Teddy Goldstein

Teddy Goldstein knows that being funny in song isn't just a matter of writing cute. The young New York satirist-singer is one of the sharpest comic songwriters to hit the coffeehouse circuit in years, yet pain often mingles with humor in his urban tales of neurotic love.Take the song Love Love Love, the tale of a hapless groom jilted right before he reaches the altar. The opening lyric sets us up for a sad ditty: As she stood there and said goodbye/ I thought I was gonna cry. And then comes the punchline: Instead I shocked us both a threw up.

The songwriter often mixes sentimental lovelorn lyrics with embarrassing physical realities, boyish idealism with the gross details of everyday life.Goldstein can come off like an inhabitant of the satiric, urban-wit world of "Sex in the City" or "Ally McBeal." You'd think his major influence might be Randy Newman. But Goldstein counts Jim Croce as his main man.

As a performer, Goldstein likes to live on the edge. The song, Love's Taken Me Nowhere, is a work in progress. I try not to plan what the ending is going to be. I like the feeling of being a bit uncomfortable on stage. Sometimes I scare myself and step out on a wire. Sometimes it's a disaster. And what then? 'It just bombs and I get depressed,' he said. - Boston Herald

...The singer onstage is sweating profusely and his face is flushed. The veins in his neck are standing out as blood pumps fiercely, fueling one energetic burst after another. His strum hand moves rapidly and the area around the sound hole is worn from the thousands of pick strokes whipped across the strings. Teddy Goldstein doesn't just sing; he explodes. It isn't that his songs are violent. They're filled with wry humor. It's the energy in their expression that's explosive....

...It's not hard to remember the exact moment that I realized how special Teddy Goldstein is; where my respect for his artistic expression grew and was joined by an affection for him as a person. He was singing a song of reminiscence, called "499" about the house he lived in as a youngster in Pennsylvania. I'm a sucker for a good reminiscence song. There comes a point in the lyrics where visitors are asking him how he's doing. He doesn't actually sing the response he acts it. There's an imperceptible, implied shrug as he states in the resigned, deadpan manner of a teenager still held subject to the vagaries of the rhythms of adult life around him and he responds "fine"

.... The turning point in making a musical career his goal came during one summer. He recalls: "I lived in Colorado and did nothing but play and write music. I moved out there and played mostly covers in bars. Then halfway through the summer I went to see David Wilcox play and after the concert I got to hang out with him a play a few songs with him. That was when I knew I was just going to do music. At the time I was currently getting my BFA from Boston University for acting. I went back to the Acting program in the fall and dropped out and went right down the street and went to Berklee College of Music. The only thing was that I did not know how to read music or anything like that. So I took that entire school year and studied music privately with this Boston jazz guitarist and then began Berklee that following summer." - Acoustic Live in NYC

Teddy Goldstein has such a clever spin on his word wielding that it is simply delightful to read the interplay and hear the fun he seems to have when crafting a lyric. Great images, great thought-provoking fragments. Wonderful wordwork that paint vivid pictures and answer deep questions, like in, Montana." He also has the power of gentle insight demonstrated in Could That Be Us." Goldstein also has a wild wit that is capable of creating fun girlfriend songs like ,Off-Road Automobile" A solid Album.
- Songwriter's Monthly