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From the new DVD "Take in the Fall": Mississippi Red

Overview

Combine one singer-songwriter's fascination with the acoustic guitar in an amalgamation of Folk, Blues, Rock, Country and Gospel, add a social conscience, a hunger for the written word, and a love for singing and entertaining, and you've got Jeff James. With over 2500 performances and 5 albums under his belt, Jeff has "Good, bad, or otherwise-if I can achieve a smile, look of surprise, or even a tear, from the songs I 've written or performed, I feel I've succeeded in reaching people through music" become an extremely versatile performer, adapting to whatever his environment throws at him.
As a nationally accredited guitarist, Jeff finds ways of 'wow'-ing audiences with his percussive playing style along with some beautiful fingerstyle picking. Add silky but somehow gritty vocals (a cross combination of James Taylor and Gary Allan) which have been described as "unique" and "gripping" and you've found a show that people keep coming back to.

The Difference: The Live Show:
So you're at a Jeff James show - you see a guy with an acoustic guitar and a bunch of equipment with wires and a bass guitar on a stand. The show starts and you hear this high hat sound followed by something that could be a snare drum and then kick drum. You think "Oh this guy must be using a drum machine"
No Drum Machines, it's all LIVE
Then a guitar runs a line and the guy runs over to the bass guitar on a stand. So now you hear percussion of some kind, an acoustic guitar rhythm, and a bass guitar while he's playing another rhythm guitar part while he's singing and he breaks into a lead. Now you're thinking "this must be karaoke or some pre-recorded tracks!"
No Pre-recording, it's all LIVE.
Jeff uses an RC-50 Loop Station to help fill his songs up with depth of more instrumentation and the width of improvisational lead guitar. The RC-50 allows him to play lines of guitar that get recorded with a quick punch of a foot pedal and plays back when he wishes. He then stacks other instruments on top of those lines - all LIVE.
Videos of Jeff Looping Live:
Live Looping: Mix of several songs
Live Looping: Hotel California
Live Looping: For What it's Worth

(ABOVE)Latest Promo Video using the RC-50

Beginnings:
Jeff James started singing at 6 in a church choir and performed his first 'solo' at 7 in a Christmas play in his small hometown of New London, MN. Around the age of 16 his pastor borrowed him a classical guitar to get him started. He began learning songs from Waylon Jennings, James Taylor, John Denver, and even Pink Floyd.
Along with friend John Ploegstra, Jeff would rehearse in front of huge 'invisible' audiences and they were eventually involved in a group dubbed 'Black Waters' playing a few local clubs and performing in front of their 1st real crowd of around 1500 people at their town's annual summer festival.

(ABOVE) Live at the Acadia Cafe in Minneapolis

Career:
Over the course of the next 7 years he toured extensively full time as frontman with Country Rock Band Genuine Leather and Lace. They performed the A and B club circuits in the 6 state upper Midwest. He also performed 2 years with another Country Rock Band "KeyStone" Sharing the stage with many major artists. In the midst of both bands, he kept up with several solo acoustic performances which he used to display his own music.

Nashville:
In 1998 he moved to Nashville to pursue the true and trying business end of music. Over the course of the next 7 years of performing and networking he released 4 CD 's independently with the majority of the material being original. He's sold over 3000 units online and in clubs via his Web Site at www.jeffjamesmusic.com. There he became a regular part of the music scene entertaining locals and tourists consistently 3-4 nights a week downtown Nashville and the Opryland Hotel Area. Performing covers and his own songs from a list of over 350 songs drawing inspiration from such related genre artists as David Wilcox, John Gorka, and earlier artists like Taylor, Denver, Dylan, Baez, and Lightfoot. Performing at several songwriter nights, James gained several songwriter friends and publishing contacts, keeping regular writing dates at Universal Publishing. He was asked to perform on America's 2nd longest running radio show, The Midnite Jamboree, where he performed alongside Dale Watson.

Turning Minnesotan Again:

In August 2004, Jeff, wife Debbie, and daughter Danielle, made the move back to Minnesota to further his career with the release of the Two Hands CD in the Fall. He has been quickly gaining fans through performances in the Twin Cities area.

Two Hands was recently listed on John Shelton-Ivany's Top 21 Issue ..214. Jeff James "Two Hands" Top 10 Recommended albums. This mention was listed by reviewer John Shelton Ivany. The John Shelton-Ivany Top Twenty-One is published in 200 National newspapers.

The DVD release "Take in the Fall"

On the night of October 23rd, 2005 Jeff James held an exclusive concert for a TV Taping to which a small amount of fans were privied. Now available for the first time you can experience that show as well as the stories behind some of the songs featured on the Take in the Fall DVD. As an added bonus feature you can journey back to Christmas 2004 and see the Holiday show that was aired in December featuring 30 minutes of songs that Jeff personally picked out for the program. Enjoy Jeff James as so many people love to see and hear him....Live!

Quote:

I've played all sorts of places from parks, street corners, college house parties, churches, bars, restaurants, resorts, casinos, street dances, fairs, and music festivals, and one constant I look for is the reaction I get from a person or a group. Good, bad, or otherwise-if I can achieve a smile, look of surprise, or even a tear, from the songs I 've written or performed, I feel I've succeeded in reaching people through music.?

- Jeff James

Two Hands
The Two Hands Project, his current CD release dated August 7th 2004(hard date) is the most ambitious project yet, having recorded, produced, engineered, and edited the entire album himself, a job that has taken up the last 2 years.. With a heart that's always swung in the Folk genre, James feels that the material on this album will be able to stand up on it's own within the diverse genre of Folk/Americana. James was also finally able to take advantage of a few songs performed in an open tuning (DADF..AD being his favorite) and record them along with a sundry of themes and sounds including a Tribute song to The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, 91 year old Rosa Parks and a blazing instrumental dubbed "Blaine the Mono" after The King penned Dark Tower series.

Review of the CD Life's Song
"Jeff James' 'Life's Song' is a mellow, easy-listening CD which is perfect for those times when one needs to kick back and take a load off. The musical and vocal stylings suggest influences from some popular 70s and 80s singer/songwriters, such as James Taylor, Arlo Guthrie and Randy Van Warmer. Particularly, "Warm Water" is reminiscent of Taylor's "Fire and Rain." Unlike many songs from that era, however, 'Life's Song' is just that -- songs about real life, and topical issues such as abuse, neglect, as well as the ever-popular one on relationships. James' mellifluous voice flows over a person like, well, warm water ... quite pleasant." Carlene Dean .. Kandiyohi Times