JEREMY

— First review of this album —

Also released in 2018, here we have yet another virtually solo (there is an external drummer on one track) album from Jeremy Morris, and no prizes for guessing which season this is referencing. Totally instrumental, 12 of the 20 songs are new compositions from Jeremy while the other 8 are traditional but they contain additional passages composed by Jeremy, which means that while they may seem familiar at first hearing, they are also somewhat different to what we may be used to. Take "Come All Ye Faithful" for example, this has been multi-layered with dulcimers and mandolins so there is an underlying drone and a freshness over the top, but it also moves in areas far from the original while continuing to make sense and staying true to the melodies of the original composer.

While that may seem very much in keeping with a traditional Christmas number, he has allowed himself way more latitude with "Canon in D", as while it may start as one may expect he turns it into a blasting pop rock number which probably has Johann Pachelbel spinning in his grave, as the guitar runs and feedback as Jeremy shreds is a long way from the relaxing number we all know and love (personally I prefer this one). What makes this album work so very well is the incredibly diverse number of styles being displayed within. Jeremy is such a prolific artist that he tends to keep his albums to a single style, as there will be another along in a minute (he still releases five albums a year on average), but here he moves from pop rock to folk, blues-style acoustic and so much more. "Chilly Willy" is simplicity personified with an acoustic guitar and not much else, yet one immediately gets the feel of being out on the plains with a cowboy.

Due to the way he has adjusted the more well-known numbers to make them very much his and interspersed his own compositions throughout we have a very balanced album indeed which is a joy to listen to.

— First review of this album —

Jeremy Morris and I have been friends for the best part of thirty years, during which time I have reviewed many of his releases as a solo artist, with other musicians and in bands in multiple different styles, which meant I always sort of knew what to expect from a new Jeremy release, but this shows just how wrong I was. Jeremy is a multi- instrumentalist, although generally he is happiest on guitar, but some of his albums are full progressive workouts while some of his spiritual albums rely heavily on piano, but this is the first time I have come across one of his releases where he uses a dulcimer first and foremost. If that were not enough, he actually uses both hammer dulcimer and mountain dulcimer as the lead instruments on this album, which in many ways is the closest to Mike Oldfield I have come across from his extensive canon.

There is one other musician on this 2018 release, but he only adds a few bits and pieces on one song on this mostly instrumental album where Jeremy accompanies the dulcimers with guitars, grand piano, Mellotron, synthesiser, E- bow, mandolin, bass, drums, loops and the occasional vocals. I normally associate dulcimers with folk music, but what Jeremy is doing here is bringing them more into a laid-back progressive style ? providing plenty of layers but always ensuring they are front and centre. It is a relaxing album, one where the listener does not need to do any work but can just drift away on the sounds and in many ways appears to have come here fully formed from the mid-Seventies as opposed to something which is only five years old. This clearly demonstrates that all these years down the road Jeremy is still pushing himself in new directions and us as listeners can only be grateful for that. It will certainly be interesting to see if we get another in the same musical direction as this.

— First review of this album —

Here we have the third release by The Jeremy Band, featuring multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Morris along with drummer Dave Dietrich and bassist Todd Borsch, who apparently passed away just as this album was released. Lyrically this is very much a worship album, but the twelve songs are all wrapped up in wonderful power pop psychedelia, while Jeremy himself says it is an amalgam of The Byrds, The Beatles, Big Star, The Who, and Teenage Fanclub. It certainly does not at all sound as if it was released in 2018 but takes us on a journey back 50 years to a far simpler time. It is packed full of hooks, while any album which includes the use of a Mellotron is always likely to find favour with me.

Jeremy has always had a major work ethic, never content with releasing an album every twelve months, and generally has multiple on the go at the same time, but do not fall into the trap of thinking that just because he releases a lot of material there is no quality control as this album is a delight from beginning to end. There is a freshness and light touch to the production, and it never feels as if this is a studio concoction in that there is a rhythm section and then masses of instruments and vocals coming from one man (who also provides bass and drums just because he can), and it is obvious this band was so Jeremy could get out there and the play, just like he has been doing since his teenage years. For anyone who enjoys his work then this is an absolute delight, consistent and coherent, and if you have yet to come across him then this is a great place to start.

— First review of this album —

When I returned home recently, I was surprised to receive an envelope containing a large number of discs from my old friend Jeremy Morris, so many that I knew I would never be able to do them all justice if I reviewed them all at once, so have spread them across my reviewing lists, two at a time, in the sequence they were released. This means the first one on my player is 2017's 'Invitation'. However, this is actually a reissue of a cassette which was released in 1993 and I originally reviewed just four years later. But even then, the date is wrong, as what we have here is a collection of demos and material recorded by Jeremy when his father first purchased a 4-track tape recorder in the mid Seventies, and all of these date between 1975 and 1979. Looking at my review from 1997 I see I said that Jeremy was doing himself something of an injustice by saying this was for collectors only, and all these years later I do feel the same way.

Anyone who has followed his career knows that Jeremy is a musical magpie who is never content staying in just one genre, and while he has released progressive rock albums, he has also released plenty of pop, psychedelia and Worship albums, and some may heavily feature keyboards, others acoustic 12-string, or yet more being rock based. Even as a teenager he is demonstrating much of what was to come, and it certainly does not sound as if these were recorded mostly in his bedroom, with plenty of vocal harmonies and multi-tracking. There is even a live recording, from his High School talent show, and while he did not win the person who finished second that night tried to give Jeremy her trophy as she felt he was far more worthy. They married three years later.

I have no idea how many albums Jeremy Morris has been involved with, but I do remember years ago a special reissue of one to celebrate his fiftieth, so it would not surprise me if he were now reaching towards 100, but it all started with a teenager recording songs in his bedroom. Often Beatle-esque, and also with a heavy focus on psychedelia and pop, this is a fresh and enjoyable album which is worth discovering for its own right, not just for the rarity of the material it includes.

In many ways it is somewhat surprising that it took until 2015 for Jeremy to release a Christmas album, as at my last check he has released more than fifty albums in one musical form or another, and given that he is also a church minister it does make a sense to bring the two things together. Anyway, here it is, and regarding musical stylings this finds very much in the area of power pop as opposed to his progtastic releases. I found one review that likened his influences to The Beatles, The Byrds, Big Star, Pink Floyd, The Hollies, The Kinks, Teenage Fanclub and another that pointed to the Undertones and Phil Seymour, but while bits of all these bands do make sense, there is no single band that can be heard to be prevalent above the others.

This is psychedelic power pop that is taking everything that came out from 1967 ' 1970 and melding it together in a fashion that is both enjoyable and fun, and that makes for instantly accessible music. Some of the songs are more evangelical than others, but the one thing they jave in common is that they don't really sound like any other Christmas song you;ve come across before. My favourite, though, just has to be 'Here Comes Christmas' which use the Batman theme to great effect. It just has to be heard to be believed. Overall, yet another fine release from Jeremy Morris.

Before I started writing the review I thought I'd get the CD down from the shelf, so started looking through my collection of Jeremy CD's and it took a while to find it. A short count later and I realised that I have thirty of his albums on CD, plus another four from the days when he was releasing albums on cassette, and I don't actually have everything he's done by a long way! The album starts as if it is one of his power pop albums, with a more evangelical nature, but the lengthy 'Clouds Are Lifting' soon turns into something quite different, as mandolins are riffed and dramtically change the feel of the whole piece and then we are into delicate piano and the realisation that this is an album that is looking back to his classic 'Pilgrim's Journey' in many ways, as it is refusing to conform into any particuar style.

There are a few guest musicians helping out here and there, but for the most part this is Jeremy doing everything himself. The rhythm section of Dave Dietrich and Todd Borsch may only be involved on a couple of numbers, but they have dramatic input into 'I Am The Eye' which is driving rock number, again with many influences and stylistic switches and changes. There are strong hints of The Beatles in particular, moved and pulled in many different directions and styles.

There is a refusal to conform, so that the listener never really know what to expect or what is coming next, although this is never harsh or grating. The jangly Byrds-style guitar at the beginning of the title song leads into a pop melody that in turn is twisted into something that could have come out of Sgt. Pepper. Jeremy has really puished himself with this album, and it feels his most complete work for some time. This will appeal to those who enjoy both his progressive rock and power ppop works as here is stretches both and delivers them in a manner that is always enjoyable and entertaining. This is refreshing and uplifiting album which is well worth hearing.

In 1996 Jeremy Morris re-released his guitar-oriented album ''Invisible'' on CD, after having pressed it on cassette in 1990, and the following year he returns with a second album on Kinesis, ''Celestial city''.This time he was helped by Mark Morris on drums, synths and piano, the rest of the instrumental armour was handled by Jeremy himself.

From the dreamy, fairytale cover of ''Pilgrim's journey'' we come to this one, which is much more spacey, additionally the keyboard duties of Mark Morris showcase a slight stylistical turn by Jeremy on this album.It's again another all instrumental work, but this time refered as balanced ''between TANGERINE DREAM and CAMEL''.I definitely confirm this statement.''Celestial city'' is the perfect title for a work full of orchestral electronics and multi-layered, cosmic synthesizers, that won't travel alone, they are always accompanied by Jeremy Morris' soft and emotional touch on guitar and the marching drums of Mark.The result is somewhere between EM and Neo Prog with certain retro vibes, PINK FLOYD are another group to spring to mind listening to this album.Beautiful compositions, rather lacking flexibility, but offering lots of amazing electronic backdrops, well-arranged synthetic soundscapes and brilliant guitar tones in the vein of Andy Latimer, David Gilmour and Steve Hackett, quite often having a slight Neo-Classical aura.This one sounds even pretty cosmic and fairly cinematic at moments, maybe even more compared to Jeremey's previous albums and, while being more of a trippy experience into atmospheric soundscapes, more bombastic passages are not absent either.

Great composer this Jeremy Morris.A sufficient mix of electronic and spacey textures with more classic, progressive sounds.Cathartic music, warmly recommended.

US artist JEREMY has released albums as Jeremy and Jeremy Morris since the early 1980's, and has a back catalog so extensive that it dwarfs the output of artists with a much longer pedigree with his more than 50 studio productions. "Journey to the Center of the Heart" belongs somewhere in the final quarter of that history, and was released in 2009 through Jeremy's own label JAM Recordings.

Jeremy Morris has explored a great number of different types of music on his more than 50 full length albums so far, and in the case of "Journey to the Center of the Heart" it's the type of music generally classified as power pop that is at the heart of the proceedings. Energetic, short songs that reference 60's and 70's bands such as The Beatles, The Who and ELO fairly often, with psychedelic guitar soloing and clever use of keyboards and Mellotron as recurring elements flavoring the songs. A well made album of its kind, and one well worth acquiring if you tend to enjoy music of this kind.

US artist JEREMY has released albums as Jeremy and Jeremy Morris since the early 80's, and has a back catalog so extensive that it dwarfs the output of artists with a much longer pedigree, and one that tends to hold a consistently high quality at that. "Kingdom Come" dates back to 2002, and was released through Jeremy's own label JAM Records.

Instrumental landscapes of an ambient nature is what Jeremy's 2002 album "Kingdom Come" is all about, with references to artists such as Gandalf and to some extent Tangerine Dream for the most electronic dominated parts of the contents, but where the greater majority of the landscapes explored contain acoustic or psychedelic elements that in sum makes this production one not directly comparable to those fairly well known providers of ambient and electronic landscapes respectively. Sophisticated ambient music with psychedelic and pastoral elements is probably the best way for me to summarize my impressions about this CD, especially if the word sophisticated is used in this context as well. And if that sounds like compelling music for you, I suspect you'll find much to enjoy on this disc.

The prolific trip of Jeremy Morris through the music world continues in 1994, when he released the album ''Faithful and true'', a so-called tribute to the sound of The Byrds, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and other Psych/Pop idols of the 60's.He returns to his progressive influences the following year.Morris signs a deal with the US label Kinesis and releases the album ''Pilgrim's journey'', only helped by drummer Dave Dietrich.

Jeremy's sound developed into a dreamy and atmospheric Neo/Symphonic Prog in this album, where his true love for the works of STEVE HACKETT, ANTHONY PHILLIPS, MIKE OLDFIELD and the exceptional style of GENESIS come in evidence.An endless source of inspiration and creation, Jeremy displays here 74 minutes of all instrumental, melodious music with stronger symphonic tendencies compared to ''Dreams come true'', maybe close to the sound of CHANCE, TEMPUS FUGIT and THE FOUNDATION, containing lots of synthesizers and crying guitar solos, downtempo ethereal soundscapes and some lovely contrasts between acoustic and electric explorations.Links with the British Prog sound of the 80's are also more than evident, while the album obtains offer a tendency towards Electronic Music during the grandiose, synth-drenched movements.No matter the length of the track, the music is well-composed, very emotional, sometimes changing from dramatic themes with the guitar in the forefront to more romantic stylings with ambiental keyboards.Of course the most risky bet here is the closing 25-min. title-track, which comes close to the sound of KEN BAIRD, a great combination of sound effects, symphonic Electronic Music and atmospheric guitar textures in the vein of MIKE OLDFIELD and STEVE HACKETT.

Jeremy is a dedicated fan of Classic Prog and ''Pilgrym's journey'' is the strongest proof.Nice product of instrumental, very melodic and cinematic Progressive Rock with symphonic flourishes.Warmly recommended.