‘Love Is Friendship, Set To Music’ – Jackson Pollock.
‘Clear, Like A Bell’ is the feature track from the brand new album ‘Ghosts’ by Jeremy Edwards. The song sees him teaming up with his dear friends Felicity Urquhart, Kevin Bennett and Josh Cunningham (The Waifs) in a gorgeously sweet melancholic tale of love and learning on the road to redemption.
Written by Edwards for The Song Club after a weekly prompt by Nashville based songwriter and musician, Sam Hawksley, Edwards states, “Sam’s prompt for the week was ‘Queen of hearts’ … we all rolled our eyes and then got on with it. That put me on this 70’s Dylan-esque train of thought and before I knew it, within a few hours, the song was finished”. The Golden Guitar winners and close friends of Edwards then were roped in after the Bennett idea of the verses being split into the two protagonists and an observer. The narrator, singing to the two, to all of us perhaps …
To let love in the door you’d better have your house ready
To let love in the door, you’d better have your house clean
Good advice indeed. Pair this with Josh Cunningham’s trademark beautifully cascading acoustic guitar and gorgeous gentle accompaniment and production by Josh Schuberth; ‘Clear, Like A Bell’ rings sweet and true, just like the music on Jeremy Edwards’ fourth album release ‘Ghosts’.
Like many songwriters, the recent ‘world gone mad years’ gave producer, singer-songwriter, guitarist Jeremy Edwards, a chance to slow down on the shows, and focus on the prose.
“2021-22 was a prolific time for me regarding writing and collaboration. Being able to create through this period was such a gift and was often with dear friends who I admire greatly, friends with who I’ve shared much joy and sadness in the last years”.
These collaborations became a critical part of Edwards’ new record ‘Ghosts’. Three of the album’s songs were penned with long-time friend and irrepressible leader of The Flood, Kevin Bennett (KB), a band Edwards has been a permanent member of since 2019.
The songs with Bennett; ‘Gomeroi’, ’18’ and ‘Nothin’ But The Blues’, stand tall. ‘Gomeroi’ drips of menace and heeds the dangers for a First Nations boy trapped in a doomed relationship with a girl in a small regional town. The story could be set in 1950’s, or modern-day Australia – a fact which adds an extra layer of poignancy. Edwards says, “to speak or write about deeply complex, subtle or overt racism regarding First Nations people in Australia feels so complex at times. Placing a love story around that complexity made it easier for me somehow”.
’18’ was a first for both writers – a melody and progression sent to Bennett on a whim, who came back with the lyrics, a moving ode to adolescent anxieties and the road ahead. “KB had seen me go through some ups and downs as a dad of a fiery daughter … he’d been there too. Problem was when I tracked the vocal for the song, I could barely get through the bloody thing without crying!”
‘Nothin’ But The Blues’ became a reality after the confronting experience of a very public ‘live co-write’ as song writing mentors. As members of an annual song writing mentoring event with Shane Nicholson, Luke O’Shea, Felicity Urquhart, Jen Mize and others, two of the mentors have to write a song from scratch in front of their peers and up to thirty other writers live. “Possibly the most terrifying thing in the world for a lot of people”, Edwards laughs. “Well, we got a bloody good song out of that I reckon!”.
The ‘tune in, drop out’ Black Crowes vibes of ‘Edge Of The World’ (featuring singer and Rough N’ Tumble band mate Jen Mize) and the Trumpian dystopia blues ‘Good Morning America’ highlight the album’s production by multi-instrumentalist Josh Schuberth; at times beautifully lush and subtle, and at other times wrapping snug and tight around Edward’s more visceral roots-based incursions. Schuberth can be found playing on most records made by comrades Matt Fell and Shane Nicholson and was introduced to Edwards through the crew’s mutual brother in arms lost to suicide, Glen Hannah.
Hannah and Edwards had planned to make Edwards’ new album together after the success of their rock album with the collective Teisco (pronounced Thai-sko) West, (with drummer Steve Fearnley, Nicholson, Fell, Bennett, Lyn Bowtell and regular collaborator with Edwards, Felicity Urquhart).
Title track ‘Ghosts’ features another Golden Guitar winning amigo and Edward’s band leader in The General Waste – Shane Nicholson, who brings a beautifully gentle and Bon Iver-esque touch to the ‘hope after tragedy’ song penned by Edwards for friend Felicity Urquhart.
The album signs off with Edwards and Jen Mize (who also plays cello here) in a song initially penned for Edward’s father, singing …
Maybe it’s people, who you need the most
These last days been good you know
So good for the soul
With people
The lyrics in the song may be singing back to Edwards, reminding him and us of the real deal here, the ties, the shared history, the love that connect people, and connect him.