Jeffstunes's Blog

Now it's time for some original material. This is the first of a string of original songs that didn't make it to the album for some reason or other. Check out sound bytes for songs that did make the album "Sight Or Sound" at:

Sight Or Sound - Jeff Edwards

It's also available on Amazon and Ruckus so far. 10 of the songs are in full on my Youtube channel, and the other 5 are not.

This particular song is called "Tell me why". This is another from a large batch of songs I composed several years ago. It's about a relationship that breaks up with very little explanation. I'm confident that there will be a few that will recognise this dilemma. I did like this song, but I thought the chorus was a little weak, and there were better songs to choose from for the album.

Here it is:

Jeff Edwards - Tell me why (Original)

More Dad stuff now.

My Dad. Part 5.

I said in previous posts that my father was in "Cowgate road" in Greenford, West London. At his Mums house. Music was one of the loves of his life. So it wasn't long before he started to get involved in the scene. His instruments were Harmonica and Guitar. He was only ever a part of one band in his life. Their name was "The frasier chorus". It was a group of four harmonica players. My father wielded the chromatic. They didn't end up cutting any discs, and their achievements were very limited. On the upside, they got to tour with some bigger names.

Being a part of the scene, meant that he mixed with a number of people that you might recognise today. He has recounted a few tales to me. I found one or two very surprising. Even by the standards of today. In the sixties, I wouldn't imagine it was that unusual. There's something he told me about a certain Lulu, and Brian Poole of the Tremeloes. I'm assuming it took place in Cowgate road. I don't think my Dad was very fond of Lulu. Going by the colourful names he had for her. He said that she did anything for the lights of fame. I wouldn't say that was unusual. Many people did. According to my father, Lulu and Brian poole were engaging in sexual activity behind my grandmother's sofa. Maybe it was the excitement of a cold floor, but I would have thought that the couch in front of them was a much more comfortable alternative :)

To be continued.......

As always. Here are the Youtube figures to up to the time this was posted.

My subscriptions have increased to 953.

The amount of viewings for my channel are 22,268.

Aggregate video views are now 374,240.

Another original next that was a result of a suggestion.

82 videos done now. This latest one is my cover of the full version of "Run" by "Snow patrol". I've been asked

to sing this by a few people, and I couldn't recall it by name, but when I heard it I recognised it immediately.

I love the song. I've used the imagery of roads and light for the video.

Have a listen and see if you like it:

Jeffstunes singing Run by Snow Patrol

My CDBaby webpage has received over one hundred hits now, and the digital album has been sent to 3 companies to date.

Amazon, Napster and Ruckus. I keep searching on a daily basis to see when it's listed on those sites. There's

nothing yet. There's also an online shop with T-shirts etc that will be up soon. If you fancy checking out some

of the samples from my album you can go to my CDBaby page at:

Sight Or Sound - Jeff Edwards

Here's the next installment of the extracts from my fathers life.

My Dad. Part 4.

My Mothers relationship with my father was not a very long one. They first met when she was dating a man called Michael. After her and Michael broke up, my father appeared back on the scene. It might be difficult to understand how they got together, unless you met him yourself. His personality was highly infectious. A real charmer. He was loved by many, even though most of them were aware of his habits. Perhaps it was that desire for unpredictability. Very soon into the relationship I was conceived. I have asked her what it was that determined the end of their relationship. It ended up being more than one, due to my mother's tolerance. One of the times was when my dad robbed the electricity meter at the place they rented, and left my mother to take the blame. My mum would never steal from anyone, and she was horrified to be accused of the theft. She knew it was my father that was responsible. There were only 3 people that moved in and out of the house, and she was sure that it wasn't the landlord. She could only deny what she was accused of. The landlord adored my father, and refused to believe that it could have been him.

The other event that helped to break the relationship was my mother's eighteenth birthday party. My dad came to the party, but not alone. He was linking arms with two new women. That would destroy it for most I think. It's likely that he may have done it deliberately to force my mother into ending it. Knowing what he was like. I think that it was possible.

So the relationship ended before I was born. My mother then had a relationship with a man called "Jeffrey". He is the man I am named after. He begged my mother not to tell me who my real father was. Instead pretend that he was my father. This was a wonderful arrangement until he had a child of his own. He was biased towards his daughter, so my mother, believing in fairness, gave some bias to me. Unlike my real father, my stepfather had a violent streak, and displayed that to my mother. This resulted in my mother fleeing with me as a baby to places of refuge. One such location was in the attic of a convent. The last time I remember living in the same house as him was when I was about 7. I never realised that he wasn't my father until I was 18 years old, and i didn't meet my real father until I was 21. The stories I tell about his life before me have been collected from him and confirmed by other family members. There's more to come. I can appreciate why my mother tried to keep me away from him in my youth. She feared that I might follow in his footsteps, and I'm glad that she decided upon that course of action.

To be continued.......

There's a big milestone around the corner concerning my Youtube statistics. A thousand subscribers looms.

It's done pretty well over the last week. There is now 938 subscribers.

The channel views are also doing well at 21,815 and the total viewings for all my videos are 364,724. I am averaging over one thousand views a day at the moment.

That's the last of the cover songs for a little while. I've got a string of original songs to upload in conjunction with the distribution of my new album. The ones I will put up initially, didn't make it to the album :).

Now to the 81st video. This was another request, and it's "Afternoons and coffee spoons" by "The crash test

dummies". I felt I wanted to do something a little cheeky with the video. You see many people singing behind locked doors, using whatever is available as a mic. Well, I thought I'd expand on that :)

Take a look at my version of "Afternoons and coffee spoons". There's a list of objects in the description of the video, but I think you'd have to go on to Youtube to check that out :)

Jeffstunes - Afternoons and coffee spoons

Now for the continuation of some of the events of my father's life.

My Dad. Part 3.

My Nan lived a majority of her life in "Cowgate road" in the outskirts of of London in a town

called Greenford. That place has reminders for a number of people, as I will expand upon later. It didn't take long

for my father to become involved in criminal pursuits. He got in with a west london gang, and became an integral part of it. Dad couldn't keep his paws off of other people's possesions, and at some

point during his association with the gang, guns and knives came into play, though there were never any reports of him using any.

I've got a couple of interesting tales to tell about this time. One was a robbery that he was a part of. It was an art

robbery in Chelsea. He recounted to me that he was fleeing the scene with his hands full, across Chelsea

bridge, and he had to offload because they were slowing him down. So one of the artworks was tossed into the river thames. If the authorities ever wondered where one of the missing paintings went to. The answer to that question is "At the bottom of the thames". He hid the rest of his stash in his mother's attic without her knowledge. So she was quite surprised

when the police raided her house and discovered a collection of paintings. They eventually captured him and

he paid the price in prison.

One thing that you could never underestimate about him was his silver tongue. On one occasion he was arrested for a crime,

and conviction and prison were sure to follow, but amazingly he managed to talk his way out of the situation. He engaged one of the officers in conversation about music. There weren't many people that weren't fascinated by music in those times. Anyway, this policeman told my father that he was in possesion an old violin. My father excitedly urged him to bring it in

for him to appraise. He managed to convince him that he was an expert in old musical instruments (which he

wasn't). Very soon the officer brought the violin into the station and allowed my father to examine it. My father got very excited about it and he convinced the policeman that this violin was rare and worth money, and he offered him a few hundred pounds to purchase it from him. Now that was an awful lot of money then. The policeman quickly

accepted, and my father obtained the funds through contacts, and the result was one happy policeman. As far as the crime my father was arrested for, well he didn't get charged. Oh yes. The violin. It was totally worthless. I don't know where my

father got the money, but one thing I can be sure about. It wasn't his own money.

To be continued......

More news about the album. I've been getting used to the control panel on CDBaby. It's pretty good, because it

tells me how many people visit my page on a daily basis. Also which companies the album has been sent to for

distribution. There's only one at the moment, and that is "Amazon". However, delivery doesn't mean

availability. That can take from a week to 3 months. Depending on the company.

Check out some clips of songs from my album at:

Jeff Edwards - Sight Or Sound

Here's the Youtube stuff.

Subscriptions to my channel are now up to 920.

Those that have viewed my channel now total 21,490.

Total video views are 358,999.

My next video will be the last cover version for a little while. It will be "Run" by "Snow patrol".

There are two major things I want to cover in this post. One is a song on someone else's Youtube channel, and the other is the release of my first album "Sight Or Sound".

I'll discuss the new album first.

Yesterday, Sight Or Sound went on sale. It's only available through CDBaby at the moment. It takes varying amounts of times to be active on the other selling points. That's ITunes, Amazon, Napster and many other outlets. It will only be available digitally, so the CD's are not available now, but they might be in time. This depends on how well it goes, and whether there are any offers for investment.

The final track order for the album is as follows.

01) Soaked to the bone. *

02) So blue.

03) Convey. +

04) Take me home.

05) Don't wish it away.

06) Broadcast fantasy.

07) Keep on waiting (The stood up song). *

08) Escape.

09) Twist of fate.

10) Blow away.

11) Unknown. *

12) Counting down the days. *

13) Sight Or Sound. #

14) When I grow.

15) You think it's all over. *

You'll notice some other characters at the end of some tracks. This is for extra information, which I've described below. So where these symbols appear, this is what they mean.

* = These tracks are not currently on Youtube.

# = Features the talented "Steve Morgan" on guitar.

+ = This is the albums promo track that will be offered royalty free for promotional purposes only.

The final track on the album has an interesting story, and is probably a first. It actually started out as a sports song, and was converted into a normal song. It normally happens the other way around! As a sports song, it was played a number of times on radio stations during the 2006 world cup campaign. It was then called "They think it's all over", after the famous Kenneth wolstenholme quote.

You can listen to clips from all tracks on the album by visiting the purchase page, at the following link:

Jeff Edwards - Sight Or Sound album

Now the other thing. A Youtube video. This was put up by a Youtube member going by the name of "KarenEng". It's a duet with her and I. It's that wonderful old classic "You don't bring me flowers" by Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand. I've wanted to put this one up for a long time, but finding the right female vocal wasn't easy. That was until I found Karen. She has a wonderful voice. Take a listen and see what you think :)

Jeffstunes and Kareneng singing You don't bring me flowers

Last but by no means least. The Youtube statistics digest.

My subscribers have breezed over the 900 mark to 912. That magic 1,000 doesn't seem so far away now.

My channel viewings are picking up and are now up to 21,373.

All of my videos have been watched a total of 356,896.

I think I got the potential video order mixed up in the last post. my next video upload will be "Afternoons and Coffee spoons" originally by the "Crash test dummies", because I've already got that one prepared :)

I'll be continuing my fathers story in the next post.

Now I'm going to do something acoustic. This is the final song of my Dad's favourites selection. There are lots of songs he adored, but I thought I'd do only a series of three. There's a possibility that I'll run out some more in time. This particular song is called "Baby can I hold you tonight". Boyzone did a well known cover version of this song, but I still prefer the original which was by "Tracy Chapman". It sits on an album of wonderful tracks.

There was a comment recently on one of my vids, saying that I should stop relying on backing tracks. So for this one, I sat with my guitar. I have to tell you my opinions about backing tracks. I think that there is absolutely nothing wrong with using them. We can't all play musical instruments, and they can be very useful. How many lead singers are there that don't play a musical instrument? I can think of many. Some people forget that the voice is probably one of the most versatile instruments you can play. So my advice to those using backing tracks. Keep on. If people criticise you for it, then just ignore it. The most important thing above anything else, is that you enjoy what you are doing. Not all people will like it. Could you tell me any singer that is loved by 100% of the world's population? Some people love you, and some people hate you. An e-book I was reading recently said that if 1% of the populationof the world like you, then you can count yourself as a success, because 1% of the worlds population is over 60 million people! :)

Now for the song. I hope you like my gentle take on this wonderful tune.

Jeffstunes singing Baby can I hold you tonight

My Dad. Part 2

My father was very partial to females, and he acted upon his desires many times. One female at a time was not always the order of the day. I was once told a tale of two girlfriends of his. When I raised it with him, all I got was a cheeky smile. They were bi-sexual and having a relationship with each other. The sleeping arrangements for the three of them were one bed, three people. This went on for a time. I wish I was a fly on the wall in the houses of the neighbours. I'd have liked to have known what they thought.

It's baffling how he became to be my father. Even more so when you know my mother's background. If fate had chosen another path, then my father may have been a certain "Mungo Jerry". Does that name sound familiar? How about his number one hit "In the summertime"? Mungo was very taken by my mother. After refusal, he asked her why she had refused. The answer could well have put him off for good. Perhaps his pride was dented. When asked, my mother replied "It's because you are too ugly". Now I know where I got that compulsion to be honest. Looking at old pictures of him, I have to say I'm inclined to agree. Good call mum :) Though I'm sure there are many women out there that found his very rugged appearance attractive. Just not my mother.

So at some point in the past, my father came across my mother. Looking at the pedigree of both of them, you would struggle to find a logical reason why they got together. My father's family history was fairly unspectacular, whilst the bloodline of my mother's family can be traced to the aristocracy of the 19th century. That's as far as I've looked back so far. I'll probably research the family tree at a later date to see how far I can take it back. I reckon the mothers side of my family will be easy to map out, but I'm not as confident with tracings my father's roots.

To be continued...

As always, I'm going to finish off with my Youtube statistics. There's been a bit of a yo-yo effect with my subscribers over the last 5 days, but they have still climbed. Another 3 hve been added overall and the figure is now 893. Channel views are up to 20,958 and the aggregate figure for all the viewings of my videos is 349,427.

So what's coming next?

I've prepared some covers to upload whilst I've been working on my album. I'll give a track listing in the next post. My next few vids are a crash test dummies request, and a rather special Youtube duet with a lady who has a wonderful voice.

This is the 2nd of 3 tunes in memory of my father who died recently. It's my version of Through the barricades, originally performed by the group Spandau ballet. If you didn't know what it was about, I'll tell you. It's about the troubles in Northern Ireland.

Check it out.

Jeffstunes sings Through the barricades

I said I was going to start telling a few tales about my father's life, and so I will. Though I only know a fraction of what went on in his life. Still it's enough to raise many eyebrows.

My Dad. Part 1

I'll begin with the basic stuff. His birthplace was a place called Hammersmith, in West London. His mum Lily was a loving and kind person, but his father sadly did not live up to that reputation. An Irish waiter by trade. If you can call it a trade. The father used to beat his mother whilst John was looking on. It's no surprise that he had deep seated dislike for him. His father wasn't around for long, and this explains the fact that his brothers and sisters have a different surname to him. As a youngster he used to get into lots of trouble. This was just a sign of what was to come in the future. Just a sign though. Some of the individuals he met in life ended up quite successful, and some of those achieved fame.

John joined the Navy at a young age. Though he only managed to hold in there for under 4 years before being dismissed. He became well known within the ranks for enjoying a scrap, and as a keen gambler, he used to organise fights with betting included. Throughout his service, and a good number of fights, he was fortunate to lose only one of them. Part way through his service, he decided to take it upon himself to leave the Navy, short of his compulsory term. Hiding with travelling gypsies, and eventually at his mothers house. This is where the M.P.s finally tracked him down. As they were talking to his mother on the doorstep, John was climbing out of the back window, but he didn't get far before they carted him back into service.

To be continued...

On another note. This is quite exciting for me. I've finally put together my first album. It's titled "Sight Or Sound". As I'm working on a shoestring budget, the album is going out on digital release only. It's been difficult doing everything myself. The performing, mixing mastering and artwork etc. It's helped with the costs though. It will be on sale in over 40 places apparently. Some of those include Itunes, Amazon and Napster. I don't want to come across as an anorak, but I was really extremely proud to have got the barcode for the album. Hooray! It now has a global product identity, and that's official :)

From what I can gather, it looks like the first availability will be in about a month. Then it will roll out to other online stores over the next couple of months. I will be updating my blog about it when it happens, and writing about any reviews etc.

Finally, it's those Youtube stats again.

The subs have climbed up to 890. Only 10 away from 900 now.

The channel viewings have passed the 20k landmark, and now stand at 20,672.

The total video views are now 343,712.

Next up is an acoustic cover. The third of my dad's favourites.