Jade Like The Stone sings ‘Heavy’ bringing us rockier vibes

On Wednesday we released one of two songs we recorded with the vocalist Jade Like The Stone. This track broadens our musical spectrum as it straddles ‘Blues’, ‘Rock’ and ‘Psychedelic Rock’. Always tough to press music in narrow style descriptions but you’ll get the picture listening to it. At times it totally reminds me of Jefferson Airplane and tunes like their ‘White Rabbit’…

Jade is a very interesting artist – not only a brilliant singer but also a singer-songwriter and poet with her own unique vibe – with a unique history.  Learn more about her here.

The beginning of the day had an ominous start when at 5:21am I received an email from the guitarist who in distressed state let me know that he had to go to hospital because he was in terrible pain. To preempt the story somewhat – he is a lot better now and we hope to have him for another Masterlink Session soon.

Going back to the day of the session, obviously not a good start to the morning. Hours of calls, emails, texts and whatnot ensued to find another guitarist to come in last minute and deliver an ace performance without knowing the songs. Not the easiest task in the world.

However, probably 15 minutes before I had to leave my house, at 9:30 I found someone willing and very capable to do it.  Adam Goldsmith who I booked for parts of the Backwood Five EP ‘Joe’s Garage’ came to rescue and did so with aplomb. If I wouldn’t share this info your probably would never know and listening to his solo on the above video, even less so.

Also, small detail, to give you a little insight in the activities that are going on before each Masterlink Session, the Hammond organist we’ve originally booked for the session cancelled about a week before. In comparison to the guitar chair situation this seems like a minor affair, however, to find Hammond organ players is very difficult – there are simply not that many around – and playing the Hammond is not like playing the piano or keyboards like the Rhodes AT ALL. However, Anders Olinder agreed to come in all the way from Bristol and, like Adam, saved the whole day!

We hope you are going to enjoy ‘Heavy’ an original song written by Jade and writing partner Richard Lee and you will not mind us straddling into new territory and introducing a harder edged, rockier flavor to our offering. I, for one, had a fabulous time and absolutely love this track and performance – it was great to arrange it too.

As always, we are super grateful for your continued support and we frequently use your funds to buy the lunch for the Masterlink Sessions. I can guarantee you that so far not one crumb of food or drink (water) has been left over – so again, much appreciated.

If you enjoy what we do, please spread the word – James and would love to up the ante and start paying bits of petrol for the boys and girls to come out to leafy Surrey to do those sessions – at the moment – on the whole – people having fun and believe in the project – that’s why they are volunteering their substantial skills and time…and we all know…time is not limitless.

Thank you all and until next time. Carpe funkem, Stefan

From left to right: Adam Goldsmith, Leo Mansell, Anders Olinder, Jade Like The Stone, James Welch, Karl Vanden Bossche, Stefan Redtenbacher, Mike Sturgis