Jesse Harms - All Sides

[Stefan]

 

Press release from MelodicRock Classics:

Coming soon to: http://www.melodicrockclassics.com

Jesse Harms is an American musician, songwriter and singer, who has spent a lifetime writing and recording songs as well as playing live with some of rock’s biggest names. Born in Massachusetts and raised in Berkeley, California, Jesse began playing the piano at 8 years old and studied classical music until he was 15. His first band Rags featured a young Pat Thrall and Kelly Keagy (Night Ranger).

Following that, with Pat Thrall's help, Jesse met Alphonso Johnson (Weather Report) who was trying to form a progressive rock band for Electra/Asylum Records. After moving to L.A. Jesse spent the next year writing songs with Alphonso, forming a band that included Vinnie Appice (Dio, Black Sabbath) and Joe Turano (Michael Bolton) and making a record for Electra/Asylum which the label then dropped before its release. A stint recording and touring with John Hiatt followed, before joining Pat Thrall again for the Hughes/Thrall album tour, playing arenas as the opening act for Santana. But that album also had poor sales and was dissolved.

Shortly after that tour, producer Keith Olsen called Jesse to do some additional recording on a single from ‘Three Lock Box’ an album he had made for Sammy Hagar. Sammy had been hiring a studio keyboard player and a studio backup singer to make his last two records and he had nobody in his band to reproduce the parts on tour, so in late 1982 Jesse joined his band.

From there Jesse co-wrote, recorded and toured with Sammy through to and including his ultra-successful ‘VOA’ album, reuniting again for ‘I Never said Goodbye’ CD with Eddie Van Halen on bass. The album included one of Jesse's songs ‘Back Into You’.

During that time Jesse got a call from Ted Templeman again to work on David Lee Roth's platinum ‘Eat 'Em and Smile’ album. Jesse turned down Roth's offer to join his band in order to work on his own songwriting. Most of 1986 was spent trying to form his own band under the guidance of John Kolodner at Geffen Records.

In 1988 one of Jesse's songs, ‘Walk On Water’ was recorded by Eddie Money and went on to reach #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was a number one Rock track as well as a number one MTV video. That lead to Jesse touring with Money which lead directly to time writing songs with Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon). At the time REO was inactive but with the support of management the band was reformed. Jesse's friend Dave Amato (Ted Nugent, Cher) was added on guitar and Brian Hitt (Wang Chung) on drums. The subsequent album ‘The Earth, A Small Man, His Dog And A Chicken’, was co-produced by Jesse and included ‘Live It Up’, which reached #6 on the Rock Chart and 5 more of his songs.

During 1990 Jesse also wrote a song with Sammy Hagar, ‘Fallen From Grace’ that appeared on Heart's Double Platinum CD ‘Brigade’. Jesse left REO in 1991 to get married and focus on Songwriting for MCA Music. 1991 through 1995 were spent in L.A. as a staff writer producing songs that appeared on CD's by Patty Smyth (Gold Record), Bad English (European #1), MSG, and Johnny Van Zandt etc.

In 1996 Jesse co-wrote a song (Both Sides Now) with Sammy Hagar, which brought them back together. In 1997 Jesse worked on Sammy's ‘Marching To Mars’ CD playing keyboards and co-writing on that and the three additional studio albums that followed as well as touring constantly with the Waboritas.

More recently, Jesse produced and wrote with acclaimed blues artist Guitar Shorty on two albums, the latter of which won the Handy Blues Award.

In 2005 Jesse purchased a Marin Music Center in Novato, California which he operated until he sold it in 2019.

Jesse compiled 11 of his songs onto his one and only solo record ‘Best Of What I Got’, which was released independently in 2004.

Jesse continues to write and record new music and a couple of new songs are included as part of his career spanning box set ‘All Sides’.

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Stefan

[Stefan]

New song 'Fallen From Grace' feat. Sammy Hagar.

 

 

[Stefan]

From MelodicRock Classics:

MelodicRock Classics is thrilled to partner with an artist the label has respected and admired for years, for a career spanning box set of his songwriting demos.

Jesse Harms and MRC label owner Andrew McNeice have been working together for several months to go back through Jesse’s songwriting archives in order to present the very best of his songs in a 6CD box set, featuring some of the earliest writing demos Jesse recorded in 1986, right through to a brand-new track called ‘A Good Place To Start’.

The result is “All Sides”, a deep dive into the writing career of Harms, including 3 discs of material featuring his own lead vocals, plus 3 discs of collaborative work with an array of well-known voices such as Sammy Hagar, Robin McAuley, Kevin Cronin, Patty Smyth, John Waite, Tommy Funderburk, Don Barnes, Danny Tate, Richard Black, Johnny Van Zant, Adrian Gurvitz, Kee Marcello and more.

The “All Sides” Box Set will be released July 29, with pre-sales commencing shortly and an advance sampler of the 90+ songs available with those pre-orders.

Limited Edition of 500 units worldwide; Priced at $99 (including worldwide shipping)

 

 

[Stefan]

New song 'A Good Place To Start'.