LUNCH RECORDS and STREAMS

I am Jedediah Parish. I am a pop songwriter who appreciates music's grand history, especially American music of the Twentieth Century. 

I have recorded a new CD called 21st Century American, I have a new trio aptly named Jedediah Parish and the Mother Tongues, and when I perform I play guitar and sing-though on the new CD I sang and played everything (organ, drums, shovel, etc).

For the past 15 years I've been the singer, organ player and songwriter for a great hard pop band; The Gravel Pit. Loved by critics and fans alike, we've released four CDs: Crash Land produced by Jim Dickinson (Replacements, Big Star); The Gravel Pit Manifesto, Silver Gorilla produced by Mike Denneen (Aimee Mann) and Mass Avenue Freeze-Out with producer Scott Reibling.

During the 90s The Gravel Pit played over 500 shows across the country, either on their own or touring with groups like They Might Be Giants, Morphine, Luna or Superdrag, In 1999 the band came off the road, starting playing solo shows and subsequently released my first solo CD, a dark but catchy collection called Bloodsucker Blues.

Before the band first started, before I was 16, I wrote songs on the piano my father played as a kid. It was actually my grandmother's piano, circa 1890, though I think my instinct for music comes from Mom, who sang in snappy choral groups in college and even made a record with her Hawaiian combo.

The new CD, 21st Century American, does what I think the best rock music does: wraps some new skin around some old bones to create something that seems to breathe on its own.

I believe I have done my job when I've written lyrics whose ideas address the brain and whose sound makes the toes tap, when the melody is inspiring yet comforting like a nursery rhyme, and the beat alters the heart rate. I am good at my job.

"21st Century American" was released on Tuesday, April 2, 2002.

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