Jay Nash 'Things You Think You Need' album

Singer-songwriter Jay Nash, whose latest album, 'The Things You Think You Need', is now available on iTunes, returns to his roots in upstate New York at the annual Rock For The River event he founded. Nash has invited many other spirited performers to join him, including Chris Pierce, Eliza Moore, Joe Purdy, Amber Rubarth, Chris Seefried, Garrison Starr, Joey Ryan, Meiko and Monica Behan and Deron Johnson.

The 5th annual Rock For The River event to benefit conservation of the Upper St. Lawrence River, in association with the Save The River organization (a Riverkeeper advocacy group), will happen this July 4th and 5th at historic performing arts center The Clayton Opera House in Clayton, NY, on the St. Lawrence River about 80 miles north of Syracuse.

Nash promotes sustainable living by example. One thousand advance copies of his latest album, 'The Things You Think You Need', were released as special limited edition green versions in recycled, undyed cardboard sleeves. The album's initial release was digital, the most eco-friendly format, and reached an impressive #22 on the iTunes chart on its first day, the only true independent release in the top 25 that week.

Nash, who once studied environmental engineering, said, "It's great that after five years, Rock For The River is expanding into a multi-day event with more and more artists participating. I didn't have to work hard to get everyone to rally around this cause...we all believe music can help raise awareness and act as a catalyst for change."

The St. Lawrence River is #4 on American Rivers' 2008 "Most Endangered Rivers" list. If Jay Nash has his way, that could change soon.

biography
Jay Nash's defining musical moment came at age12, after hearing a 90-minute Maxell tape with the 1971 Grateful Dead Live album on one side and Cat Stevens’ Greatest Hits on the other. To steal a line: What a long, strange trip it's been – and it's brought him where he is today.

Jay grew up in the small town of Manlius, outside Syracuse in upstate New York, spending his summers in the idyllic Thousand Islands region on the St. Lawrence River near the U.S.-Canadian border. Listening to that double-sided Grateful Dead/Cat Stevens cassette “shook something loose in me. I felt a connection to something I’d never felt before.”

Picking up the guitar, he eventually discovered Dylan (“I was blown away by his imagery, his use of metaphor and allusion… It actually scared me away from even trying to write songs”), then discovered his talent singing the high parts with a friend on Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son” at a school talent show before an audience of 1,500.

“There was something kind of magical and amazing about it,” he says of the experience performing live. “It wasn’t about me, but having all these people in the same place feeling the same thing… forgetting about everything else for that moment.”

Attending SUNY Binghamton and then University of Vermont, Nash played in a variety of bands, then as a solo act around the ski lodges of Vermont, working packed audiences into a frenzy with medleys that went from “Tennessee Jed” into “Johnny B. Goode,” “Feeling Alright” and “Tangled Up In Blue.”

After graduation, Nash got into his Honda Civic and drove to New York City, where he began to write songs in earnest, recording a six-song EP, playing some live gigs and experiencing “lots of silly adventures born of naiveté and youthful stupidity.”

By 2001, he had moved to Los Angeles, where he began to pursue a musical career in earnest. He established a residency at Bar F2, which eventually became Room 5, an intimate venue located above an Italian restaurant on LaBrea Avenue, where he went on to not only play, but also book such soon-to-be major label artists as Colbie Caillat, Sara Bareilles, OneRepublic and Tyrone Wells, then began a touring schedule that included up to 200 dates a year.

Along the way, Nash developed a following, putting out a series of indie releases on his own, including 'Open Late ('2002), the full-length effort he started three days before 9/11 and ended up selling 2,000 copies through gigs and CD Baby; 'Nine', a 2004 compilation of demos; the autobiographical A Stream 'Up North', one of two companion albums he recorded in Thousand Islands with Joe Purdy; 'The North LaBrea All-Star Conquistadors,' a CD inspired by the celebrated weekly Monday night shows at Room 5 that also included fellow singer-songwriters Garrison Starr and Gabriel Mann; and his most recent release, 'Some Kind of Comfort'. When the shows at Room 5 started attracting media interest and more crowds, Nash moved over to the larger Hotel Café, which spawned its own musical community.

His upcoming release, 'The Things You Think You Need', is the latest chapter in Jay Nash’s ongoing saga, but in reality, it’s the start of the story, not the end. The album, produced by Chris Seefried and recorded at Phantom Vox Studios in Hollywood, CA during October and November of 2007, shows a vastly more mature side to Jay Nash, both sonically and lyrically. All of Jay’s influences are apparent on the album, from the Springsteen-like “Hard Lesson” to the mellow James Taylor/Dylan and the Band vibe of “Sweet Talkin’ Liar,” from the Cat Stevens-inspired narrative of “Wayfarer” to the “Tangled Up In Blue” storytelling of “Over You,” the Jackson Browne politics, spaghetti western guitar and huge drum sound of “All the Same,” the Wilco-reminiscent fusion of “Keep on Talkin’,” the country-rock anthem “Easy” and the Americana music hall honky-tonk of “Forgive Me.” Nash’s vocal style is comfortable and familiar, but polished and all his own, like a new pair of shoes that fit just right.

The album includes guest appearances by some of Nash's close musical friends, including Epic recording artist Sara Bareilles (on "Barcelona") and David Immergluck and Charlie Gillingham from the Counting Crows. 'The Things You Think You Need 'will be released digitally on May 20, 2008.

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Jay Nash - Things You Think You Need