Work It!

Photos from the 8.7.07 John Mayer Tampa show:










And one of JJ just because he's funny:


*These are all photographs I found on the web. If any were taken by you, hit me up so I can credit you properly.

Source: The Interwebs

Old Interview/Review - Brand New Immortals Biography

Brand New Immortals - Biography

[Review: Tragic Show 6/30/01]


Brand New Immortals' name may give some clue as to their real mission: Not out to save rock, just turn its eternal flame up a notch. Powered by a phosphorous blend of compelling lyrics, saw-toothed guitars, and sonically honed percussion/loops, their 12 song debut, Tragic Show, tips its hat to the rock/blues and even funk roots of the Immortals' rollicking cast: vocalist/guitarist David Ryan-Harris, bassist Johnny Colt and drummer Kenny Cresswell.

Johnny Colt, resident multi-hyphenate of the band (ex-Black Crowe, current yoga-aficionado, revered bassist, and accomplished songwriter) points to the band's dedication to songwriting as their greatest strength. "David and I had known each other for a long time. We agreed on one rule when we set out on this journey. We were not going to do anything until we had written a set of songs that moved people, that we thought had the potential to affect people's lives."

Consider that tall order accomplished. Steel-eyed rockers like "Reasons Why," and the punchy "Black Sun" are complemented by the funked-up sprawl of "Kalifornia" and "High Time." All 12 songs were good enough to draw the attention of longtime friend/acclaimed producer Brendan O' Brien (Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine, among others). O'Brien's deft touch helps make Tragic Show one of the most solid rock debuts of the year.

"We all started intersecting at the right time," says David. "I was working on a project with Brendan when he had his label deal at Columbia. He and Johnny and me all knew each other from our Atlanta days."

David made his first splash on the Atlanta rock scene with the eclectic cult-band Follow For Now. Brendan, also relatively unknown at the time, produced their early demos. "The Crowes were just starting back then," recalls Johnny. "We weren't known outside of Atlanta yet. Follow For Now was the hot band and we were right behind them." The close relationship now enjoyed by David and Johnny wouldn't really kick in until much later. But Kenny knew Johnny quite well during those formative years. "I was in one of Johnny's first bands, even before the Crowes. We always stayed friends," he says.

Johnny torpedoed to rock stardom with the Black Crowes, and David rolled with Follow For Now. The two Immortals would meet again, however, on a mid-'90's H.O.R.D.E. tour that seem to spark the possibility of working with each other. "It was one of those tours that just had a great camaraderie, a great spirit of community. He played me about 30 songs he was working on. We renewed our friendship, and kicked around the idea that maybe we'd do something together."

In 1998 Johnny left the Black Crowes. "Instead of expanding creatively, my role seemed to be diminishing," he says. "It was just time to move on." Intermittently, he also took time off to do some soul searching, traveling to India and taking up yoga. In fact, the band's moniker - Brand New Immortals - most likely was coined because of Johnny's exploration of a tenet of yoga known as Vendanta.

"Basically, it follows a philosophy that we are immortal, that there isn't any division between people, that we all stem from a universal tide. It reflects the transcendence of karma that says we are never born and we never die."

But they do rock - and thus, Brand New Immortals were born.

"I don't know if you could say we really had a charter for the band," says David. "But we all had our influences. Things that might not immediately come to mind if you knew our previous work. Bjork. Band Of Gypsies. Parliament. All that informed what we wanted to do."

Kenny adds that the strong mutual friendships seemed to anchor the band to something real. "I was Johnny's roommate. In some ways it's all so simple. This is an opportunity to play with my very best friends in a really good band. When we're on stage we can simultaneously read each other. It's almost second hand. Our relationship to each other gives this group its backbone."

A quick listen to the poignant "Satellites" or the haunting vocals of "If I Had A Dime" confirms a mystical, indefinable quality to Brand New Immortals - timeless ingredients that could be attributed to their organic roots. "Look at a song like 'King For A Day'" says David. "It's not a song a 19 year old could write. It's got an old soul flair to it, but at the same time it's more pumped up."

In fact, the lyrics of the song pose an age-old question - one certainly appropriate for a band who dare call themselves Brand New Immortals: 'Am I a king for a day, or a fool for a lifetime.' About to launch a whole new chapter of his career, it's a question Johnny has no doubt asked himself. "I think Brand New Immortals was a way for us to re-discover what we've always been," says Johnny. "The minute David and I started writing songs together, it was like we were reborn. I never had so much energy. I never wanted to be out on the road so bad. We have all been in a number of bands. We decided if we were ever going to do this again, you better believe it's going to be special."


Source: hiponline.com

Song of the Week - King For a Day

David Ryan Harris - King for a Day (Smith's Olde Bar 1/5/07)

LYRICS:
I took the pill like I was told
And I prayed that it would ease my nerve
The room went black and the day grew cold
I guess I got what I deserve

One feathered bed, a busted spring
Man, I took everything and I wonder where I am
Where I am

I am king for a day or a fool for a lifetime
One day I might find out who I am
I am king for a day or a fool for a lifetime
One day I'll find out who I am

I drank the wine 'til I was done
and it made me weak it made me numb
I wondered who I had become
I ran to what I was running from

One feathered bed, an open wing
Man, I took everything and I wonder where I am
Where I am

I am king for a day or a fool for a lifetime
One day I might find out who I am
I am king for a day or a fool for a lifetime
One day I might find out who I am

Took some time to see
Wings don't make you free
Wind won't make you get high

Took some time to see
Wings don't make you free
Wind won't make you get high


Taped/Transferred by: Geneva Weaver

John Mayer Photo Blog

All Photographs Taken by John Mayer.


Off Day



Off Day II



For the rest of the photographs in the series, go here:
Source: John Mayer Photo Blog @ stunningnikon.com NVM link deleted by Nikon so here are the rest of the pics:



Rene at Soundcheck



Beach Walk



End of the Tour



Stop This Train



Dusk Again



Under the Boardwalk



Minimal Lighting



Feeding Frenzy



JJ Downtime



Another Day Another Driver



Clouds Rolling In



Natural Gels

Old Interview - Everything Old is New Again

Everything old is New again

The not-so-unlikely success of the Brand New Immortals

BY LEE SMITH
Published 09.30.00


Inside a cavernous rehearsal hall, the Brand New Immortals are finishing a blazing version of "Kalifornia," a track from their just-released EP. The song seems a fitting prelude to an upcoming trip planned to the Left Coast to play the infamous Viper Room. "I'm gonna go there and just punch somebody," jokes David Ryan Harris, the soft-spoken front man for the band. Harris and company, however, won't have to pick a fight with anyone to make their big dent.

Harris, the former leader of Follow For Now, is joined by former Black Crowes' bassist Johnny Colt, drummer Kenny Cresswell, of the now-defunct blues-rockers Gracie Moon, and Mac Carter, guitarist for the recently reunited Kathleen Turner Overdrive. Individually, the members have been making a name for themselves since the '80s.

Today, this locally bred supergroup is currently making their presence felt beyond Atlanta. After being thrown into regular rotation at local modern-rock station 99X their song "Reasons Why" has been subsequently added to playlists across the country, bringing major label reps with begging pens. But the band has actually been working on their overnight success for over two years now.

"I liken all this to how Michael Jordan refers to things as 'going in slow motion,'" says Harris as he calmly takes a sip of coffee.

The Immortals' growing fame is somewhat amusing, considering the fact Colt and Harris started it as a salute to Atlanta producer Nick Didia's love of Bruce Springsteen. "He [Didia] always teased me that I look like Bruce," says bassist Colt. "So I called Dave and asked him to come be Clarence Clemmons as a joke."

Colt had left the Black Crowes in '97 and was eager to try his hand as a songwriter. In Didia's house is the 2-inch tape machine that the Black Crowes recorded their Southern Harmony And Musical Companion album on. "So I just went to work in his basement, teaching myself to engineer and sing," Colt explains.

The plan was to do only one song, "but we all got in a room -- with Phil Zone, Joey Huffman and Harold Sellers -- and wound up writing songs." "We had more rehearsals than shows," Harris says.

The makeshift Springsteen tribute band was dubbed the New Immortals. "I told David, obviously you need to be singing. I will get back on the bass and we will do this right. That's when it really locked."

"See, we all were slightly shell-shocked," says Colt. "David was leaving Sony after his solo record and I had just left my family, basically. The Crowes were the people I had been with since I was just a kid."

As the leaders' nerves calmed, they began to enjoy the process more. "We walked in with a really good idea of what we wanted the Immortals to be sonically and structurally and I think we hit it."

Harris and Colt went through an intensive period of writing; then the band started playing live last year.

"They know how to handle it and they don't have to rush into anything," says 99X Program Director Leslie Fram. "All that has to happen is for anyone to come see this band live. Johnny has got the look and the moves and David is such a star and has one of the best voices out there." After seeing the band at this years' Music Midtown, Fram decided to add their song "Reasons Why" to regular rotation then asked the Immortals to headline the "Locals Only" stage at this years' Big Day Out.

Harris is excited about playing to the big crowds at the event. "It will be one of the first shows we've done since 99X has been playing us," he says. "It's actually generated a Brand New Immortals crowd. We have only played maybe 20 shows total and it's difficult to build an audience without airplay. Now the album is out, it will be good to interact with people familiar with the material."

All the Immortals agree that Music Midtown was the turning point for the band. Though it was more or less their debut as a band, the big stage performance was old hat for the members.

"They looked like they'd been playing together live for 10 years," Fram recalls. "To really make it in this business you have to have the whole package and these guys have it all."

"The next few shows coming up are going to be definitive statements by us to set the record straight as to where we are coming from," promises Colt. "The unknown should be known around the time of Big Day Out."

Source: CreativeLoafing.com

Song of the Week - Genie

David Ryan Harris - Genie (Smith's Olde Bar 6/28/06)

LYRICS:
My, my what good fortune.
I found a genie on my front porch and I’m gonna use him
to get next to you.
I won’t wish for diamonds, long life, or money
Just for a moment alone with you honey.
I’m trying to use him to get next to you.

Chorus:
I’ve got a feeling I’m wasting my wishes
I’ve got a feeling you’ll never be true
I’ve got a feeling your mountains too high
your river is too wide
I’ve got a feeling you’ve got a genie too,
and your genie is stronger than mine.

You’re mine all mine, you’re my destiny.
I’ll have my genie use his trickery to tempt and entice
oh, to bring me next to you.
Mystical sorcerer taste my longing, sate my appetite.
I’m gonna use him to put a hex on you.

Chorus

Your genie does things that mine can’t do.
Your genie does things that mine can’t do.

Chorus

Your genie does things that mine can’t do.
Your genie does things that mine can’t do.
Your genie does things that mine can’t do.
Your genie does things that mine can’t do.


Taped/Transferred by: Geneva Weaver

Old Interview - The Three Lives of David Ryan Harris

The Three Lives of David Ryan Harris
Writer: Stephanie Ramage
Scrapbook, Issue 7, Published online on 01 Dec 2003


Hate is a strong word. But there are definitely things that singer-songwriter David Ryan Harris resents. Cell phones ringing at his shows, for one.

“Hey, watcha doin’?” the beefy black musician mocks in a reprimanding falsetto, bringing his music to a halt. “I’m at the show. Where are you? Why aren’t you guys here?”

People cower in the audience, a few slink out, digging in purses or unsnapping phone holsters. He continues in a prissy, breathless way that brings the Olsen twins to mind: “Oh, no, I gotta go, he’s making fun of me…”

Then Harris chuckles and tells the standing-room-only crowd about how his much anticipated CD, out in November, was a long time coming, but is hopefully worth the wait and the money. Despite the note of financial sobriety, Harris is doing pretty well. “Of the three record deals I’ve had, I probably made the most off of the first CD I put out myself,” he says.

That would be Atlanta, the acoustic solo project released in 2002 that hums, shuffles, wails and moans with the slow, dark sweetness of gospel, blues, and rock — all rolled into one heartfelt missive from Harris to the fans who’ve seen him through two bands and, seemingly, three lives.

Harris barreled into the public consciousness in the early 1990s with the band Follow For Now, an angrily grinding funk-rock group around which mosh pits seemed to forever bloom. Signed to Chrysalis, FFN succumbed to ego in 1994 as accusations surfaced that only Harris’ songs were being performed despite a supposedly collaborative charter.

After the hurricane of Follow For Now, Harris found peace in near-anonymity as Dionne Farris’ guitarist. Farris, formerly of Arrested Development, endured the spotlight while Harris contemplated the confusion of his life; he wanted to be with his kids and play music. “I couldn’t understand how God could have given me this talent and then put me in a world where I couldn’t really take care of my family the way I wanted to with it,” he says. His marriage ended, a subject Harris eases away from with a drawn-out silence and the slowly enunciated phrase “That did not go well.”

His 1997 self-titled solo album, released on Columbia, was promotionally starved and died quietly.

Fast forward to life number two. Harris joined the Brand New Immortals, along with bassist Johnny Colt, formerly of The Black Crowes, and friend Kenny Creswell. The Immortals were signed in 2000 to The Music Company, a short-lived imprint of Elektra headed by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. “I’d quit drinking and quit partying and Johnny and I sort of met under those conditions,” says Harris. “He’d quit drinking and his thing had to do with disillusionment and feeling like he wasn’t developing creatively. Kenny was around and a friend of ours and we were making music just to make music.” Brendan O’Brien produced the band’s only release, Tragic Show, a record that fell through the cracks of commercial marketing. It was melodic but not soft enough to fit into the singer-songwriter bin and not hard enough, in Harris’ words, “to be like Drowning Pool.” When the label folded, the band dissolved amicably, a little dazed by their whiplash love affair with Elektra, but not broken.

Life #3: Harris began spending more time with his acoustic guitar and decided to “get rid of the variables” — the sound mix. He took a deep breath and dove into the crystalline waters of acoustic solo-hood. In September of this year, after five months of recording the latest as-yet-unnamed CD with a full band, Harris told Paste, “I don’t know if I’m going to keep any of the tracks the way they are. I don‘t know if it’s where I want to be right now. The success of the acoustic shows has been really eye-opening. [The album] may be acoustic.”

This revelation came after wrapping up a tour opening for John Mayer and Counting Crows. Mayer and Harris became friends while playing Atlanta’s club scene. They bonded over their mutual love of blues artists like Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson. Last spring, while Harris was playing a gig with Edwin McCain in Nashville, Mayer called and invited him on tour. “I don’t really want to go far out there on this one,” says Harris, feeling his way along the words. “I don’t want to give myself an endorsement, you know, that isn’t there. But maybe, I guess, I don’t know, but just maybe, I was an influence. We’ve hung out together and played guitar. We get along well with each other. Our voices, I think, are a little similar. I guess, in a lot of ways, I was sort of Obi-Wan Kenobi to John."

Source: Paste Magazine

DRH - IK Multimedia 7/30/07

“Getting A Real World Tone In A Virtual World”
David Ryan Harris, guitarist for John Mayer, on the new AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix™

Armed with a voice that falls somewhere between Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway, David has been searching for the truth in music. His songwriting combines beautiful haunting melodies with sharp storytelling and guitar playing that is blues influenced and rock sharpened. It's this combination of tremendous talent and devotion to the truth that immediately connects him to an audience. David has worked with numerous artists from Dave Matthews to jazz singer Cassandra Wilson, from Widespread Panic to Santana, and Dionne Farris.

Currently David is touring with John Mayer. Read what David thinks about AmpliTube Jimi Henrdrix™ and the cruel joke his cousin told him.

"I had been playing guitar for about a year before I actually went and bought the JHE Smash Hits. I was actually afraid to listen to Hendrix because a cousin of mine (as a cruel joke) had told me that Jimi thought he was possessed by the devil. Anyway, I bought the record and was transfixed by everything about it. I love so many of Jimi's songs especially 'All Along The Watchtower' because it shows so many sides of his playing. I checked out the presets, just to get the points of reference. My actual guitar rig contains a lot of the elements that are in the AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix, so it's been a real life saver to now be able to get a tone that is close to my 'real world' tone in the virtual world. My favorite presets are 'Love or Confusion' and 'Have You Ever Been (To Electricladyland)' because they're both great emulations of the originals, plus they're good starting points to tweak from." ~David Ryan Harris


Do you wanna be experienced? Check out the new AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix™ today!

IK Multimedia. Musicians First.
2007-07-30


Source: IKMultimedia.com

DRH Live at the Hotel Cafe 7/11/07

A big thanks to Debbie Ocoboc for taping and uploading this show, and sending it to us so we could share it with you!

It's the audio of David's performance at the Hotel Cafe on July 11, 2007. Click any song on the player to listen, or click the sendspace link to download.*** (The show is in a zip file, and all songs are in mp4 format.)




Download from: Sendspace
OR
Download from: RapidShare


And a video from that night, Can We Get Down ~



Again, a big thanks to Debbie for this one, and also a big thanks to David just because he's badass.


***Contact us at sweetestberryblog@gmail.com if the link needs to be re-up'd.

Song of the Week - For You

David Ryan Harris - For You (Hotel Cafe - 3/13/07)

LYRICS:
Saturday before the sun is up
I'm out the door and I'm on my way
I catch the two and then the thirty-five
And by six fifteen I'm on the train

Thirty miles until the final stop
And still I have to walk a few more
By the time I finally reach your garden's gate
I have nineteen steps 'til I'm at your door

And oh what a thrill
To finally be with you
And when I see your face I know that

There ain't nothing strong enough to keep me away from you
There could be a wall of fire ten feet or higher
I would just walk on through
Where there once was only room for one
Forever there will be two

And that's why I travel all this way
For you
To you
For you

Sunday night and I'm at home alone
And I miss the smell of your perfume
Five longs days and four more hours
'Til I am there again with you

And oh what a thrill
To finally be with you
And when I see your face
I know that

There ain't nothing strong enough to keep me away from you
There could be a wall of fire ten feet or higher
I would walk on through
Where there once was only room for one
Forever there will be two

And that's why I travel all this way for you

Seconds make minutes
Make hours make days
I've added it all up a million ways
Multiply that times the fact that when I'm with you
I feel brand new

That's why I travel all this way to you

'Cause there ain't nothing strong enough to keep me away from you
There could be a wall of fire ten feet or higher
I would walk on through
Where there once was only room for one
Forever there will be two

And that is why I travel all this way
Just to see your pretty face
Each and every Saturday
For you
To you
For you


Source: archive.org/Tom Riddle