MySpace.com - Brendan James, Album now available! - NEW YORK - Folk Rock / Pop

With his warm, rich tenor and emotionally powerful songs, Brendan James announces himself as an artist-to-watch on his dazzling debut album The Day is Brave. Rooted in the classic singer/songwriter tradition, the album is 11 tracks of stunning songcraft: elegant, earthy, and displaying a total lack of artifice that is rare in the pop world these days.

The musical narrative that runs throughout The Day is Brave has been years in the making for James, who grew up in Derry, NH. Though James was always told he had a powerful voice, he didn't begin writing songs until his sophomore year at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. James taught himself to play piano and took a year off from school to spend time in L.A. writing songs. "I was so passionate about songwriting, I wanted to get involved in the music scene and start performing," he says. In 2002, he returned to Chapel Hill, graduated, and moved to New York City, where he toiled at Urban Outfitters by day and performed at open mics around Manhattan's East Village at night. To gain access to a piano to practice, James would sneak into hotel ballrooms around the city. "I'd dress to look like a guest at the Plaza Hotel, so I could walk in there unnoticed," he says. Hence, where the name of his 4 song EP - "The Ballroom Break-In."

Encouraged by his new mentor, James continued to write and perform and eventually enlisted producer Mikal Blue for his first full-length record. Blue, who would go on to score a platinum record with Colbie Caillat, wanted to help James capture the intimacy of his live performance. "I said to Mikal, 'I've done a lot of shows over the last few years and I want to give the audience as real and genuine a performance as possible when it comes to the vocals and piano playing.'"

The Day Is Brave is thankfully that honest musical manifesto that acknowledges James's growth as a person and a performer. Dominated by James's expressive piano playing, the songs are mainly autobiographical, like "Green," about a former girlfriend he met while working at Urban Outfitters, and "Manchester," about the town in New Hampshire where James spent most of his time after his parents divorced. James's youth is also the focus of "The Other Side," a playful tune James says he wrote about not fitting in as a kid and "that moment when you wake up on the other side of life and are like, 'Man, I don't have to deal with that anymore.'" Other standout tracks include "Early April Morning," a deeply felt love song, and "Hero's Song," a soldier's-eye view of the Iraq war that is also featured on Eddie Vedder's Body of War Soundtrack due out in stores March 18th. James's ballad "The Sun Will Rise" has also already received national attention since the music supervisor of the hit ABC show Private Practice used it in the season's final episode of 2007.

Watch for Brendan James on tour and the release of his debut album The Day Is Brave in Spring 2008.

-- GREEN --
Zeppelin never left her, never died or second guessed her painted on her body
The stars would never hurt her never lie never desert her painted on her body
She prayed to God when she was young after the storm a calm would come above her
I thought that I could be the one to part the clouds before the sun above her

Green reminds me of everything we did it blinds me
It rushes through my head it finds me close to you again
Green reminds me of everything we said it blinds me
It rushes through my head it finds me close to you again

Mother moves to town again holds her upside down again, said it’s nice to see her
Brendan now you’ve got to come she’s where I get my smile from, I’d like for to meet her
Andrea was pain and pride a step behind oh how she tried I loved her
And all she wore from head to floor were shades of green from our store I loved her

Green reminds me…

And all for me she cried
And all for love
In retrospect wish I could have said three words that night
Oh me, oh me, oh me

Green reminds me..

-- EARLY APRIL MORNING --
There used to be nothing in common, there used to be nothing to share
It used to be sit by the window, and stare at what used to be there
It used to be lonely in numbers, impossibly weak on my feet
When the game starts and one person’s left out, it used to be me

But that was then and she is now, I once was lost with her I’m found, on this early April morning
Water falling from the sky, the sun that’s breaking fills my eye, and it came without a warning now

There used to be nothing in common, there used to be nothing to share
It used to be sit by the window, and stare at what used to be there
Like a king in his court at his table, who is blind to the power he holds
I could never come to understand all the powers I had of my own

But that was then and she is now, I once was lost with her I’m found on this early April morning
Water falling from the sky, the sun that’s breaking fills my eye, and it came without a warning now

I trust my love, I trust myself, I trust the love of someone else
I trust that I will get what I’ve been hoping, waiting for

The prison walls are crashing down as winter dies without a sound, on this early April Morning
Let the struggle end, the joy begin, it’s true it’s love I’m falling in, and it came without a warning now

And that was then and she is now, I once was lost with her I’m found on this early April morning

The water falling from the sky, the sun that’s breaking fills my eye, and it came without a warning now

-- THE SUN WILL RISE --
The sun will rise the sun will save me
The sun will change me change the way I feel
The day will make this heart a fortune from the fruit of a hundred orchards
From the water rivers bring

The sun will rise the sun will save me from the night the sun will change me
Change the way I feel
I’ve had enough of the hard and harder times are tough and I’ve drifted farther
Farther from myself

I won’t dwell baby on my failures
It won’t help baby it won’t bring changes
I won’t run baby when all I want is to run
I won’t forget the morning’s sure to come

The sun will rise the sun will save me from then night the sun will change me
Change the way I feel
The love I want the love I need is sure to come is sure to lead me
Lead me home again

The light is low the night is burning, my head is still but my mind is turning
Turning round again
If only I can make it through this lonely night if I can do this
If I can drift away

Then the sun will rise the sun will save me from the night the sun will change me
Change the way I feel

** THE OTHER SIDE **
I was a child once, the fear of the world in my eye
far from the safety of the other side
I colored by numbers, learned how to tie my own shoes
like all of the others I just prayed I’d make it through
prayed I would make it through

Oh Mother, look how your boy turned out 300 miles from that small town
You never stopped believing
Oh Daddy, it hurt to watch you walking out, but understand it made me stronger now
And so satisfied, so full of pride, thank you here from the other side

I’ll always remember, the kids and how mean they’d been
Eleven years old and I could not fit in
But I made it through high school and college according to plan
where pressure was never greater to become a man
Would I become a man

Oh mother….

Mother look how your boy turned out 300 miles from that small town
And Dad it hurt to watch you walking out, hear the piano do the crying now
For all the preachers and the teachers now, for all the ones who never let me down
I’m so satisfied, so full of pride, standing here on the other side, thank you here from the other side

Outro:

Here on the other side I’m taking my time
There’s nothing to fear, there’s nothing to worry about on the other side
I remember when I thought I’d never find
The other side

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