I got a good review.

That's always awesome to see/hear/read. This is kinda my first big print one, though...from Austin's INsite Magazine. I just picked up a few today to send to people. Or maybe like 20. You know. When you get compared to one of your favorite songwriters EVARRRR you get little happy. You can read it here in larger print. Thanks to Josh for the JPEG! Also... Dear Gleason Booth who wrote the review, If you ever need a beer*, a kidney, or a slightly used 13" television, you just give me a call. Thanks for that. Love, Janapo PS: *Yes, even imports.

12 Hours By Car Live at Casbeer's

End of Year Meme

Well, folks. Time for reflection and all that stuff...it was a good year. I kind of figure if you want to recount it in detail, you can click any month on the archive list over there, so an in-depth kind of recap would be a little silly. There are some fun blog memes going around, though...so let's try this one. The rules are: take the first sentence for the first post of each month for 2008 and put them together. Also…put in the first photograph of the month (sometimes from the same post, sometimes not). January: The site looks a little different, except it's exactly the same. February: Wow, kids; again a stretch of days with no blog post. March: I really need to start taking photos more because otherwise, you're stuck with images of me like this one, sitting on my porch at 8 AM on a Saturday, blogging outside because I can't mooch a wifi signal inside. April: "She needs wide open spaces; room to make her big mistakes." - Wide Open Spaces (Susan Gibson) May: Very fun songswap at the Hideout this week with Amanda Pearcy, Rachel Lynn, and Beth Lee. June: You've all heard me gush poetic about Mary Chapin Carpenter, one of the main reasons I picked up a guitar in the first place. July: Well...I am hopefully all situated and ready to hit the road with Susan Gibson for the next few days. August: The title. The Early Year. September: Spent the weekend on the road again (now it's stuck in your head! Haha!) with Susan selling t-shirts and CDs to the fine folks in Wimberley, Marble Falls, and Fredericksburg. October: This one makes me smile because it kind of brings a neat story full circle for me. November: Phil and his awesomeness have announced the winners of the Merch Girl T-shirt Slogan Contest...go to his blog to see the results. December: So the whole premise of the title of The Early Year (do you have yours yet, and did you buy some for stocking stuffers? They're pretty with red and green) was the getting up at 5:30 AM to write.

The Early Year available on iTunes

Buy The Early Year on iTunes. Already have it and dig it? Tell the world! Write a review for iTunes and share the love. You can also review The Early Year on CD Baby or on Amazon...a few sentences from you can make a big difference! That makes for extra candy in your stocking. Fer reals.

Tracking the Early Year: 12 Hours By Car

It is 750ish miles from Austin to Albuquerque, and that takes 12 hours to drive if you're doing right by the speed limit. I'm not one for stopping anywhere to stay the night, so I just do the whole thing in a day. That thought informed the chorus for this one -- some days Albuquerque feels so far it might as well be across the Atlantic. Then again it's nice to know a 2 hour plane ride will get me there, too. The rest of the song is a true instance of coming out in about 2.5 hours on a Saturday morning with much coffee and Garageband to keep track of things. I'm pretty sure none of it existed before then. I remember feeling exceptionally accomplished for it being 11 AM on a Saturday when I finished it. It was the first song we tracked for the record, and when it came time for some percussion, Dan thought quarters would have a ring to them...so somehow he compiled a handful of quarters and I stood there for the entirety of the song dropping quarters back and forth from hand to hand. A few made it to the floor, but mostly I was an adept quarter slinger. It makes me think of a ghost walking down a hallway. The banjo added a nice vibe to the whole thing. Lyrics: i am numb, i am numb two shots per feeling is my rule of thumb and i am tired, i'm so tired of being the one who sets wind to the fire it is thin, wearing thin life is a butterfly stuck on a pin i am still, i lie still behind enemy lines and i have taken my pill 'cause i don't know where you are two hours by plane means twelve by car that is the way we are twelve hours apart by car here i am, here i am spilling my soul on a string and a can can't you see, can't you see? i always thought maybe you'd be good for me but i don't know where you are two hours by plane means twelve by car that is the way we are twelve hours apart by car every day looks the same if the sun makes it up then i'll be ok 'cause every day looks the same if the sun makes it up then i'll be ok 'cause i don't know where you are two hours by plane means twelve by car that is the way we are twelve hours apart by car Words and Music by Jana Pochop © 2008 Patient Grasshopper Music (ASCAP)

Tracking The Early Year: New Mexico Boy Part II

(Part one of this non-saga lives here). "New Mexico Boy" was pretty fully formed by the time I was playing it out a lot, but it's actually gone through a few major "renovations," if you will, to get it to the version you hear on The Early Year. It's a long song. It has five verses. That's indulgent, but I like them all, so I wasn't going to chuck anything out. It got its first facelift when I was at the Life's A Song workshop with Terri Hendrix. We got some one-on-one time with Terri to go over whatever we wanted, and I played her this song. She had the same assessment about the length. At that time the chorus was: Drunk on Friday, home by 2 AM Mass on Sunday, bread and wine again You wonder who's your saint Cuz sure as hell you ain't Does confession to the Mother bring you joy New Mexico Boy? When you sing that 3 times, it makes your long song even LONGER. Terri drew some lines through the "saint/ain't" lines and said that's what needed to go. She was right. But I still LOVED that line. I went over that with Dan and he suggested those lines could be moved to the bridge, which at the time was kind of taking up redundant space: Airport's running out of planes Scared you won't wake up the same Airport's running out of planes So not only do I have this really long song but I'm REPEATING myself. Right. A little cut and paste and we ended up with what you hear now: Airport's running out of planes Scared you son't wake up the same You wonder who's your saint Cuz sure as hell you ain't And it worked, and it was all there, and the choruses were shorter, and the heavens parted and birds sang. Well, in my mind, anyway. This songwriting stuff is hard work. New Mexico Boy Lyrics superheroes, superstars live so far from where you are where crazy things fall from the sky but nothing's shown you how to fly cruise all night and sleep 'til noon tortillas, juice, and old man gloom spread butter on your daddy's bread turn off the news, go back to bed drunk on friday, home by 2 am mass on sunday, bread and wine again does confession to the mother bring you joy? new mexico boy no history you care to claim no county kickbacks in your name just a pack of dreams rolled up your sleeve to make it big you'll have to leave drunk on friday, home by 2 am mass on sunday, bread and wine again does confession to the mother bring you joy? new mexico boy airport's running out of planes you're scared you won't wake up the same you wonder who's your saint 'cause sure as hell you ain't cinderblocks like hollow hearts stacked up in piles along boulevards a fortress in your own hometown but this ain't china, walk around no this ain't china, walk around drunk on friday, home by 2 am mass on sunday, bread and wine again does confession to the mother bring you joy? new mexico boy Words and Music by Jana Pochop © 2008 Patient Grasshopper Music (ASCAP)

More Radio Waves!

My blog buddy Heather hosts a weekly radio show called Lyrical Venus featuring female singer-songwriters on KRUU in Fairfield, Iowa...and she was stellar enough to ask me to be on her show this week since The Early Year is out and about and looking to dress up and hit the town. See her nice post about the whole shebang here. She even got ALL her facts right. That's impressive. Here's a link to her radio station blog... And here's a link to LIVE STREAM the interview tomorrow (Tuesday, October 14th)...Lyrical Venus starts at 9 AM Central time...I'll be on sometime during that hour. Tune in, kids. Support the awesome radio people who get the word out about the discs that we singer-songwriters make. Thanks, Heather!!

First time on the radio...

Susan had an in-studio at KFAN in Fredericksburg before her gig in Comfort this weekend, and I was of course along to document. She is always nice and introduces me around and plugs my record...so Rozzie, the awesome DJ at KFAN, took a copy of The Early Year and while we were driving to Comfort, we heard New Mexico Boy on the radio! So you always hear those stories about hearing yourself for the first time on the radio. Usually it involves pulling over if you're driving and crying or something. I couldn't pull over because Susan was driving, and there was no crying...but we did scream a lot. Because I have a camera attached to my palm everywhere we go these days...it got caught on film. So cool to share it with some of my favorite peoples. The good life indeed.

What we need is a MONTAGE.

Back in Austin after a fun weekend merching in Comfort, TX. It was an exciting time, but that's for the next blog post. In the meantime it's nice to sleep on my own pillows. Producer Dan and I had a check-in today and we're already talking EP 2...The Early Year is out now and it's time to think about the next step. I'm excited already! We'll start tracking in early 2009. Here's a music video I edited in the car...clips and things. Yay! So much tour video, so little time.

Tracking The Early Year: Blonde on Blue

(Go to Jana's Myspace page to hear this track!) "Blonde on Blue" was the harbinger of all the songs to come for The Early Year. It came together from a bunch of pieces of things I had lying around for a while, but in a very present, descriptive way that made me think, "Huh." Sometimes you surprise yourself when you finish a song; this was one of those cases. It informed the rest of my writing for this record and continues to do so, because I appreciate the honesty and descriptiveness of the moments in the song. The vibe was brought on by a tuning I had just learned/stolen from Susan (who says she learned from Ani DiFranco...share the tuning love!) -- EBBF#BE. Try it, you might like it. It's got a fantastic sound to it. Then came the riff, then came the melody, and there we were. The whole thing is yet another fictitious story from my head, but I feel like a lot of the detail is stuff we've all actually experienced. Passenger seat, cigarette ash glow out the window, stopping for gas and coffee, all that road trip stuff. The chorus was inspired at first by the image of blonde wheat fields and blue sky -- prominent things in my vision of a road trip because so much of my life's road tripping has involved New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas. "Scorch on sun" was actually a bit of a placeholder line in my head when I first played it for Dan, who promptly identified it as his favorite...so it stayed, and now I love that image, too. Weird how things spill out and you're not quite sure they will stick until you try them on someone else. Lyrics: I am sitting on the starboard of your only way back home There is weed and rocks and turnstiles that we have to get around The rearview mirror betrays you, oh my god I hope it does me too Something in this breakdown's bound to show just how bound I am to you I could fall in love If only I could follow through The minor ways I operate, they are shifting with your hands And all I care is you come with me while this world and I take each other in Orange friction ash on air from smokes that pass the while Keep one mile under the limit, your passenger is volatile I could fall in love If only I could follow through Like ink on paper, scorch on sun You on me, blonde on blue I am an editor of tongues you say, I always skip my turn And these scratched out words I am telling you; they are making my lungs burn Oh forgive my innocence and my array of messed up starts We'll find ourselves a redemption town, we'll meet our Maker's Mark I could fall in love If only I could follow through Like ink on paper, scorch on sun You on me, blonde on blue I think I am useful I'll take good notes along the way I'll prove that 2 stops for gas and 3 for caffeine is all we need anyway I could fall in love If only I could follow through Like ink on paper, scorch on sun You on me, blonde on blue Words and Music by Jana Pochop © 2008 Patient Grasshopper Music (ASCAP) Track Info: Jana: vocals, acoustic guitar, Backpacker guitar, banjo, piano, bass Daniel Barrett: background vocals

Tracking The Early Year: Paper Rock Scissors

(Check out the player over to your left on the blog or go to Jana's Myspace page to hear this track!) "Paper Rock Scissors" went through quite a few formations before getting to its finished form. I was taken with the playfulness of the game itself, except usually when people play it there is something at stake, giving it the potential to have important consequences hidden behind the simple "1-2-3-go." My favorite part about this song is the layers it has were unintentional when I wrote it; I don't sit around thinking about how people are going to interpret things...but after talking it through with a few writer friends, it's like this tune is a disco ball. It reflects very differently on different points of view. Nifty. It's the first song I wrote in the DADDAD tuning, which is fun as all get out. I stole it from Patty Griffin. When we tracked it, I got to bust out on the snare drum and tambourine...and previously I had requested to Dan that there be hand claps somewhere on the record. Dan decided if a track was going to have them, this was going to be the one. We clapped through the whole tune twice, making for a total of 4 sets of hands clapping. ("What is the sound of 8 hands clapping?") That's also the only instance of anyone but me playing an instrument on The Early Year...it was good to have a hand clap buddy! For the guitar track we went for a smooth Duke Levine-like vibe because...Dan and I both love us some Duke Levine (he plays for Mary Chapin Carpenter a lot. A lot). Lyrics: Took an offer for a ride to Amarillo It was 23 miles by a drunken crow Be careful who you talk to when you roll down your window And you can't call home Cause I'm from great plains and greater superstition And my mother I know - she is a very good Christian Between church bell chimes and late night dimes I never really was Now paper beats rock and rock beats scissors And the note on the table cut me to slivers And I quote God in the middle of the night When I say, "Let there be light" Started asking around 'bout where the circus went I got pointed to a prophet in a Bible tent And the preacher leaned and the people cleaned Down in the river with the water and the lye So I got held up for the winter in Wichita I guess something didn't read on the radar It said "Jesus saves" on family graves But I knew they didn't always intertwine And now paper beats rock and rock beats scissors And the word on the stone broke me to splinters And I quote God in the middle of the night When I say, "Let there be light" Get down into the cellar The storm will blow over, the storm will blow over Everything's gonna get better The war will blow over, the war will blow over And now paper beats rock and rock beats scissors And the word on the stone broke me to splinters And I quote God in the middle of the night When I say, "Let there be" Paper beats rock and rock beats scissors If the book is so good why can't we deliver? I quote God in the middle of the night When I say, "Let there be light." Words and Music by Jana Pochop © 2008 Patient Grasshopper Music (ASCAP)

Tracking The Early Year: New Mexico Boy

This one makes me smile because it kind of brings a neat story full circle for me. Susan Gibson was nice enough to sing background vocals on this tune, and by now you all know she is one of my favorite singer-songwriters and has been since I was in college. We met in 2001 when she played in my Music Appreciation class. I was a freshman thinking about majoring in political science but secretly wanting to find a way to be a musician (and had been doing as such since about 5th grade). There wasn't a whole lot of example around Albuquerque of songwriters who toured and recorded on a sustainable level. Success to me meant a record deal and VH-1...which was totally out of reach. But THEN...I see this songwriter perform in my class who is making the music business work as a career without selling out to MTV, and who is writing honest and brilliant lyrics with a powerful guitar style. Um, hello? I was smitten. Suz came back to New Mexico a few times over my college career and we got to know each other a little more, and when I moved out here to Austin she offered her help countless times to this very green-behind-the-ears kid new to the scene. She didn't have to do that, but she did. Lately I've been her Merch Girl and have gotten to see parts of Texas and the USA that I probably would not have for a while otherwise...and I'm psyched to be able to do my part and work the merch table magic. When I opened for her during a couple of tours of New Mexico last year, I would always request a little harmony love on "New Mexico Boy" because she made it sound fantastic...so it was a no brainer to preserve it for posterity on The Early Year. Thanks, Suz, for everything. Shucks.

Full Circle

Well this was cool.  You can now download The Early Year complete with artwork in high quality mp3 format from DigStation.  I got the email that this happened when we were in our hotel room in Nashville, and Susan was the first person to download The Early Year.  What a sport!  She said it made sense because my geekery and nerdiness have rubbed off.  It's true, I like to share the geek love.  Also, don't tell her, but even though my geekness rubbed off on her, I think her awesome songwriting influence has rubbed off on me more.   Guess what?  You too can download The Early Year from Digstation, or order it from me directly and get a hard copy with all the kickbutt artwork.  We have options here at jpo.com.  Also, since I won't mail out the pre-orders until I'm home next week, you have a few more days to get in on the pre-order giveaway.  Jana Water stuff.  Awesome.

The Early Year and Eddie's Attic

We’re on our way to Winston-Salem, NC after a great time back in Atlanta. Susan played at Eddie’s Attic and my good friends Keith and Suzanne came to the show and then put us up in their home with fluffy beds and cute dogs and cats. Then Keith made CHEESE GRITS for breakfast and I think I might officially be a grits fan. So good! Keith and Suzanne also acted as couriers for me because I had 50 copies of The Early Year delivered to their house so I could see the thing as soon as possible. We popped open the box in the Eddie’s Attic parking lot...very cool. It turned out great. Video forthcoming, of course, haha. The other surprise of the night was a box of roses delivered to Eddie’s for ME...which confounded me as I was opening them. Shockingly, I am not known for having secret admirers, even with my charming camera presence. They were from my Merch Girl Groupies back in Texas, Teri and Sandy. They are great Susan supporters and always take good care of the Merch Girl...and when I told them we were going to Eddie’s Attic, they were very excited because Decatur is their old stomping ground and where they had their first date. (Front row table on the right of the stage!) So um...getting roses at Eddie’s Attic right after opening a box of my EP was pretty stellar. And the show was great and Martha Scanlan played too and she was great...and then the fluffy bed, and now we’re back in the car to North Carolina. Phew.

Another Teaser

Man I love these Animoto slideshows. Anyway...New Mexico Boy!

And then there was DONE.

By all accounts The Early Year is out of my hands for the next couple of weeks! The fabulous people at Oasis received the artwork from Emily, (who did just a fantastic job and you should hire her for all your graphic design needs and pay her a lot of money)...and the master is sitting somewhere in New Jersey because the post office overnighted it. Flying. Like an eagle. Into the future. Now what? Well...I suppose you could pre-order it (pre-oderitpre-orderit!!!) while I take a nap. There's a little something something in it for ya if you order early, so Czech it out. More merching this weekend...if you are in Wimberley or Marble Falls or Fredericksburg (or you want to be and really, who doesn't when there's Susan Music involved?)...come say hello! Oh, and I realized that I made an egregious error in my liner notes and neglected to thank a very important group of people that had a big role in the production of The Early Year. I'd like to write them a special note right here right now: Dear President George W. Bush and the Federal Government, Thank you very much for the tax refund check that I found in my mailbox this summer. Thanks to you and your generosity, you have allowed more singer-songwriter folk music to be released into the world, which as I recall was one of the lesser recognized tenants of your father's "Thousand Points of Light" speech in 1988. I promise to do my best to give back to the economy with The Early Year by using it to facilitate more gasoline consumption through touring, buying pretzels and Starbucks in a can from various convenience stores across the country, and by recycling all my guitar strings by making yard art and jewelry. Again, thank you very much and when you move back to Dallas/Fort Worth please come to a show. I will buy you a scone. Sincerely, Jana

So close it's thisclose.

There's a proof of the CD itself in all its greenery! I am so stoked for everything. I tied up a lot of the loose ends this week, and I think it's all almost in Oasis' hands as far as printing. The master is ready. The artwork is done. I need to fax some info, Emily will upload the artwork, and I will Fed-Ex the master to New Jersey. In about 3 weeks I'll get 1000 copies of The Early Year. Then hopefully people will take them off my hands, because I certainly don't need 1000 of them! Phew.

A Teaser!

My brother found a neato site called Animoto. Much fun with the slide shows. Here's a chorus from "Paper Rock Scissors" off the new record: (Yep, I played everything you hear on the record. Cheap labor!)

It's Done. And other random updates.

Well...we have a mastered version of The Early Year that is going to be the one that everyone gets in their mailboxes, email boxes, on their computer speakers, and on their turntables. Ok, no turntables. We're not doing a vinyl release...yet, hehheh. I am proud of it. With a capital P! And there's the cover...woot! What is holding me up right now is that I am a little slow to comprehend the embedding of ISRC codes on the tracks, still...so I did not realize I needed to register with the RIAA before this could occur. So I am registering, and then we'll get the codes, which get embedded in the master, which gets shipped to Oasis for duplication. I hope this goes fast. Today is busywork day so I can get my PO box set up (as much as taking orders from my home address via the internet is appealing, haha) and file our paperwork for Bourn Records. And send a fax to the RIAA. Who has a fax machine these days? Oh, that's right...business people. (And Kinko's! Woot!) I am still all happy from last weekend at Threadgill's. Jamming on stage with Terri and Lloyd and Glenn was pretty much a highlight of my...forever. It's neat to think about the things I've been fortunate enough to do in my two years of living here. A lot of the above paperwork and business stuff is thanks to Terri and Lloyd and their never-ending sharing of smarts and experience. From the Life's A Song workshop last October to Terri letting me harass her and pick her brain all the time throughout this past year...it's good to have people who have your back. Dan and Suz and Terri and Lloyd are all really insanely integral parts of me as an artist and of this record...I hope it does them all proud. Thanks for the chance, kids.

Learning from the Master

Postcards to hand out so people know The Early Year is on its way! Greetings from the mountains in New Mexico. I'm holed up outside of Albuquerque for a family reunion and there are good times all around, including games of speed Scrabble, green chile stew, hiking, and blue skies to the moon and back. Excellent! Thank goodness wifi extends to the outskirts of civilization, because we've been going back and forth with the very cool dude who is mastering The Early Year in Berlin, Germany. The wonders of the internet allow us to upload files and he sends them back, and nary an ocean crossed by either of us. Amazing. The past two days between fits of Scrabble and harassing my nieces and nephews, I've been cramming in a bunch of info about the mastering process. Apparently you embed ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) info into the master...which enables royalties to be tracked and tells your computer/iTunes/whatever info about what track is what. Makes sense. Lots of numbers and letters. Off to harass some more family members, haha...