Category Archives: Music

Cover Song Fridays (Elliott Smith)

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Over the past four years, I’ve developed a three-hour set of songs, many being my own songs I’ve written, but I also play some covers.

I’ve never been one to learn a bunch of songs by some other artist. However, if forced to play covers out of necessity, I’m going to play songs by people I really like. Elliott Smith is one of them.

This is my 2nd Cover Song Friday since I’ve gotten rolling.

This one is “Rose Parade” and I’m happy with this version; recording on my back deck.

Will try to do one of these each Friday.

It’s a Wrap on 2023 (JimBaumerME Newsletter)

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Bunker Rock/JimBaumerMe

Movin’ On (A New Musical Home)
Vol. 3/Issue 2

I’m actually working on this newsletter on the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. I don’t love this time of year, where, at least in these parts, the days start out dark and the light fades far too early.

Dec. 20 follows Dec. 19, which this year would have been the 40th birthday of our late son, Mark. It was nearly seven years ago that he was hit and killed by an SUV along a desolate stretch of highway in Florida’s Panhandle while attempting his second walk across America. Many of you know the story, so I won’t elaborate.

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The Music Shift (I Don’t Sing Like Taylor Swift)

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The song “Music Shift” is about music approached as an avocation, if not a vocation. The idea of working a “shift” in terms of labor dates back to 1809 and mining. Playing guitar may not be mining but it helps to approach music with that same sense of purpose and consistency.

I begin the song by saying that playing music is a “grift.” This emanates from much of today’s music promotion being about “pay to play.” Yet, this is nothing new. We know about the days of payola. In our time, it’s the constant enticements to pay for this or that in terms of getting your music streamed. Even if your song(s) get played, you’ll make little to nothing because any profits from Spotify or other platforms aren’t funneled equitably to the creators of the work. The con works because musicians want their music heard by others.

Since I began writing songs and getting my music out there, I’ve had a sense that people really don’t understood what I do. I play indie/alternative rock with influences from lo-fi bands like Guided by Voices. For fans of Taylor Swift and her overly-produced schlock and corporate façade, lo-fi with a DIY orientation sounds foreign.

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Spotify Heavy Weather

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Just like Oliver Anthony, I release my new songs via Distrokid. It works well because for a minimal annual membership, I can launch multiple tracks/albums via a host of streaming platforms.

Streaming seems to be where it’s at (even if no one makes any money), so I thought I’d take Distrokid’s suggestion and create a playlist of my own, including two of my own tracks. My playlist, “This is Indie Music” is a really good gathering of my influences and the bands/artists who inform what I do as a songwriter and guitar player.

Have at it!!

Oh, and feel free to add my songs to your Spotify playlists.

Creative Continuation

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I was thinking the other day about creative output and how it relates to my own production. During the time I was focused on writing, I put out four books from 2005 to 2014, which also included my repurposed Moxie book in 2012, sold to Down East Books (now Rowman & Littlefield). Remarkably, this book continues to sell and I’m sure it’s one of the better-selling regional releases for New England from that period.

Those years also included a host of articles for publications; alt weeklies, trade journals, and newspapers, both local and regional. I launched this blog in 2012, as a platform for content and became a practitioner of “shipping” (as Seth Godin frequently talks about). It was routine for me to create and post three to five blog entries each week.

Since 2018, I’ve been focused like a laser on music, another side of the creative process.  First, playing guitar daily in order to advance my playing. But just as important—writing my own songs. Over the course of that time, I’ve written 30+ songs. I have two Eps and two full-length releases available for purchase on Bandcamp.

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What’s the Deal with Oliver Anthony

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Picking up an old acoustic guitar I’d had for 20+ years, I began playing every single day back in late 2018, This became a cathartic escape from a deep, dark hole prompted by the tragic death of my only son a year before.

When I started playing three or four songs at open mics in 2019, I never thought I’d end up writing nearly 40 songs over the next three years, while releasing music regularly on Bandcamp. I especially never thought I’d have the guitar skills to play professionally, often carrying three-hour sets of covers interspersed with my own songs.

My goal was never to become a popular musician. First, the musical influences I have are obscure indie bands and singers—performers like Guided by Voices, Swearing at Motorists, and some bigger name performers like Wilco and Car Seat Headrest.

At the same time, I honestly thought I might manage to gather a niche following of music fans, similar to what I’ve been able to cobble together over the last 20 years as a writer. My Moxie book still sells steadily because I’d found a nostalgic topic that came with a built-in cult following.

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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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JimBaumerMusic Live Dates (Spring/Summer)

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I really don’t know who visits this website/blog these days. But in case someone local to Lynchburg (my new home) stumbles across it, here are the gigs I’ve managed to cobble together at the moment. Happy to have landed one of the coveted slots at the Lynchburg Community Market on Saturday mornings. I’ll be there on June 10th from 10:00 to Noon. Some of my favorite performances have been at farmers’ markets back in Maine. Always a fun time and I guess I’ll be able to break out the “Farmers’ Market Song” I wrote back in 2020.

Upcoming Music Dates

My live performances are always unique. I don’t play the same old covers that everyone else plays. I’ve also forged my own style of playing both electric and acoustic guitar. Not fancy, but my chops come from the heart. I also write my own songs and work these into my two-and-three-hour sets.

Hoping to find a few more places to play in Lynchburg and elsewhere. Don’t be surprised to find me busking on the mall in Charlottesville and who knows where else I’ll show up this summer and fall.

Here’s one of my own:

I’ll also be back in New England in August to make a return appearance at the amazing Bolton Fair on their stage near the beer tent. Hoping to find another venue or two in Maine to play for old friends.

Stay tuned!

Home Sweet Home/RPM Challenge 2023

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Last Monday, I finished my final mixes on my last two songs for the RPM Challenge. What originally began as a 5-song EP, over the course of February, became a 10-song album. Honestly, I wasn’t’ totally surprised that I had more songs in me than a mere five.

Home recording is a solitary activity. I don’t know how many people there are that would self-identify as home recorders. What I found enlightening during February, thanks to RPM’s attempts to connect all of us, is that there are more of us than I thought.

I’m not really sure where my music fits into the larger context of the rock and roll universe. I’m guessing I’ll always occupy some very small, obscure niche. And yet, I sometimes wonder why my music fails to gain any traction at all.

When I tell people that I “play music,” they invariably ask me, “what do you play?” It’s hard to give them an answer that satisfies how I categorize my music because my points of reference are generally obscure bands in the context of popular music.

My music has a definite point of origination—most likely 1992, when I first heard Guided by Voices double CD compiling Vampire on Titus and Propeller. I found it at WBOR, when I’d come in to listen to new music for my weekend radio slot I was doing at the time.

Another group of original songs.

The album possesses an aesthetic that’s all but disappeared in today’s music landscape. It’s like a lo-fi dream that walks through my own rock and roll journey from early 70s AM rock, through prog, punk, some British invasion, garage rock, with a tinge of psyche thrown in. Granted GbV aren’t the only point of reference for my music as it’s evolved over the past few years, but I think they are important.

This latest offering spends some time working its way through 90s shoegaze and has echoes of British bands Swervedriver and maybe even Ride and tracks like “Living in the Worst of Times” and the instrumental, “The Fool.” It also continues with populist subject matter that was part and parcel of last April’s release, Living in Some Strange Days.

The song, “They Don’t Care,” an acoustic number that I basically captured in one take after watching YouTube news footage of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, comes from realizing that we now have a uniparty that doesn’t care about poor people, black or white. East Palestine is an echo of disasters involving water and necessities of life that had already played out in Flint, Michigan and Jackson, Mississippi, before. As a result, life in America is become untenable for most.

“Guitar Story” is a song about the past six years, from picking up my old Yamaha guitar, and now, being able to play well enough to carry my songs (and some covers) as a one-man-band of sorts. It would be the “single” on the record, I think.

I called the 10 songs Home Sweet Home because the music emanates from our move and it also is an ironic title, also. If the past three years (or perhaps, six), I feel less at home in this world than ever before. Moving to a new geographic location is less jarring than the rapid-fire changes being thrown at us by elites via technology, social media, and now, AI.

The new release now gives me four musical collections. Similarly, I’ve published four books. I’d like to publish another book that draws upon my musical journey over the past few years. Maybe I can combine writing a book with releasing new music in 2024 during next year’s RPM Challenge.

Alt Tunings-RPM Sketch #3

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As I’ve been writing new songs and exploring new ideas for the RPM Challenge in February, I have felt gratitude on numerous occasions for the opportunity presented by this annual creative endeavor. One of the benefits to me has been looking at alternative tunings and actually pursuing some elements of these on the new batch of songs.

Since my last post, I’ve posted three new songs, including yesterday’s new track, an instrumental, “The Fool.”

 

This song is played in Dropped G tuning and this lends a different element to the sound. At times, I hear echoes of people like William Tyler in the voicings, maybe even a longtime favorite of mine, Yo La Tengo, just a bit. For my musical tastes and where I’m trying to take my guitar-playing, that’s a good thing. Keith Richards of the Stones used Dropped G quite often. There are a few spots where I even hear myself channeling Keith. Very cool.

The track, “Living in the Worst of Times” was played using a tuning utilized often by Swervedriver during their 80s shoegaze period. It lends a bottom-heavy aspect to the song, which I really was looking to create, since as a one-man band, sans a bass player, creating a bottom in my music isn’t always possible in standard tuning, or without multi-tracking the guitar, which I didn’t have to do in this one.

 

If RPM ended today, I’d have the five songs I’d committed to making back at the start of the challenge. But I still have two songs partially mixed—a “country” number and one rooted in 80s punk. I might even write another acoustic ditty before midnight on February 28.

As for the title for the instrumental, I was looking through an old deck of Tarot cards yesterday and saw the card for the Fool. Since he represents new beginnings and even—having faith in the future—it seemed appropriate for me, being here in a new place and tackling some new musical ideas. The Fool also represents improvisation.

Another week of work to do. It looks like I also have another track time to qualify as an LP vs. my project being an EP.