM’s platform. That’s okay. I would rather make sure that I had a group of songs I really liked rather than feeling I was a song short.

In fact, that’s what I had at the end of February. Eight songs, seven I really dug, but track #8 just didn’t seem right. On a darker collection of songs, you gotta’ give a listener a little hope, right?

As a songwriter that’s been mining life lived after tragedy, it’s been hard not to write songs that tend towards the downer side. The clusterfuck called COVID didn’t help, at least it didn’t help me. What felt like governmental dictats—two weeks to flatten the curve, then weeks turning into months, etc. Gigs cancelled, me back in my bunker in the dark. Shit! Worse, people began pulling away from family and friends. To me, it felt similar to what I felt following Mark’s death in 2017.

But not to despair. So yeah—the record isn’t a reworking of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” But I’m not apologizing. If you know who T. Rex were, get what Arlo Guthrie was doing with his talking blues and “Alice’s Restaurant” and have a clue about newer bands like Car Seat Headrest, then you’ll at least understand (if not love) the new release.

Friday, March 4, I sat down with my Epiphone acoustic and came up with a chord progression. I then started jotting down words in my lyric notebook. Then, scratching out and rewriting. In about an hour’s time, I had “Kick the Darkness,” what is now my single and a somewhat hopeful capstone to the new record, “Living in Some Strange Days.” The cover, done by old friend and Canadian expat Jonathan Braden (living in Europe these days) is ambiguous in an amazing way!

[CD cover-Jonathan Braden design]

The song, based on Bruce Cockburn’s “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” namechecks a host of Canadian performers I’ve been a fan of over the years: Cockburn, The Tragically Hip, Eric’s Trip, Sloan, Matt Mays, and Joel Plaskett (and the Joel Plaskett Emergency). Someone I know, a fellow musician told me he thought the single sounded like Lou Reed to him. I’ll take that as a compliment.

The new songs will be showing up on various streaming platforms thanks to Distrokid: Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon, etc. One of my favorite streaming services modeled after an actual radio station with real DJs picking and playing the songs is Amazing Radio. They have a US station, as well as one in the UK. There is cross-pollination, especially with the artists and releases.

I got an email yesterday (April 7) that my song was going to be played on Cubs the Poet’s show that night. I was playing a gig down the coast in Rockland, so I figured I’d come home from gigging and sit with a beer and unwind and catch the show. “Kick the Darkness” got played at around 11:50. While it as amazing to hear my own song coming out of the speaker, it hit me that it was going out all over the world. So cool! The new release is in production, and I should have actual physical copies available soon. Keep your eyes on my Bandcamp page for availability.

I think 2022 will really be the Summer of Baumer, aka, JimBaumerMe.

Oh, and I have a video (by Vizy) for the single.

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