Songwriter shows his roots in 3rd album

Posted

You remember the old cliché, “The third time’s the charm?” Well, it’s still true.

When it comes to Jeremy Halliburton, a young recording artist who just completed his third album, all his records evoke their own brand of charm. With the imminent release of his latest effort, “Germantown,” the Gonzales native gives the scoop on the record over the phone from his job in the parts department of the Victoria Harley-Davidson shop — as fried catfish sizzles in the background.

Now how charming is that?

“‘Germantown’ was recorded at Beagle’s Nest Studios in New Braunfels over the course of the past year,” he says as he munches on a morsel. “Matthew Peter Briggs produced, engineered, mixed and mastered the record.”

As with his previous efforts, the tunes were written or co-written by Jeremy, and co-writing partners include his wife Kari, brother-in-law Chad Rode and Briggs. Zack Walther lent vocal abilities as well.

“Matt Briggs played almost all the instruments — guitar, percussion, mandolin, fiddle, banjitar, keyboards, bass, sax, etc.,” Jeremy says. “Outside of me changing some guitar, Zack’s playing some harmonica, and Matt’s wife is playing some percussion.”

From Jeremy’s vantage point, the “Germantown” title works on a few different levels.

“It was recorded in New Braunfels, with its rich, German heritage,” he says, spitting out a tiny fish bone. “My family’s German on my mom’s side.”

As for the songs, Jeremy says they’re just your typical, run of the mill stories of partying, more partying and the occasional homicide.

“And then we finish the album with a kids’ song,” he says with a laugh. “Makes perfect sense to me!”

Unlike its predecessors, “Germantown” is kind of a two-part album.

“The first five songs were written over the course of a month or so after I realized I had committed to doing a new album, but didn’t have enough good songs,” he says. “The last five songs were ones I still had in my sack of songs from over the years.”

As a former KCTI deejay, Jeremy has a profound appreciation for old country music, and considers the genre the main ingredient in his musical gumbo. Armed with a knack for catchy songwriting as well as a peerless, anomalous wit, Jeremy picks up where his last CD, “Good Vinyl,” left off by taking the standards set by artists like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard and fusing them with elements of rockabilly, jazz and even punk rock.

“We play ‘Brand New Cadillac’ by The Clash live,” he says. “But we kinda make it sound like Mel Tillis is playing it.”

Looking back on his desire to become a musician, Jeremy says what first set him on the path was when his father, Bobby (also known as the Greenwood Hills Devil) bought him a pellet gun when he was in third grade.

“He handed me the gun and I was like, ‘Wonderful,’ because I had always wanted one. But when I went to grab it, he pulled it back and said I’d have to take guitar lessons first. So it started from there.”

But the lessons, valuable or not, proved to be quite boring for the ambitious 9-year-old.

“At first, I hated the lessons,” he says, wincing at the memory. “My mother and I took lessons together, but I just couldn’t stand sitting through it. However, the experience laid out a foundation of sorts. But I play about as good now as I did then.”

Jeremy later learned to play the tenor saxophone in junior high, but ultimately rejected the instrument in favor of strumming his acoustic guitar.

“The sax was good for learning to read music charts, clefs and keys,” he says. “But the acoustic was just more fun, hands down. On the guitar, I learned how to play all those basic open and barre chords that are used by so many songwriters. They are the essentials, and you can’t go wrong with them.”

By the time he got to high school (GHS Class of 1992), Jeremy was trying his hand at songwriting, an endeavor many musicians don’t have the talent or desire to even attempt.

“My early material wasn’t all that outstanding,” he says modestly. “But I stuck with it, and eventually the songs started getting better.”

While in college, Halliburton shared an apartment with a childhood friend who also played guitar, and learned an important lesson from that experience.

“He told me that somebody can strive to be a virtuoso on guitar, but if they can also bang out a few chords and sing songs around a campfire, then it becomes enjoyable for everybody,” he says. “That’s when you’re entertaining an audience, and it becomes much more of a sharing thing. It’s more mutually rewarding.”

Halliburton recalls his tenure with KCTI as a deejay with a fondness akin to sitting on the porch at night with the grandparents.

“KCTI was my start,” he says. “It’s where I got my feet wet in radio. I learned a lot from Aaron Allan during my time at the station, not only about radio, but also about crafting a song. He once told me that one word can mean the difference between a song being good or being great. That’s something that will always stick with me.

“I don’t think most people realize how many amazing musicians came through the backdoor of the station to join me for my ‘Live at the Lone Star Lounge’ show,” he says. “That one aired every Wednesday night for quite a stretch of time ... Pat Green, Cory Morrow, Jack Ingram, Reckless Kelly, Bruce Robison, Kevin Fowler, The Derailers, Wayne Hancock, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Joe Ely, Chris Wall, Chip Taylor (of Wild Thing and Angel of the Morning fame), just to name a dozen. There were some truly magical evenings. I took the opportunity to soak it all in. It would come in handy down the road.”

In time, Jeremy decided to further his career in radio by venturing south — specifically —Victoria.

“I left KCTI to head to KTXN in Victoria after a programming change was made,” he says. “They went to a more Tejano format for awhile, and my Spanish just was not good. So a door opened at the Victoria station, and I walked right in.

“I spent the last seven or eight years reunited with the late (deejay) Steve Coffman in Victoria,” he says. “Steve did more for Texas music than anyone else I know. RIP, brother.”

An anecdotal example of Jeremy’s early songwriting, recording and performing forays would be his prankish tendency to call his friends’ answering machines and croon and strum along to whatever lyrics struck his fancy at the time.

“This was before Caller I.D.,” he says with a snicker. “Maybe subconsciously I was expecting my ‘audiences’ to hit star 69 and give me some kind of review. I don’t know. But maybe there are some of those early ‘demos’ circulating out there in bootleg fashion, generating some retroactive royalties.

“Since I had worked at KCTI during the ’90s, as well as KTXN much of the last decade, I spent a lot of time around recording artists and radio people,” he says. “I started seeing a good connection there with my songwriting habit.”

Where “Whiskey and Lies” was explorative of different varieties of music from doo-wop to bluegrass to gospel to honky-tonk  and “Good Vinyl” conveyed a more stripped-down, earthy personality “Germantown” ushers in an aura of reminiscence while introducing fictional characters (although still told in first person).

“‘Take A Ride’ is just a fun little ditty about back roads, girls, old trucks, and having a good time,” Jeremy says. “I still miss that ’65 Chevy. ‘24 Acres’ melds a bit of reality with fiction,” he adds. “I told Matt I wanted it to sound like a Spaghetti Western.  I think he did a great job.  I co-wrote that one with Kari.”

Saturday night, April 26, Jeremy & Co. will celebrate the forthcoming release of “Germantown” at the second oldest dance hall in Texas – Schroeder Hall. Sharing the bill will be his old friend, Jarrod Birmingham.

“I’ve decided to call our show that night a CD ‘pre-release’ party,” he says. “It’s the only place to get the CD until it hits stores Tuesday April 29. This party will be a gift to all of our fans that have supported us over the years at Schroeder Hall.”

Comments