classic rock

Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas!

Well what a year it’s been! Loads going on behind the scenes for me, even if it was a bit quiet on the music front – sad face. But I had a blast singing at Bristol’s first #MetalMass in October, as well as a few acoustic slots here and there.

Christmas is the season to give and share, so I’m sharing my music – old school style – with a CD give-away!

If you have a UK postal address, you’re eligible! Woohoo! All you need to do is tweet me @janeysummer with the hashtag #lovecamedown before December 31st to be sent free copy of my first album, “Along the Way”.

Plus I’ll pop in one extra – for you to share with a friend. Enjoy!

Peace and love to you and yours for 2017.

christmas-2016-cd-giveaway

My Inspirations – David Coverdale

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Yes, it’s the king of hair rock, David Coverdale’s turn in the spotlight of my inspirations this week.

david coverdale
David Coverdale in the olden days when he was a bit gorgeous.

I literally cannot tell you how many times I span my vinyl ‘Come An’ Get It‘ album; signing along with passion and heart yet coupled with pangs of awkward guilt at the content, but loving the absurd cheek of it all the same.

David Coverdale as frontman for Whitesnake was/is unashamedly sexual in his image and lyrics. Ordinarily that would put me off; that’s the main reason I find AC/DC so objectionable (there are other reasons too!), but in the case of Coverdale / Whitesnake, I just couldn’t write it off; I loved that voice, the blues-influences riffs and melodies, Bernie Marsden’s singing guitars – it all had me well and truly hooked.

Oh man did I ever face ridicule for it from my feminist friends; the assumption being that any intelligent woman couldn’t possibly take Whitesnake seriously. The thing is I don’t think Coverdale himself ever totally took Whitesnake seriously. He’s quote as saying ‘a lot of my songs are firmly tongue in cheek.’ Thinking about it, that comment could be tongue in cheek in itself!

I preferred his edgier early stuff, and so my enthusiasm started fade when they moved into the fluffy poodle-haired synth-soft-rock stage in the mid/late 80s with songs like ‘Is this love’ and the remix of ‘Here I go again’.

Whitesnake in the mid to late 1980s fluffy poodle hair David Coverdale
Whitesnake – 1987 Crufts Champions in the Poodle Category

Probably my all-time favourite song – one that couldn’t in any way be seen as being sexual/sexist – is Child Of Babylon. In my opinion it still stands its ground as an epic classic rock song, brilliantly arranged and performed, and I would love to cover this one day, either live or on a record, and put all those hours of bedroom singing practise to the test.

Video – Sometimes

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I’m so excited to finally be able to post up a video for my favourite track off my album ‘Along the way’.

The song is set to some awesome time-lapse footage of a sunset from from Haleakala summit in Maui, Hawaii.

I think it works amazingly well with the melody, the rhythm and the lyrics. Hope you enjoy it too.

The footage is courtesy of Mike McCabe, under community commons. https://archive.org/details/HaleakalaSunset

Lyrics – Seeing You

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Next up in my series of ‘what are Janey’s songs all about?’ is Seeing You, from my album Along the Way and also featured on my first EP, Introducing.

I wrote Seeing You a couple years after I lost my brother. One of the themes of the song is about how we remember people we’ve lost. If we are open to sharing in such a painful time, we can hear so many different memories from family and friends. So, although we all knew him, we all did so in different ways. Talking to people about how they knew him was not only a fond way for us to support each other but, for me, it was a journey of getting to know and understand my brother in new ways. 

Lyrics - Seeing You

A first time for everything….. here we go

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OK so I’m not normally one to share demos of songs, but it seems to be ‘the thing’ to do.

So I figure maybe it’s time I get brave and take the plunge to post my very first ‘draft’ song! GULP!

I’ve been working on some new songs for a while, but life’s been throwing all sorts in my direction so it’s taken ages longer than I hoped! But I’m finally enjoying making some progress and I’m now getting the demos ready to go into a proper studio around Easter time.

This one is called ‘Without you’ and it was one of the songs I put in my acoustic gigs I did at the end of 2013. I would love to have your comments!

Lyrics – Time Will Tell

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I often get asked about my lyrics – what they mean, or what a certain song is a about.

So I thought I’d start a little series and post up some of my favourite lyrics over the next couple months. To start the ball rolling these are from my most recent single, Time Will Tell. I was inspired by the writing style of Ronnie James Dio on this song. Maybe you can tell!? Would love to hear your comments.  Are you surprised by what the lyrics actually are? Especially if you’ve been singing along something completely different! 😉

Lyrics for Time Will Tell (c) Janey Summer 2009
Lyrics for Time Will Tell
(c) Janey Summer 2009

It’s Christmas!

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Well, it’s hard to believe that this time last year I was sending my Christmas message to you from hospital! It was truly heart-warming to have so many encouraging and supporting messages rolling in.

It has taken a long time for me to recover, but am I nearly back to 100%, thank God.  As well my health crisis, this last year has been one of massive change for me – saying goodbye to relationships that it was time to move on from, and moving to pastures new. Lots of healing, but also lots of green shoots J

So, it has been a bit quiet on the music front since I released my EP last December. I’m sorry to those that have been eagerly waiting on new things; they are coming along, I promise! I feel confident that 2013 will see things rev up again with my new band, The Avowed.

Thank you all for your support over the last year, for your kindness, your emails, your comments, and the fun and laughs you’ve shared.

I hope that you and your loved ones have a truly blessed and wonderful Christmas – wherever you are, and whomever you’re with.

Peace, love and light to you

Janey x

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Thanks and a sneak preview…

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A MASSIVE thank you to everyone who has sent get well messages and encouragement over the last couple months, it has really been appreciated, thank you.

I’m pleased to say I’m well on the road to recovery, thank God! I’m about to start back rehearsing with my cover’s band Almost The Hero this week – I haven’t sung properly since going into the studio last December to record ‘Time Will Tell’, so it’s going to be a bit daunting, but great to get back into singing again.

If you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, you can hear the new tracks at http://janeysummer.bandcamp.com/  I’d love to know what you think, so please get in touch!

Meanwhile, I’ve been getting some great reviews for ‘Time Will Tell’, which has been amazing! The latest one from Femme Metal, is just about to be published, but you can get a sneak preview at http://femalefrontedmetal.wordpress.com/ Many thanks to Tony Cannella for that fantastic review.

The news for the future is that I have just relocated to Bristol – hoping that life here will open up more opportunities for me musically. I’m working on a band project called ‘The Avowed’ – and I will update you all on that, with hopefully live shows to tell you about very soon!

Thanks again for all your support and care, it really means a lot to me!

Love and light

Janey x

Peach of a review from Ravenheart Music!

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The latest review from Ravenheart Music is now up on their site – in keeping with tradition, Dave Smith has come up with an oh-so-quteable phrase, saying that the b-track  ‘On My Own Again’ is a hard rocker’s wet dream.

Here’s the full review:

“JANEY SUMMER..’TIME WILL TELL’ (2 track single)

(Self Release) Reviewed 14th January 2012

I can say quite simply that Janey Summer has an awesome voice and deserves big things. This lass from the SW of England sure does rock. I reviewed an album of hers back in Sept 2008 – ‘Along The Way’ scored a cool 9/10, and I quoted in that review that Janey “has a voice to die for”. ‘Time Will Tell’ is a two track single that also features the track ‘On My Own Again’ and this girl seems to have moved forward leaps and bounds. It is of no surprise to also learn that this single is picking up internet radio airplay, because quite simply, the track (as is ‘On My Own Again’) is totally awesome. ‘Time Will Tell’ features a cool instrumental intro, before Janey’s totally mind blowing vocals carries the number into total dreamland. ‘On My Own Again’ harks back to the 70’s and is a Hard Rocker’s wet dream! It is difficult to score what is just a two track cd, but this is good, very good!! Effectively, this is powerful melodic hard from Janey (and her band!), so check her out here.”

Why, thank you Dave!

Visit http://www.ravenheartmusic.com/ for more info about them all at Raven Towers…..

Janey xx

ravenheart - both cds