Fall 2024 Songs

"I Wish You Joy" Dean Friedman male tenor vocals, like a soulful and mindful Billy Joel with coed harmonies and harmonica. "Breathe the morning air" joy joy joy  Joy!!!!  

Kwanzaa’s Pure Light Yocontalie Jackson & the Jennifer Tibbetts Children's Chorus  Gospel, percussion, flugelhorns, piano, mid-tempo, spoken word and singing, female leadsinger & teenage children choir describes what Kwanzaa is and how it's related to "our African past." celebrate community & words that rhyme like unity, responsibility. 

"Smiling" Refestramus prog rock inspired by Crack the Sky but with female vocals kindred to Miley Cyrus. "I'll keep smiling so you can see me." 

Zombie Love Refestramus  uptempo dance with energetic edm fx, keyboards that sound like strings, female vocals, multi-female vocals qualities of being a zombie "Keep fighting me baby, you're driving me crazy, we gotta fight for our zombie love" 

refestramus.bandcamp.com/track/zombie-love-radio-edit

Hometown Jaclyn Bradley female vocals, slow and mellow, midwestern pop-rock, leaving home to travel the world and get married, ultimately finding it in her hometown.  "The things that you run from sometimes save your soul."

One Tribe Orleans Funky guitar and drums mid-tempo like the Eagles' Life in the Fast Lane, John Hall's blues rock voice, "We are all one tribe." chant "we are one everyone we are one" Note: Lyrics shout out conflicts from the 1990s. 

Blackbird  Kj Denhert  piano led jazz version with instrumentals and upright bass solo, Kj has a comforting jazz pop voice, alto, there is a build up vocally towards the end. BIPOC, live recording without crowd noise.

kjdenhert.bandcamp.com/track/blackbird

The Time We Share  Hank Wedel  midtempo, friendly song, male tenor with voice like Richard Thompson, "It's great to see you, we thought you were dead." hook: "It's all about the time we share." Reunion. 

hankwedel.bandcamp.com/track/the-time-we-share-2 

Outrage Olympics  Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius male vocal, tenor in Jack Bruce's range, keyboards into full band led with electric violin. Genesis-inspired. This is about not minding your own business & why people walk on eggshells, cancel culture.

 

FU Dance Doozer McDooze (aka Paul Short) upbeat tempo electric guitar & drums driven, British cockney punk singer/sometimes shouter, rock dance song, Starting fights in person & online. "It's ok to give someone a second chance, but on the third time, give them the FU Dance."  

 

Fall 2022 Dedicated to Greta Thunberg & Pete Seeger Songs of Leadership

Free To Read Dan Berggren 

Dan Berggren’s “Free to Read” is a midtempo acoustic folk song with a marching beat.  It celebrates the freedom to read and the value of open access to information. In his comforting bass voice, Dan sings the titles of banned books. The chorus: “The books you choose are someone else’s walking shoes. We need to be free to read."    

Launched in 1982, banned books week is honoring its 40th Anniversary this Sept. 18-24 with the theme “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.” Visit bannedbooksweek.org

danberggren.bandcamp.com/track/free-to-read

Dean Friedman’s upbeat “Ridin’ With Biden” uses traffic and car honks as part of the instrumental part adorning his cool jazz delivery of President Biden’s history, and why Dean-himself-- loves to be Ridin' with Biden" rhymes like "sleepy joe,” and “more decency in his toe than you know--Honk!!!”  Dean’s playing his first New York City show in FIVE years on October 8 at Chelsea Stage + Table.     

What’s a Place Like This Doing in a Girl Like Me?  *Val Kinzler’s “What’s a Place Like This  Doing in a Girl Like Me,” a finalist in the Open Space songwriting contest, is a “Rocky Horror”-esque women-in-the-workplace survival anthem.   

Save the Monarch John Hall & Dar Williams   Male & female duet on this hymn-like singer-songwriter song guitar/bass/drums, environment, Monarch, emperor, queen, king--animals with royal names that are endangered species."Save them from us"

What the Fuck is Going On  Elliott Murphy   Note: Live Recording Rock Troubadour Energetic and Angry hook, Pounding electric guitar, hand claps in time to the music, tempo like "one bourbon, one scotch, one beer": “What the fuck is going on.” song is about the economy. good for the greed factor. dream of a better world  There's one big ponzi scheme all over the world. They (politicians) must think we're stupid; well maybe we are" "Mother Earth" Vocals: Tom Waits Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen  But Jesus Christ, if he was here today, I think he’d be mad as hell.” 

Game of Chicken   Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius  Electric violin-driven hard rock. Dream Theater meets Rush meets Styx. "we're heating up as we run out of time."  People are deliberately daring one another to play with risk.  We're busy bickering while the planet is losing it.  

April Fools Michael Veitch  singer songwriter, male tenor, upbeat folk-rock with electric guitar, with pretty eagles-y harmonies  being fooled by leadership in a most rainy month “behind the curtain lies another strong man.  Pick a corrupt event when you have crazy leaders.  *Michael Veitch’s “April Fools” shows the foolishness a political troublemakers. 

Michael and his fellow songwriters from PBS’s “We Remember: Songs of Survivors” will share stories about writing songs with Holocaust survivors at New York City’s Cutting Room on September 18 and Saratoga’s Caffe Lena on the 22. 

The “Thank you, Greta Thunberg & Pete Seeger” Playlist

Songs about the Environment, Pandemic, Leadership, Relationships

   Dan Berggren & Dean Friedman have songs about dialogues with their daughters. Dean about war, and Dan focuses on the health of our planet.

   One Day (A Child’s Prayer) Hannah & Dean Friedman  Originally written for the 1991 Gulf War, the song is relevant now in the midst of one more, senseless, horrific war. Gentle strings and bells adorn a daughter and father duet.  She’s seeing children killed from missiles, The father sings that “One day there'll be no trace of war, disease, pollution.  If only presidents could see through children’s eyes, if only general could hear the babies’ cries.” Lots of comparisons and contrasts like kids fighting over toys with men fighting over land.   For charity info, please visit  deanfriedman.bandcamp.com/track/one-day-a-childs-prayer

    Looking for Answers Dan Berggren  Acoustic folk song with a hopeful, yet trepidatious.feeling about a daughter asking father what the environment will look like when she grows up. Long term / Short term materialism, greed, easy answers, ask questions, learn what's ahead.  The song is loaded with great advice on long-term thinking. 

Two songs about delusional leaders: one from folk singer-songwriter Michael Veitch and the other from wild prog rocker Joe Deninzon.

April Fools Michael Veitch  singer songwriter, male tenor, upbeat folk-rock with electric guitar, with pretty eagles-y harmonies  being fooled by leadership in a most rainy month “behind the curtain lies another strong man.  Pick a corrupt event when you have crazy leaders.  

The Prism Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius  (studio and live versions) dynamic and circular electric violin,  male vocals, rock band live recording, song about delusional leaders who lead with stupidity 

 

One more about crazy leaders-- what a woman thinks of crazy guys in the workforce....

        What’s a Place Like This Doing in a Girl Like Me?   Val Kinzler  uptempo & edgy, spoken word female voice like Kathryn Hepburn meets Tim Curry, spooky music. Pinpoints common pain many women go through in different work situations. The song is about a haunted woman inside of a manmade hell. Clever lyrics: graveyard full of rights gone wrong, weak from being strong. dr. jekyll, watch me hide.  dismember me. 

 

My artists offer solutions about improving the environment. Here's a new song from the Slambovian Circus of Dreams and a classic from John Hall.

Beez (I Know Where The Beez Have Gone) Slambovian Circus of Dreams Rock, slow tempo, environment, Americana, vocals like Tom Petty, “Stopped controlling the world,” lyrics offer ideas on how to increase the bees to visit plantlife. “the bees are in my yard, I know where the Beez Have Gone,” “Reteaching me the facts of life” “creatures great and small” chime-y, uses phrase ”yang dang doodle human race” 

   Power John Hall   male tenor, sax, yacht rock sound.  “Give me the warm power of the sun” includes wind and water power in lyrics. "take all your atomic poison power away" "everyone needs some power I'm told to shield them from the darkness and the cold, includes line about corruption” “Some may seek to take control when it’s bought and sold.”  This song was the theme song to the M.U.S.E. Concerts (Musicians United For Safe Energy) and a top 20 hit in 1979.  

A song about the end of the world:  

Armageddon Blues John Roy Zat  male vocals upbeat w/ swing energy & yodels, fiddle, "everybody's singing the armageddon blues.  anybody here know what to do?" keep the music going until... seeing that the world's gonna end, "facebook" and "brew" mentions  

Here are a few different ones that have goal setting thoughts or solutions:

Freedom Loving Heart Phoebe Legere gentle coffeehouse folk song, female voice, gentle guitar, "I got a freedom loving heart, because freedom's got a heart of it own." A gentle encounter with a lying guy, she sings, "I don't know where to start"  

Divided We Fall Bill Leverty  hard rock/classic rock, male vocals, bass, lead guitar,  divided we fall, show me the pain, let me inside. Show me the pain in your heart. And if we find common ground….United We Stand, Divided We Fall.  Song about mending fences in a way that the man wants to see inside his wounded partner’s soul..

   

 

“Save the Monarch”: New Video from John Hall featuring Dar Williams

Nashville, TN – Acclaimed singer-songwriter, environmental activist and former U.S. Congressman John Hall announced today the release of a new video for his song “Save the Monarch,” which features renowned folk music artist Dar Williams. The four-and-a half minute long video is available on Hall’s website and YouTube (https://youtu.be/Q3y2L4jyyJo)

“Save the Monarch” appears on Hall’s latest album, Reclaiming My Time, which was released in May 2021. Hall’s sixth solo record, in addition to the 18 albums he released with the pop-rock band Orleans, Reclaiming My Time broke the Top 20 on the Americana Country Charts and was widely praised upon release. (The album’s title is a phrase used on the floor of Congress when a member wants to resume speaking after an interruption.) 

“When I wrote ‘Save the Monarch’ I envisioned it as a hymn for endangered species, a sincere prayer that we answer the call to be good stewards of the earth,” said Hall. “The urgency of needing to protect life on our planet has been an enduring theme in my work, and I was absolutely thrilled when Dar (Williams), a neighbor of mine when I lived in New York’s Hudson Valley, agreed to sing the song with me. Dar is such an extraordinary artist and writer, as well as an engaged environmentalist. She certainly helps lift the song and gives it greater resonance.”

Hall and Williams swapping vocals on “Save the Monarch” is certainly apt, as they served for several years together on the board of directors of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, an environmental and education nonprofit co-founded in 1969 by folk music icon and activist Pete Seeger. 

The video for “Save the Monarch” was directed, filmed and edited by Rob Arthur, who has directed videos for the Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason and Peter Frampton as well. A veteran keyboardist, Arthur has spent the past two decades serving as the bandleader for Peter Frampton. 

Hall plays all of the instruments on “Save the Monarch” except for drums, which are handled by Peter O’Brien, Hall’s former bandmate in Orleans. Reclaiming My Time is notable for the many musical artists who joined Hall in the studio, including John Cowan (New Grass Revival, Doobie Brothers), Andrea Zonn (James Taylor, Vince Gill), Jay Collins (Dukes of September, Allmans), Sean Paddock (Kenny Chesney) and pedal steel guitar player Dan Dugmore. Steve Wariner co-wrote and sang a duet with Hall on “Another Sunset.”

Hall is known mostly for his work with Orleans; the band’s hits “Still the One” and “Dance with Me,” which he co-wrote with former wife Johanna Hall, continue to be streamed over 100,000 times apiece daily. Last year, Orleans released a Christmas album called New Star Shining, and in 2022 the band will be celebrating its 50th anniversary.

In 1979, Hall launched Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) with Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash, which culminated in the famed “No Nukes” concerts, which featured the above-mentioned musical artists, as well as Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, the Doobie Brothers and Carly Simon. 

Hall was elected in 2006 and 2008 to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he fought for environmental issues and veterans’ disability rights. In 2016, his memoir Still the One: A Rock’n’Roll Journey to Congress and Back was published.

 

 

New Music Winter 2022

What’s a Place Like This Doing in a Girl Like Me  Val Kinzler

Uptempo & edgy, spoken word female voice like Kathryn Hepburn meets Tim Curry, spooky music.  haunted woman inside of a MAN-made hell, graveyard full of rights gone wrong, weak from being strong. dr. jekyll, watch me hide. dismember me. 

Well, Well, Well  John Roy Zat 

Male vocals, upbeat violin about surviving it all.  "Well, well, well, I've been down in the well... my own private hell" and coming out of it.  "I rise up now to dance w/ the sun" 

Inside Looking Out Joe Matera  

Tenor male voice w/ best elements of rock & roll British (Yardbirds-y/Spencer Davis/Hollies tempos) meets modern rock instruments and electronica as rock instruments. Analyzing the situation.  hook: "Lost in Transit, Inside Looking Out"   

Valentine’s Day Michael Veitch 

Slow tempo, male singer w/ falsetto, acoustic instruments, setting a winter melting mood, comparing to a true love who blooms "from beneath the ice and snow

One Good Man  Cornelius Eady

Male vocals. percussion, John Henry's hammer, one good man shook people up, against the odds, mock the devil straight to his face, Resist.

Halfway Normal World Dean Friedman

Slow tempo, piano, tenor. covid-related, wanting to hang out friends again at the movies & at home, diner, ballgame, , throw a party and sound effects from ballgame, "I wish I could get back to a halfway normal world."

Save the Monarch John Hall & Dar Williams 

John & Dar Williams duet on this hymn-like singer-songwriter song, guitar/bass/drums, environment, Monarch, emperor, queen, king--animals with royal names that are endangered species 

Leadership Playlist

Welcome Home John Hall   commercial pop like the Doobie Brothers with vocals, leadsinger male, about a man that was shipped out to fight for our country and waiting to hear "welcome home." Reality of wounds that don't heal 

 

https://soundcloud.com/cornelius-eady/let-there-be-a-new-flowering?si=473451a7738f4cdeb5988300c80e895b

Let There Be New Flowering Cornelius Eady Dreamy-sounding male and vocal with a guitar, cello.Last line:  “Let Love be at the end”  1:14 song length. 

https://soundcloud.com/karen-besbeck/my-rivers-run-dry?si=3dcf029496e741f6b13317ca90cc5029  My River’s Run Dry Karen Besbeck  Country, like Kacey Musgraves, Margo Price, Cassadee Pope.  The song is a metaphor for land going barren and love going barren. He won't change even though it's too late.

Nobody Knew   Carmine Appice’s Guitar Zeus Like the heavier parts of the Beatles’ “I’m the Walrus” and “Strawberry Fields,” Brian May guitar, vocals by Kelly Keeling. The song is apocalyptic about the environment.  Powerful line “Nobody knew who’s running the White House,” gas, “all we wanted, here we are,” “Hear me now.” “Nobody Knew where they were going.” “There’s a hole in the blue sky” “Thought it would last.”     

Help Kj Denhert Singer-songwriter KJ owns her master, voice and guitar thoughtful ballad, bringing new life to the lyrics.     

A Void  Andrew Alling with guitar and harmonica male vocals  A Void in relationships, why are we against the world? DirtyWords, time to heal, rock & ground shaking poetics.

 

NYS Music In Motion - John Hall Interview

Set up a reminder to listen to an interview with John Hall from @TheBandOrleans by @NYStateMusic. The interview broadcasts on the 5th of November. https://youtu.be/C4yKUQiNsMc via @YouTube

Orleans Celebrates Christmas With New Album, “New Star Shining” On Sunset Blvd. Records

Orleans is releasing their first and only Christmas album.  Subconsciously, the group—which is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2022—must have been working on the holiday collection for decades. 

Orleans co-founder Lance Hoppen says, "The material comes from various sources, most written internally and some by friends from other bands. Some had previously recorded lives elsewhere and were remastered, others had previous starts but underwent major revisions and upgrades. Some were cut from scratch in isolation. Some are purely secular, while others center around the Christmas story.”

John and Johanna Hall co-wrote the title track, “New Star Shining” which the band recorded in 1994 for a “Woodstock Holidays” CD released only in Japan. The group’s only Christmas song until now, it was also cut as a duet by Ricky Skaggs and James Taylor. This version features shared lead vocals by John, Larry Hoppen, Lance and Bob Leinbach. The acclaimed songwriting duo also co-wrote “Snowed In With You,”  “I Wish I Could’ve Been There” with Tad Richards, and "Quiet Place" with Jonell Mosser.  “I Wish” features Little Feat’s Bill Payne on piano and multi-instrumentalist John Jorgenson (the Desert Rose Band and The Hellecasters) playing mandolin. "Snowed In" shines with Dan Dugmore's pedal steel and Andrea Zonn's fiddle.

Two more historical recordings came from the Hoppen family.  Lance found his late brother Larry’s version of “Winter Wonderland” on YouTube, which was recorded for a 2010 Rock Xmas Foundation charity.  Larry, Lance, brother Lane and sister Lynda sang the introduction of the traditional song “Mary Had a Baby” around 1985 at a Hoppen Family holiday gathering; Lance found the tape, a snippet of which was digitized and included.  The band then recreated the entire four-part harmony arrangement during the pandemic.

Fly Amero contributed three songs: "Jinglin' In New England" was written with his wife Donna. Other Fly songs include “Ballad of the Christmas Day Cowboy” (a collaboration with platinum country writer Robert Ellis Orrall) and “I Wish I Could Fly”, written with Allen Estes, featuring Beaver Brown Band’s keyboardist, Steve Burke.

Other songs include “Mary’s Christmas,” originally recorded by The Little River Band, and “I’m Coming Home for Christmas” originally recorded by Ambrosia's Joe Puerta.  “The Sound of Christmas” came from Orleans alumnus Chip Martin, who’s written for Billy Paul and Randy Meisner.

Orleans’ “New Star Shining” will be on all digital platforms and available in music stores and holiday catalogs.

 The band went from club and college shows in the Northeast to worldwide acclaim with their top ten singles "Still the One," Dance With Me," and "Love Takes Time.”  Orleans has produced a body of work spanning 16 albums and several DVDs. The band’s music is still streamed millions of times a week and featured in TV, movie and commercial productions.

Band members on Album:

John Hall: Guitars & Vocals

Lance Hoppen: Bass & Vocals

Fly Amero: Guitars & Vocals

Lane Hoppen: Keyboards & Vocals

Brady Spencer: Drums & Vocals

 

Historical contributions from former members Bob Leinbach, Larry Hoppen.

 

Songs:

1. New Star Shining (written by John & Johanna Hall)

2. Quiet Place (John Hall, Jonell Mosser, Johanna Hall)

3. Jinglin’ in New England (Fly Amero, Donna Amero)

4. Mary’s Christmas (Roger Helton, Tony Elenburg, John Swaim)

5. I Wish I Could’ve Been There (John Hall, Johanna Hall, Tad Richards)

6. The Sound of Christmas (Daniel “Chip” Martin, John Cirillo)

7. Mary Had a Baby (Traditional)

8. Snowed in With You (John & Johanna Hall)

9. I’m Comin’ Home for Christmas (Bill Pfotdresher)

10. I Wish I Could Fly (Fly Amero & Allen Estes)

 11. Winter Wonderland (Felix Bernard, Richard Bernard Smith)

 12. Ballad of the Christmas Day Cowboy (Fly Amero & Robert Ellis Orrall)

 

John Hall - Lessons

John Hall has a new music video, "Lessons." It's a co-write with Johanna Hall & Jonell Mosser Official.

Great story with the hook, "I'll be a genius before long."

#blues #reclaimingmytime #newmusic #musicvideo #Gratitudes

World On Fire by John Hall

Since the 1970s, John Hall’s been in the public eye fighting for our environment.  He sent me a story from the Washington Post with the headline, "Siberia’s wildfires are bigger than all the world’s other blazes combined."  One of the coldest places in the world is now one of the hottest places, pumping huge amounts of carbon into our atmosphere. 

Here's his song, “World On Fire” 

 Orleans opened for Bob Marley & the Wailers early in the group’s career, because of their reggae roots. 

This summer, our planet’s dealt with extreme weather conditions — from drought and fires in Southern Europe, Russia and North America to severe flooding in Western Europe, Africa and Asia.

John posted on his Facebook, “Ok, It ain’t pretty but we can keep it from the worst case scenario only if everybody helps. No more denial, no more foot dragging. There are things each of us can do.” From walking more and recycling our shopping bags, turning “off power strips so our electronics don't stay on absorbing electricity while we're out of the house. Be willing to sacrifice our convenience or comfort a little bit so our children and grandchildren have a chance. And by the way, don't vote for any candidate who doesn't take this crisis seriously.”

World On Fire

John Hall

 

World on Fire, One Desire

Love your sister and brother, love for one another

Love

 

World On Fire, Jah inspire

Love for your sister and brother, love for one another

Love

 

Let’s talk to each other like we don’t do right now            

Talk to each other if we still remember how

What you and I are thinking we will never ever learn

In isolation

Frustration burns

 

World on Fire, One Desire                                                                           

Love your sister and brother, love for one another

Love

 

World On Fire (Selfish cries), Jah inspire (no soul disguise)                                                                             

Love for your sister and brother, love for one another

Love

 

Talking about hurling flame and smoke into the void

Talk about a thousand million creatures’ lives destroyed

Talk about air too thick with smoke and ash to breathe

Talk about destruction

Too much to grieve

 

World on Fire (conflagrations), One Desire (talk among nations)                                                

Love your sister and brother, love for one another

Love

 

World On Fire (strife and treason), Jah inspire (an age of reason)

Love for your sister and brother, love for one another

Love

 

World on Fire (cry for freedom), One Desire (Jah knows we need it)

Love your sister and brother, love for one another

Love

 

World On Fire                                                                                                                   

Jah inspire                                                                                                                                          

Love for your sister and brother love for one another, Love…

 

C 2021 by John Hall, SONY Music Nashville

Contact: Sony Music Publishing, Nashville

 

 

New Music Summer 2021

The Time We Share  Hank Wedel  midtempo, friendly song, male tenor It's great to see you, we thought you were dead, hook: It's all about the time we share, reconnecting, friends reunion.  http://hankwedel.bandcamp.com

Alone Too Long  John Hall   midtempo rock with moody electric guitar, Ed Sheeran-like, “Don't stay alone too long. you might start to like it,” mentions NETFLIX, It's about coming out of isolation. friends reuniting, 

Stronger Than I Know  Teresa James   Demi Lovato Sia Bonnie Tyler pop/country-Americana, sticking to it through hard time and mentally abusive situations. Stronger than I know, stand up and fight. Make these wrongs right  http://soundcloud.com/karen-besbeck/stronger-than-i-know

One Man’s Meat  Gary Lucas & David Johansen  uptempo fierce & frenetic rock David Johansen vocals Gary Lucas guitar, wild horns.  Hamlet, the Garden of Eden, Neighborhood bully. "fish meat"  

Cognitive Dissonance Joe Deninzon, Randy McStine & Stratospheerius  male tenor vocals hard rock electric-violin & guitars People believing lies religion politics fear friendships being lost due to religious differences, hatred is taught.

I Know You’re Real  Gunhill Road   Version 1:   spoken word voice like Alex Trebeck,  Walt Whitman-esque lyrics: beams of light, be kind, respects animals without mentioning the word "animals."  treasure. “thou shalt not kill”  

Meth and the Single Girl/Angry Lady  Bronx Buffalo hip-hop, methamphetamine, meth, angry lady, drunken sailor sea shanty melody, traditional. antidrug, selfcare, friends, dumb,  Nicki Minaj-esque,  JustSayNo, darkside mindful “gimme a kiss, mwah” http://soundcloud.com/leightonmedia/meth-the-single-girl

My Name Is Africa Roeshdien Jaz  rapper with piano and soulful female singer in background, haunted by the treatment of white society to the native blacks of South Africa.  

   

RECLAIMING MY TIME, New Album by John Hall, Due May 28 on Sunset Blvd.

"Reclaiming My Time” is John Hall’s sixth solo record, in addition to the 18 albums he recorded with his band Orleans. The title is a phrase used in Congress (where Hall spent 4 years) after being interrupted. It’s also an allusion to the music he might have written and played during ten years in elective office.

Supporting musicians include John Cowan(New Grass Revival, The Doobie Brothers), Andrea Zonn (James Taylor, Vince Gill), Sean Paddock (Kenny Chesney), Steve Wariner, Jay Collins (Dukes of September, Allmans), songwriting partner John Paul Daniel and steel guitar legend Dan Dugmore. Dar Williams and Wariner sing duets with John, the latter on a song they wrote together, “Another Sunset.”

The album’s opening track, “I Think of You,” was written with Songwriters' Hall of Fame member Sharon Vaughn. “Now More Than Ever” reunites for the first time in twenty-five years the songwriting team of John and Johanna Hall, who penned the Orleans hits “Still The One” and “Dance With Me.” Recorded in New York’s Hudson Valley and Nashville, TN, Reclaiming My Time spans Hall’s usual range of love songs, blues, topical tunes and rockin’ good time music. Hall’s trademark acoustic and electric guitar playing--that graced records by Jackson Browne, Little Feat and Bonnie Raitt--ties it all together.

The first single and video, “Alone Too Long” was written for a friend who lost his wife and was wondering when it was okay to start dating again. As the pandemic year ground on, it became a commentary on isolation and loneliness. 

The whole project was started well before any lockdown, but then relied on home recording and remote mixing and mastering. Now we are all reclaiming the time and lives that were shut down for over a year. “Reclaiming My Time” celebrates that.

John Hall has written songs for Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, and James Taylor. He’s played guitar on tours and records for Little Feat, Taj Mahal, Jackson Browne, and Seals and Crofts. His music and environmental activism led him to 10 years in elective office, and co-founding MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy). Now, back to music full time, he writes songs and performs solo and with Orleans, the group he co-founded in the 1970s. Their biggest hits “Still the One” and "Dance With Me" continue to garner hundereds of thousands of streams per week, and to appear in mass media from commercials to movies and even political campaigns. The former is also in the title of John’s memoir, “Still The One: A Rock’n’Roll Journey To Congress and Back.”        

 John Hall's "Alone Too Long" Music Video

Track listing

1)  I Think of You  (co-write w/ Sharon Vaughn)

2)  Alone Too Long  (co-write w/ John Paul Daniel and Tad Richards)

3)  Mystic Blue  (co-write w/ John Paul Daniel)

4)  Lessons (co-write with Jonell Mosser and Johanna Hall)

5)  Islamorada  (pronounced: “I-la-mo-ra-da”

6)  Somebody  (co-write with John Paul Daniel)

7)  Another Sunset (w/ Steve Wariner)  (co-write w/ Steve)

8)  Now More than Ever  (co-write with Johanna Hall)

9)  Save the Monarch (w/ Dar Williams)

10)  All Up and Down From Here   (co-write w/ John Paul Daniel)

11)  World on Fire   (co-write with John Paul Daniel and Tad Richards)

12)  Future Ex-Wife  (co-write with John Paul Daniel)

13)  Welcome Home

Orleans' New Song & Music Video "Home"

Orleans offers a preview of their new song, “Home,” on their YouTube channel.  The song, (written by founder/lead guitarist/singer John Hall, Johanna Hall, and Don Schlitz) will be on the group’s forthcoming EP to be released spring 2021. “Home,” which is about family-- childhood, adolescence, marriage, parenthood, and childhood again--originally appeared on John’s 1997 solo CD "Love Doesn't Ask."

John & Johanna have written dozens of songs together, most notably Orleans’ “Still the One,” “Dance With Me,” and Janis Joplin’s "Half Moon.” Co-writer Don Schlitz is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and former Nashville Songwriters Association and ASCAP “Songwriter of the Year." He has written 21 number one hits including Kenny Rogers "The Gambler."   

Audio and video recordings were produced in isolation, except a group video of John, Lance Hoppen, and Brady Spencer who gathered safely in Nashville. Still photos were taken years or decades before the pandemic. The video was edited and directed by Rob Arthur (Today Show, CBS This Morning, Rolling Stone, Veranda Magazine, Peter Frampton, the Doobie Brothers).

Multiple Grammy winner Cindy Cashdollar plays lap steel on the song and is featured in the video; she’s also the Americana Music Association “Instrumentalist of the Year” (2016) and a member of the Austin TX Music Hall of Fame. Cindy grew up in Woodstock NY, where Orleans was based in the early years.  

Orleans is John Hall, co-founder Lance Hoppen (bass, and vocals), Fly Amero (guitar, vocals), Lane Hoppen (piano), Brady Spencer (drums). This is the latest of many incarnations in its near 50-year history. 

The band went from club and college shows in the Northeast to worldwide acclaim with their top ten singles "Still the One," Dance With Me," and "Love Takes Time.”  Now entering its 28th year of live performances, Orleans has produced a body of work spanning 16 albums and several DVDs. The band’s music is still being heard on national TV; recently John and Johanna’s “Still The One” was on Applebees’ commercials and Netflix’s "Love, Wedding, Marriage." 
 

OrleansOnline.com

Facebook.com/Orleansmusic

johnhallmusic.com

 

HOME 

Everyone on earth has things they need

Things that they cannot do without

When they're old enough to chase their dreams

they pack their childhood up and they set out

to find a trade on which they can survive

Four walls, a roof, a door to call their own

And as the seasons change they laugh and cry

Learn what it's like to live alone

 

But when they need someone to talk to about anything at all

Someone who will catch them when they're just about to fall

Someone who will listen and then miss'em when they're gone

When they need someone to love'em they go home

 

They're searching for some meaning in their lives

Look around for something that will last

They find it in a husband or a wife

and so begin to recreate the past

Their babies learn to walk and then to run

and soon they think they're ready for the world

There's no way you can stop what you've begun

Just give'em love someday they will return

 

When they need someone to talk to about anything at all

Someone who will catch them when they're just about to fall

Someone who will listen and then miss'em when they're gone

When they need someone to love'em they go home

 

Home

No matter how the world keeps changing

When you show up at the door

You know that it's still yours

 

When I need someone to talk to about anything at all

Someone who will catch me when I'm just about to fall

Someone who will listen and then miss me when I'm gone

When I need someone to love me I go home

 

C by John and Johanna Hall and Don Schlitz, All Rights Reserved

Irving Music/Schmirving Music (BMI), and Don Schlitz Music/MCA Music (ASCAP