The singer and songwriter called
Valentine has released the second of two new seasonal singles,
“Christmas Eve.” The song has been released concurrently with his
first single, “Snowflakes.” Like all material from Valentine,
these singles have been proudly published entirely without financial
or managerial support from the corporate music industry. Traditional
yet unique, altogether catchy, friendly and familial, “Christmas
Eve” by Valentine presents the sounds of the holidays in a way that
truly deserves its name.
Valentine, whose music style cannot be
expressed in terms of artistic influences or similarities, has called
his sound “pop country jazz,” without special emphasis on any one
of the genres. While his recent debut single, “Snowflakes,”
sounds decidedly pop and country at once, “Christmas Eve” leans
slightly more toward the country and traditional Christmas and
country genres.
Both songs showcase Valentine's
unlikely skill for blending sonic traits into new amalgams never
before heard. This talent is largely how jazz figures into his highly
creative mode of music making, the results of which are pleasantly
original and warmly inviting.
“I wrote 'christmas eve' in memory of
the farm I grew up on a few miles from the Blue Ridge Mountains and
the Shenandoah River,” Valentine relates.
He writes his song titles in lowercase
out of humility to “the big storyteller and designer.” He goes on
to explain, “This is where the world's first bluegrass festival
took place. It's called Watermelon Park and it's right on the river.
The story goes that Bill Monroe started the bluegrass genre
and then Flatt and Scruggs left
Monroe's band and popularized the genre, starting with the Watermelon
Park Bluegrass Festival.”
In the same tradition, Valentine seeks
to begin his country jazz category of music in earnest.
“Bob Marley popularized Jimmy Cliff's
new reggae genre around the time we were going to Watermelon Park, so
my starting the 'COUNTRY JAZZ' genre is almost normal to me … I
only hope that I am the one to popularize my genre, and not someone
else. Hence, [I've written] a 40-song library with 30 pure
country-jazz songs and 10 others that bleed into other genres like
country rock, country radio and Americana ballads and homages to
western two-step, rockabilly and bluegrass. They're all intended to
illustrate how the pure country jazz is indeed a new genre. Country
jazz is the natural outgrowth of the time and place and music of my
youth.”
Also very much of note are Valentine's
production principles, which throw out many contemporary habits and
standards in favor of older methods which help him achieve his
characteristic tone. This tone is natural and raw, without falling
into what is popularly called “lo-fi” music. Joining the minority
of true audiophiles, Valentine has returned to analog recording, and
in addition has ditched digital reflexes such as gating and limiting
the wavelengths of entire tracks.
Commenting on his studio process,
Valentine writes, “The process of 'limiting' reduces musicality and
dynamics, so I refrain from it. I also tune A to 432Hz to resonate
healthfully in prime numbers like nature, as opposed to the
exaggerated 440Hz originally implemented to give classical music more
'pop.'”
Valentine's current official bio
describes him as “a philosopher philanthropist who has dedicated
his life to solving the socioeconomic problems of our day. In his
spare time he has written-produced-directed three motion pictures and
recorded a library of 40 songs in Nashville, as well as a 50-song
Broadway library.
“In order to attract attention to his
vision for solving our problems, 10 of his songs are political and
have accompanying music videos soon available on iTunes, YouTube and
TheValentineAmendments.com, a site dedicated to Valentine's
amendments to the US Constitution with video explanations filmed in
Nashville in front of the life-sized replica of the Greek Parthenon,
birthplace of democracy.”
Additionally, Valentine's site for
commercial music may be found at ValentineSongs.com.
“Christmas Eve” by Valentine is
available online worldwide. Be sure to also hear his debut
pop-country-jazz single, “Snowflakes,” also available everywhere
from the Web.
-S. McCauley
Lead Press Release Writer
www.MondoTunes.com
“Christmas Eve” by Valentine –
Website -
http://valentinesongs.com/
(currently under construction)
