Live and Listening

 “A deeply pleasing, toe-tapping, heartfelt album that will delight any fan of roots and American music.”

—Minor 7th

 Sammy award nominee, Best Singer/Songwriter

Featuring eight new songs, plus definitive band performances of the fan favorites “Sycamore Tree,” “Fly,” and “Only the Soul”

Download the free lyric book, with photography by JPR

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 “An album that makes the listener feel like they are part of the party, and maybe more importantly want to be there for the next one.  I sure will be.

“There is something about Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers’ voice that sounds like he’s singing only to you. The musicians he surrounds himself with create a unique musical alchemy that supports Rodgers’ vision of the songs and one another.... It creates an intimacy for the recording that many—hell, most—live albums try to do but can’t quite accomplish.”

— John Tierney

Track list

1. Waiting for Spring

2. Shoulda Coulda

3. How Long Till It's Too Late

4. Any Other Way

5. Write Again

6. Holy Man

Onstage at 443 Social Club and Lounge, where the album was recorded: Wendy “Sassafras” Ramsay, Josh Dekaney, Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, and Jason Fridley.

About the album

Live and Listening, the new album from John Lennon Songwriting Contest winner Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, is the result of the stars aligning one evening in May 2019. A debut concert in an intimate new hometown venue. A band on a creative roll, with a new batch of songs ready to record. A pristine sound mix. And a generous audience hanging on every word and note.

The magic of that night is palpable on Live and Listening, which showcases eight new songs as well as exuberant jams on fan favorites such as the story song “Sycamore Tree” and the bluegrass burner “Fly.”

Recorded at the 443 Social Club and Lounge in Syracuse, New York, Live and Listening is Rodgers’ fifth album on his own Words and Music label. Five years have passed since his last full-length release, Almost There, Sammy winner for Best Americana, but he hasn’t exactly been idle in the interim—publishing two books (Beyond Strumming and the second edition of The Complete Singer-Songwriter), serving as editor at large for Acoustic Guitar magazine, teaching songwriting at Syracuse University, and performing around the northeast, among other projects.

As a songwriter, Rodgers has always explored a wide spectrum of grooves and expression—as NYS Music put it, “JPR may be the quintessential acoustic singer-songwriter, but he colors with a full palette of folk, rock, blues, and soul.” On Live and Listening, his band, featuring Wendy Sassafras Ramsay (clarinet, flute, accordion, guitar), Josh Dekaney (percussion kit), and Jason Fridley (alto saxophone, bass), brings all those colors to thrilling life.

The first single, the blues-rock anthem “How Long Till It’s Too Late,” is a powerful wake-up call on this era’s bitter polarization. The theme of social action emerges, too, on “Holy Man,” in which Ramsay weaves exquisite flute and clarinet lines around Rodgers’ haunting melody and accompaniment on the three-string Strumstick (more about "Holy Man").

In the lighter side,“Shoulda Coulda” is a wry look at the human tendency to rethink life choices, while “Googling” takes its words—literally—from big data’s repository of online searches.

Live and Listening also captures, for the first time on record, the improvisational power of Rodgers’ “wickedly good, subtle guitar playing” (Minor7th) and the band. The album’s epic eight-minute rendition of “SycamoreTree” showcases the masterful grooves of Josh Dekaney, playing a one-of-a-kind hybrid percussion/drum kit. And on “Only the Soul,” Jason Fridley cuts loose on saxophone to bring the album—and the show it captures—to a thrilling close.

“Write Again,” performed as a duet with guitar and clarinet, was inspired by Jack Bocchino, the photographer and legendary supporter of local music in Central New York who was honored in 2019 by the creation of the Jack O. Bocchino Spirit of Syracuse Sammy Award. Rodgers took a poem by Bocchino about missing the days of writing letters, added words to extend the story, and set them to a sweetly old-fashioned tune.

The album title is a nod to what Rodgers calls the most important characteristic of this band—and all good musicians: listening.

“While it seems that the job of a musician is to project sound and fill space, in fact what’s even more important is tuning into what’s happening with the other players and in the room,” he says. “And once you’re tuned in, then you try to complement or color the moment. With this band, I’m continually amazed by how everyone picks up on the smallest musical ideas—echoing or developing or commenting on them. It’s an ongoing conversation.”

Credits

Recorded 5.4.19 at the 443 Social Club and Lounge, Syracuse, New York, by Jeremy Johnston, except “Write Again”: performed by Pepper and Sassafras 12.10.18 at Brick Box at the Paramount Theater, Rutland, Vermont, and recorded and mixed by Phil Henry

Album mixing and mastering by Jeremy Johnston

All songs by Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers (Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers Music/ASCAP) except “Write Again”: words by Jack O. Bocchino and Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, music by Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers 

Thanks to Julie and Jimmy at the 443, Jeremy and Phil for capturing the performances, Jack for the evocative words, Genevieve Fridley for the photography, my bandmates for their keen ears and adventurous spirit, and all who joined and inspired us in the room.