With his Sept. 9 album release, The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (and Other Frightening Tales) Jason Reeves guides listeners through primal human emotions and their complex contexts. Before Warner Bros. Records signed Reeves, he earned a “Top Folk Album of 2007” from iTunes, which also placed him as one of the top Indie singer-songwriters of that year. Rising with “Someone Somewhere” and decrescendoing into “The End”, Jason Reeve’s album strikes a heartstring in his listeners, allowing them to listen to their experiences in a musical diary.
Reeves began his own adventure as a teenager, starting with teaching himself guitar. He was inspired by folk luminaries Bob Dylan and James Taylor, and has created an inimitable writing style that is flourishing in the current musical climate.
With a sense of longing, Reeves reminds listeners with the familiarity of his “Never Find Again”: “You still say that love is nothing like it should be, it isn’t like the movies, where everything goes right in the ending. … And you say ‘there’s no guarantees we will get it right this time.'” Reeves’ songwriting takes the everyday and mundane arguments and conversations and adds a profundity to them that gives meaning and purpose to personal relationships.
Songwriting has gained Reeves enormous popularity on the airwaves in the past year, with the release of Colbie Caillat’s new album Coco, which he wrote 10 songs for, including the chart-toppers “Bubbly” and “Realize”, the latter of which he also accompanied Caillat on vocals.
The modest Iowan attributes his songwriting to a dreamer’s search, “All songs exist in the atmosphere, and artists are on a romantic search to pull them down and give them life.” Life is exactly what Reeves is infusing his songs with these days, and it is all those little events that make an unforgettable album for Jason Reeves.
As a well-rounded and diverse artist, Reeves created his own album artwork with some photographic assistance from Alex Yank and Jessica Fick. It lends a holistic folk feel to the album. His charm is written in every song, and his acknowledgements end with “There are hundreds more that should be on here … just know you’re written in glorious graffiti on the shining walls of my head and heart.”
Jason Reeves presents a sincere and touching honesty in this collection of musical storytelling, transforming the daily signs of heartache into a magnificent adventure to undertake. As the last page of lyrics declares, “… for it is a great adventure, love. Blinding. Torn between two states of being. Floating. Vicious violent beautiful beast. To be caught firm between the teeth, smiling. Feeling as if you’ve never felt before. Held digging in with each fingernail to its flying racing horrid speed…”
Reeves encourages listeners to make life an adventure again, and not to dread tomorrow. For more acoustic adventures, Jason Reeves will be in Chicago on Oct. 22, 2008 at the Beat Kitchen.