Ed Jurdi

Sho’Nuff, he’s back

By Gina Carbone
gcarbone@seacoastonline.com

There’s a bit of a yarn behind the title of Ed Jurdi’s new album, "Longshores Drive."

"It’s the name of the road I live on, but it kind of became a joke after awhile," Jurdi says. "I’ve been doing so much traveling and playing and stuff. There’s an expression used a lot in Gospel and Soul music like ‘Sho’Nuff’ and I just started saying "Sho’Nuff there’s a long drive to get there’ and ‘Sho is a long drive.’ I think it was a good metaphor for the music and the record in general. Most of the stuff I’ve written in the past few years as been heavily influenced by my traveling and playing all over the country."

The 27-year-old singer, songwriter and musician from Barrington plays about 200 shows a year locally and nationwide and just got back from a cross-country tour with his former band Dreadnaught.

"It’s a good test because it can be alternatingly exhilarating and frustrating," he says of traveling. "It’s always fun going and playing your songs for people who have never heard you before."

Plenty of local fans have heard him before, thanks to his shows at The Press Room, Dolphin Striker, Kennebunk Coffee House, Funky Brunches with Jim McDougall and the Funky Divas of Gospel and Writers in the Round, among others.

Then there’s his critically acclaimed first album, "Ed Jurdi," released in 1999, which set the path for his sophomore effort, "Longshores Drive" which is set to come out the second week of July.

"For me, (‘Long Shores’) is a much more personal album than the first one. It’s all based on traveling and my experiences. I really wanted to make a record that spoke in specific terms to me but spoke in general terms to people," Jurdi says. " I’m getting a little older now and there are things that I feel more comfortable talking about, like being in love. Not as being in love like you walk around and everything’s fine, but what that involves and what work you have to do being in a relationship."

Jurdi picks "Keep on Trying" as his favorite song off the new album, which highlights the style of music he has come to call Cosmic American Soul.

"I wanted to make that sound on the record, which to me is a nice cross-pollination of - to oversimplify it - white music and black music together. But more than that, definitely a blend of country roots, blues roots and soul roots."

For example, his new album features an eclectic mix of sounds like mandolins, fiddles, saxophones, pedal steel guitars, gospel choirs and a Hammond organ. The musician himself plays harmonica, guitar, banjo, keyboards, piano, organ, a little bit of bass, a little bit of drums and of course, he sings the heck out of anything.

Queen Latifah knows - she used his vocals and guitar on "Bananas Remix" from her "Order in the Court" album.

"A friend of mine was a music producer doing a lot of producing work in New York with Queen Latifah’s partner at the time," Jurdi says. "They were doing a remix of one of her songs and they wanted to mix my sound (with that of) another R&B singer that kind of had a smooth crooning sound. I was doing some more soul shouting stuff. It was cool, it was really fun. I love getting to do different stuff like that."

In his travels, Jurdi has performed with a litany of respected artists, including Willie Nelson, Richie Havens, Trey Anastasio and Dave Gerard.

For his home-based follow up album, Jurdi found himself aiming for a stripped down, acoustic sound. He spent a couple of months recording songs at home, but wasn’t happy with the results. So he, bass player Marc Hickox and drummer Rohin Khemani went into the Thomas Eaton studios in Newburyport, Mass. to work on a new sound.

"I think the foundation of the record is really organic and live sounding, and then I decided I wanted to make a studio record and really flesh things out and arrange stuff and really put a lot of nice little parts into it to give people something to listen to."

They also get to listen to a heap of guest musicians, including Jon Nolan from Say ZuZu, John Platania (Van Morrison’s guitar player on "Moondance," among others), and Jim McDougall with the Funky Divas.

Not bad for a kid from Andover, Mass. who says "I’ve been playing music before I could walk" yet graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a degree in business administration. After jobs at the Whittemore Center, in construction, painting and digging septic lines he was inspired to "get the hell out of doing that" and get into a life of music.

If he wasn’t a professional musician, what would he do?

"I think I’d have my own business in some capacity. I like doing my own thing and setting my own hours and just kind of being my own boss."

- Gina Carbone

Early start launches Jurdi on musical road
By Neil Fater


Cliff Jurdi used to listen to his son Ed play guitar as a teen-ager growing up on Liberty Street and wonder How is this possible? He doesn't practice his lessons.

But, when it comes to music, Ed Jurdi says he's rarely done things the conventional way.


Looking ahead - If dreams came true, Jurdi jokes he'd "play at Stonehenge, like in Spinal Tap."
Not that this approach has hurt his progress. The 1994 Andover High graduate just recently released his first, self-titled disk, Ed Jurdi, available at Underground Music.

Although Jurdi now lives in Exeter, N.H., some Andoverites might still remember the UNH grad as a member of the popular Andover High band Dr. Head's Rhythm and Blues Revival.

Keeping with the Ed Jurdi tradition, while Dr. Head was a cover band, it didn't exactly cover the type of tunes you'd expect from a teen band in the mid-1990s.

"We were doing a lot of old rock-and-roll and old soul stuff, which was the antithesis of what was going on," says Jurdi. "Nirvana was popular then, and Pearl Jam."

But Jurdi had grown up listening to a wide variety of American music.

"My dad had millions of records and I would listen to that," he says.

He says the music on his recently released CD was influenced by the blues of Muddy Waters, the country of Hank Williams and a host of other musicians.



On the song Wilson and Otis, Jurdi gives an appreciative nod to the soulful Pickett and Redding, and shows some versatility with his slide-guitar playing.

Jurdi says that while some who have heard his music have compared it to The Rolling Stones or The Black Crowes - and certainly there is a tinge of Chris Robinson to his singing voice - Jurdi's influences run deeper.

"Maybe because I'm younger and whiter, it negates the older influences ( in some people's minds)," he shrugs.

"I'm much more into the roots now than the branches and the leaves," he says. "If you really listen to Robert Johnson, you should only make it through four songs. It's that intense."

Jurdi is the type of guy you can sit and talk to about anyone from Van Morrison to Blind Willie Johnson - and that's one trait any musician can use.


Beginnings

Jurdi sunk his own musical roots into the Andover soil early.

Sounding a bit like he's talking about a legend, Cliff Jurdi says he remembers hearing music one day when his son was just 21/2 years old. Following the sound, Cliff came upon his toddler playing the guitar with which Cliff occasionally fiddled.

"We don't know where it came from. He was actually making chords," says Cliff.

"That's not a lie, either," says Ed, when I relay my skepticism to him. "All of my earliest memories are of music. I can remember, before I was even playing guitar, sitting there and listening to the Beatles in my parents' living room."

Jurdi says he still learns how to play certain harmonies by listening to them. Although he took some lessons when he was younger, Jurdi never leanred how to read music. Basically, he learned how to play by just fiddling with his guitar when he wasn't playing sports.

"If you learn another language at a young age, it's not really another language," he says.

"When I was younger I didn't have the discipline. When I was 11 years old, I couldn't sit for hours and practice," he says. "It was like eating your vegetables. It was a chore."

But he had fun playing the guitar and teaching himself.

Nowadays, Jurdi is having his fun by traveling around New England, hoping his grassroots fan base will really catch fire.

He'll play at Doherty Middle School Nov. 13. Those interested in more information on where he'll be playing can try www.thestonechurch.com/edjurdi.

"The grassroots is nice, because I really like being in control. About two years ago, everyone was listening to the Macarena," he says. "Fashions and trends come and go. Music is lasting.

"I almost like to create in a vacuum, without looking at what's going on around you," he says.

If Jurdi is creating in a vacuum, he's chosen a loud one, because he's tapped into the underground music community in Portsmouth N.H.

"It's all orientated around the music. We play the type of music we want to play," he says. "There really isn't a lot of pressure to be a certain style or go a certain way."

That sounds like a perfect fit for him.

A quick look at... Ed Jurdi

If he had put one cover song on his all-

original CD Ed Jurdi, it would be...

"Something like The Weight by The Band."


Jurdi on his music dream:

"I guess all people who play in rock bands want to be playing at... Stonehenge, like in Spinal Tap."


On performing live:

"Music's like a conversation to me."


On songwriting:

"I don't ever really sit down and say, 'I want to write a song today.'

"Some people write very organized. They add layer upon layer. I just throw things at the wall and see what sticks. - Neil Fater

Big, expressive and earthy, Ed Jurdi’s soulful voice propels itself into a room like a Mardi Gras parade. The 11 tracks on "Longshores Drive", Jurdi’s second release, revolve around that powerful voice to create a pleasant amalgam of uplifting, rootsy music. Jurdi fittingly describes his work as Cosmic American Soul. In terms of feel, think Van Morrison, Leon Russell and early Elton John. Heady company for a 27-year-old, but Jurdi gets in touch with a nice array of emotions without losing his focus on the notion of creating enjoyable tunes. A skilled musician, he shows his chops on guitar, piano, harmonica and banjo. Even more impressive is his ability to arrange a song for a full band that features horns and a kickass female chorus -- which Jurdi dubs the Funky Divas. On "Stop, Drop and Roll", the band gets into a groove capable of bringing down the house, while "Walking and Talking" kicks into some wondrous New Orleans funk. He airs his pipes out on the piano-heavy ballad, "Philadelphia". The songs feel real, drawn from life, with characters and stories and observations drawn from Jurdi’s discerning eye. In addition, Jurdi takes his work on the road, logging more than 250,000 miles of travel and 600 shows over the past three years, according to the CD’s liner notes. In the process, Jurdi has created his own distinctive sound, a high accomplishment indeed. © Fred Kraus

- Minor 7th Magazine

"BEST CD FROM A LOCAL ARTIST YOU HAVEN'T HEARD OF BUT SHOULD"
Ed Jurdi
Longshores Drive
Red Fez Records

The Portsmouth mainstay has gathered some of the most talented local artists together for "Longshores Drive," a casual, joyous album about musical wandering. Jurdi channels Van Morrison, both in sound and spirit, in such numbers as the rollicking "Walking and Talking" and the gorgeous piano ballad "Catch Me If You Can." Steeped in the grassroots tradition, "Longshores Drives" feels almost out of time, like Jurdi just stepped in off the road and started singing - Hippopress Manchester, NH

Also dropping in impressive fashion this week is Ed Jurdi’s Longshores Drive (September 19, at the Barley Pub), his second full-length, which finds him with much shorter hair, but much grander ambitions. This is his first record on Red Fez, and it seems that some of the production quality evidenced by the Dreadnaught boys has rubbed off on him. This package is really impressive, particularly Jurdi’s ability to weave disparate elements, from gospel choruses to harmonica and banjo licks, to good old swampy blues.

" Bumblebee " has the makings of a great live number, if he could assemble all the folks that contributed here. With a repeated chorus of " I’ll be the sugar in your black coffee, I’ll be the bumblebee buzzing around, " it’s a simple, full, warm song. Much like James Taylor’s only really great album — his first, self-titled work originally released on Apple Records (the Beatles’ now-defunct imprint) — Jurdi seems to sense here and everywhere on the disc that he just couldn’t get the sound he wanted all by himself as a standard singer/songwriter. For his part, Taylor enlisted a couple of guys, Joel O’Brien and Danny Kortchmar, who would later become his Original Flying Machine, and a bassist kicking around by the name of Paul McCartney, and three or four other keyboardists and vocalists, and released this very same kind of warm, inviting, raucous sort of album. Then he put out a bunch of touchy-feely junk.

Jurdi, here, has gathered the Funky Divas (who are top-notch throughout in filling out the album’s sound), Jon Nolan, Jim MacDougall (great piano on " Catch Me if You Can " ), Tom Yoder, Mark Erelli, and the constantly solid Marc Kickox on bass and Rohin Khemani on drums. This allows him to explore his themes of wanderlust and America’s wide-open spaces and alternately sound like Sam Cook ( " Keep on Trying " ), and the anti-Steely Dan ( " Walking and Talking " ).

If Jurdi can continue to travel from " Philadelphia " to " Kansas City " in this fashion, he’s going to find himself very successful.

- Sam Pfeifle