{"id":3608,"date":"2011-08-22T00:54:51","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T07:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3608"},"modified":"2011-08-22T00:54:51","modified_gmt":"2011-08-22T07:54:51","slug":"garland-jeffreys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/garland-jeffreys\/","title":{"rendered":"GARLAND JEFFREYS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

GARLAND JEFFREYS<\/h1>\n

After an inspirational break to raise his daughter, <\/strong>it\u2019s time to get wild again<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Garland Jeffreys is a New York City man through and through. Born in Brooklyn, he first made his name on the city\u2019s thriving folk scene in the mid-1960s. He fell in with fellow Syracuse University student Lou Reed, and before long found himself in the studio playing guitar on Vintage Violence<\/em>, the 1969 debut solo album by Reed\u2019s Velvet Underground bandmate John Cale (and contributing a song, \u201cFairweather Friend\u201d). After making an album with his Woodstock-based band Grinder\u2019s Switch, he kicked off a solo career that found him returning often to the Big Apple for inspiration.<\/p>\n

Now 67, Jeffreys is still seeing the world through a New Yorker\u2019s lens on his latest, The King of In Between<\/em>. \u201cEverybody needs a handle, and I think that\u2019s definitely been the case with my songs to a degree,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s not as simple as that. New York is only a metaphor\u2014the content reverberates way beyond New York.\u00a0It\u2019s about what\u2019s going on in this country, people suffering, the difficulty of\u00a0making a living.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffreys has seen his share of struggles. Stardom seemed imminent when his self-titled 1973 album earned critical buzz and a contemporaneous single, \u201cWild in the Streets,\u201d became a radio hit. But as the \u201970s turned into the \u201980s and he was shuffled from one major label to another, the expected commercial breakthrough never materialized. \u201cThere have been disappointments,\u201d he concedes. \u201cRecord companies aren\u2019t concerned with what\u2019s thoughtful or artful. They don\u2019t think in terms of quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frustrated with his lack of traction, Jeffreys didn\u2019t release new music for nearly nine years. Upon his 1992 return with Don\u2019t Call Me Buckwheat<\/em>, he discovered that \u201cWild in the Streets\u201d had become something of an anthem for the burgeoning skateboarding community. After a few years of increased visibility, he disappeared yet again\u2014this time for a very different reason. \u201cIt had to do with my daughter being born,\u201d Jeffreys says. \u201cI never had a child before, and wanted to be around for her. I learned how to be a parent. If I didn\u2019t stay home for that period of time, it wouldn\u2019t necessarily be disastrous, but it wouldn\u2019t be what I would expect to give to my kid. I was there, and she benefited from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now teenage Savannah Jeffreys is writing and singing songs of her own, and her father is back in business. \u201cIt\u2019s been centuries,\u201d he jokes. \u201cBut making this new album was just a heavenly experience.\u201d Most of The King of In Between<\/em> was recorded live, complete with the vocals, with only minimal overdubs added. In addition to his beloved New York City and other subjects, the album finds Jeffreys pondering a topic fairly new to his songwriting: mortality. \u201cIt\u2019s not that I was suddenly looking for it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s simply a fact. If I was still 50 I probably wouldn\u2019t be that focused on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given his prior experiences with record labels, it should come as no surprise that Jeffreys has chosen to release his newest effort independently. \u201cI\u2019m making decisions now without interference,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was no screening for the record company. We\u2019re putting the creativity out directly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GARLAND JEFFREYS After an inspirational break to raise his daughter, it\u2019s time to get wild again Garland Jeffreys is a New York City man through and through. Born in Brooklyn, he first made his name on the city\u2019s thriving folk scene in the mid-1960s. He fell in with fellow Syracuse University student Lou Reed, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[2481,1636,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3610,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3608\/revisions\/3610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}