What's News?

 

John Staples to be Featured Artist at Q108 Internet Radio Indie Artist Spotlight

I am delighted and honored to be a Featured Artist at Q108!! This will be the first time my music has been played in the great country of Canada so that is very exciting!

• 8:00pm Eastern/7:00pm Central on Thursday, September 24
• http://www.q108kingston.com/

THANKS to Randy Skaggs for playing my music!!! The following songs will be played,

• Holding On To Our Dreams (Coming Back)
• Paper Flowers
• Just Passing Through
• Taking Me Down

 

International Radio Premiere of "Holding On To Our Dreams (Coming Back)"

Donal Hanlon plays some really great music in the UK over at http://oxfordshireradio.com/site/ and he was kind enough to play my new song for the first time outside the USA!

THANKS Donal!!!

 

Brand New Song, "Holding On To Our Dreams (Coming Back)" Featured on KQBM's Down From The Mountain radio program!

This new song is dedicated to all of those who have lost homes and pets and been impacted so much as a result of The Butte Fire in my beloved Sierra foothills.

And thanks to Kat and Den for being the very first to play this new song.

 

John Staples is Featured Artist on KQBM's
Down From The Mountain radio program!

Our lovely friends Kat Everitt and Den McCue, who host Down From The Mountain on KQBM (http://www.kqbm.org/), selected me to be their Featured Artist! They played these songs on their show,

• Cabbage White
• Paper Flowers
• I Will See You Again
• Wanna Go Home
• Old Moke River Heartbeats (a song I co-wrote with Kat!!!)

 

"Both Feet On The Ground" Played on KQBM's
Down From The Mountain radio program!

The lovely and talented Kat Everitt and Den McCue, who host Down From The Mountain on KQBM (http://www.kqbm.org/), played "Both Feet On The Ground" on their radio show today!!

 

"Taking Me Down" Played on Grok Rock Radio Show!

Two of my very favorite people, Carmen Castro and Elliot Schneider, hosts of Grok Rock Radio Show played "Taking Me Down" on their radio show today!!

 

"Taking Me Down" Getting Great Radio Play!

My new song, Taking Me Down, is getting lots of great radio play! I am so very thankful to everyone who has played my music! But I want to specifically thank those below and also highly recommend all of them if you would like to enjoy really awesome music!

• Elliot Schneider & Carmen Castro - GROK ROCK Radio Show
  San Francisco, California
  A world of THANKS to Elliot & Carmen for being the first to play "Taking Me Down" and for all of your on-going support! You two are such an inspiration! <3
  
  
• Tempest Sky - The Alternative Radio Show
  Nashville, Tennessee
  Huge Thanks to Tempest for supporting my music and for featuring me on her website too!!! You are the sweetest and you play such amazing music that I always discover something new that I love when I listen!
  
  
• Patricia "Rock Trish" Hodgins - whatever Rocks YOUR Boat
  Dunoon, Scotland
  If you are in the mood for some real rock you must check out this show! Such a treat for me to be included in the playlist of Rock Trish! <3 Thanks Trish!
  
  
• Christopher Lexx Stanley - Lexxx Fenwick's Hot 100 Music Roster
  Berkeley, California
  Huge THANKS to Christopher for playing my music and posting my music video to the Lexxx Fenwick's Hot 100 Music Roster!
  
  
• Mike Lidskin - Twirl Radio
  Sacramento, California
  Mike has such a great radio program and has done me the honor of including my music! Thanks Mike!
  
  
• Tom Lambert - The Independent Music Show
  Belfast, United Kingdom
  Tom plays Independent Music of artists and writers from All Over The World including me! Thanks Tom!
  
  
• Donal Hanlon - The Morning / Afternoon Show with Donal
  Galway, Ireland
  I "met" Donal on Facebook and he has been so kind to play my music on his program! Thanks Donal!
  
  
• Kat Everitt & Denny Alan - Down From The Mountain
  West Point, California
  I really appreciate the wonderful Kat & Den who have debuted many of my Americana songs on their program! Thank you Kat & Den!
  
  
• Ron Goldie & Linda Paine - Scot Pub
  Haddington, Scotland & Austin, Texas
  Huge THANKS to Ron and Linda for being the first to play my music on the radio! <3 I love hearing Ron & Linda on Scot Pub and hanging out in the "chat lobby"!

 

"Taking Me Down" Music Video Debut!

We just finished the music video for "Taking Me Down"!!! I am so excited about this!

Click Here To Watch "Taking Me Down" music video!

 

"Taking Me Down" World Premiere on GROK ROCK Radio!

My new song, Taking Me Down, was played for the first time on radio this past week by Carmen and Elliot of GROK ROCK Radio! What a blast to hear this one on the air!!

Click Here To Preview "Taking Me Down"!

 

50/90 Is Almost Underway!

Beginning July 4, 50/90 will be challenging me and the FAWM community to step up and write some fresh music! Dang I so love a challenge for dragging the muse out of the closet!

So, what's the plan? Definitely more rockers! Always some Americana! And perhaps some fusion of genres! Maybe Bluegrass Dubstep? Or Appalachian Rap? Whatever it becomes it will be fun and some great songs will be written between now and Rocktober!

FAWM Update

I wrote 14 new songs and I am pretty thrilled with them! One of my favorites is Taking Me Down which is a little different than my usual fare! Three collabs were fun including White Bird, Tortured & Tattered and Winter! Plenty of Americana with stuff like Face The Sun and Take Me Back. All in all, it was a great challenge and a fruitful one!

FAWM 2014

I am getting pretty excited about participating in my second FAWM starting February 1!

FAWM is February Album Writing Month. It kinda goes like this...

• you sign up for free here http://www.fawm.org/
• then on February 1 you start writing new songs and posting them on the website
• your goal is to average 1 song every couple of days so you get to 14 songs in the 28 days of February
• after you start posting songs lots of the wonderful people in the FAWM community will listen to your new songs and give you feedback & encouragement
• and you will listen to their songs and also provide support and encouragement
• there is a lot more like forums and skirmishes and challenges and collaborations and stuff but you can read all about it on the FAWM website
• you can write lyrics only...complete songs recorded in your home studio...rough takes from your iPhone...or even simply post your song titles if you are not ready to share your new babies with the community (but you'll have a LOT more fun if you share and enjoy other FAWMers stuff too!!!)
• whether you are an experienced songwriter or a complete newbie you will love FAWM and get a lot from the experience!

During FAWM last year I wrote 14 complete songs and collaborated on 3 others! Of my FAWM songs I have at least 8 that I love and plan to put on an upcoming CD; one was a semi-finalist in the UK Songwriting Contest!

Every song you write during FAWM may not be your best work ever but I guarantee you'll get several songs from this challenge you will love and these might not have appeared any other way! There is something about a challenge!

If you sign up let me know and I promise to check out your FAWM songs!!

 

Gear for Christmas 2013

Great news! No socks or underwear under the tree! Instead, a brand spanking new Gretsch Boxcar Square-Neck Resonator Guitar! What a lovely instrument and it sounds as beautiful as it looks. Or, at least it will when I learn to play it!

 

Rocktober 2013

In October I participated in Rocktober! So, instead of writing songs, Rocktober is about covering songs and posting your recordings! I had a lot of fun but didn't put all that much effort in as I was pretty burned out from 50/90. But I did have fun with some Beatles, Springsteen, James Taylor and even some old Jefferson Airplane!

These recordings will be online for the next few months in case anyone wants to take a listen,

• Rocktober 2013 - John Staples

 

Featured Songs on Scottish Radio Station

Today, Ron Goldie (www.scotpub.com) featured my songs on his Saturday Spolight feature of his radio program!! He played three of my recent songs,

• Times of Our Lives - A slightly rockin' country/folk tune about leaving!
• Way Back When - A lovely little song about remembering times gone by...
• Both Feet on the Ground - A song about a fellow who lives his life in a safe place.

Thank you Ron and thank you Linda Sprague Paine! I really appreciate you guys playing my music!

 

Featured Song on KQBM

Yay!! Denny and Kat played my new song Cabbage White on their Down From The Mountain radio show today (Blue Mountain Radio KQBM)!! It was so cool to have my song played right after Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville!!!

Thanks so much to Kat and Denny for playing Cabbage White! I truly appreciate it!!

 

Featured Songs on Scottish Radio

Two of my songs, Cabbage White and Christmas At Grandpa's were played on the radio today by the wonderful Ron Goldie and lovely Linda Sprague Paine on ScotPub across the pond in the UK!!!

A HUGE thank you to Ron for playing my songs and to Linda for "discovering" me!!! You guys really rocked my Saturday! To listen to Ron click here...he has a show on Wednesday and another on Saturday that you will thoroughly enjoy!

 

50/90 Songwriting Challenge

I am currently participating in the 50/90 Songwriting Challenge.

"This is the marathon of songwriting known as the 50 Songs in 90 Days Challenge. Between July 4th and October 1st, participants attempt to write fifty songs. Songwriters will test their creative mettle by trying to create a finished song in less than 2 days every day for nearly 3 months."

Well, at this point there is little chance of reaching 50 songs by October 1 but I am extremely pleased to have written 15 new songs so far and there may be more before the challenge ends. Feel free to check out my songs (rough demos) so far here, http://fiftyninety.fawmers.org/user/johnstaples

 

Two Songs in Top 5% of Songwriting Contest

Two of my songs were semi-finalists in the UK Songwriting Contest. "Christmas At Grandpa's" scored 8 of 10 which placed it in the top 5% of entries! "Saw A Man" was also a semi-finalist. A contest spokesman said

"The UK Songwriting Contest directors and judges include some of the world's top Grammy. Emmy and BRIT Award winning producers who have worked closely with such artists as Sting, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Britney Spears and many others. There were over 5,000 entries this year and we are pleased that John Staples achieved such impressive results in this year's event and wish him every success in the future as a songwriter."

 

FAWM 2013

I am very proud to have completed FAWM 2013 by writing 17 brand new songs! FAWM is "February Album Writing Month" where you write

"14 songs in 28 days. With FAWM, you write an album in a month... alongside a collaborative community of musicians (worldwide) from all walks and skill levels."

This year the community wrote 9,640 new songs!! Feel free to check out my songs (rough demos) here, http://fawm.org/fawmers/johnstaples/

It's All About the MUSIC!

I'll put up songs from the upcoming CD here from time to time so you can sample what's to come! I will also be putting up unreleased, rough demos from time to time and would welcome your feedback to help me decide what to finish cookin' and what to feed to the dawgs!

Taking Me Down

Ahh, my dark rocker! This one goes places I did not really expect. It seems a bit short to me but then maybe that is encouragement to play it again! That is how it works for me!!

Click Here To Preview "Taking Me Down"!

Times Of Our Lives

This song is so much fun to sing. It's about leaving (seems like I'm always writing about leaving or coming home!!) But in this song our hero never seems to get back home. It includes things I love like "misty green mountaintops, moonpies and lemon drops"! Not sure what genre to place it in...maybe rockin' country/folk? :D

Click here to listen to "Times Of Our Lives"!

Christmas At Grandpa's

Christmas At Grandpa's is a true story! I spent every Christmas of my childhood with my grandparents on their farm in Kentucky. These are some of the best memories I have even now many, many years later. Last year at Christmas I wrote this song and shared it with my family. If you close your eyes you can almost smell the holiday aromas, hear the laughter, feel the joy!

Christmas At Grandpa's was a semi-finalist in the 2013 UK Songwriting Contest scoring 8 of 10 which placed it in the top 5% of entries! A contest spokesman said,

"The UK Songwriting Contest directors and judges include some of the world's top Grammy. Emmy and BRIT Award winning producers who have worked closely with such artists as Sting, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Robbie Williams, Britney Spears and many others. There were over 5,000 entries this year and we are pleased that John Staples achieved such impressive results in this year's event and wish him every success in the future as a songwriter."

Click here to listen to "Christmas At Grandpa's"!

Cabbage White

A friend from the UK, Martin Quibell, was discussing "Cabbage White" on a forum earlier this year. When I heard the phrase I thought it sounded like a great name for a guy who lives way up in the Appalachian mountains (I have been on an Appalachian kick this summer!) So I set out to write a song about that guy. But as these things sometimes go, I ended up somewhere else!

Click here to listen to "Cabbage White"!

The Bio of a Troubadour...

I am a singer-songwriter from Western Kentucky currently living in the Chicago area after an 11-year side-trip to California to meet and marry the love of my life, Rose! I write and perform mostly Americana and songs of the heartland although I have been known to belt out some decent rock and roll on occasion!

My song "Christmas At Grandpa's" was a semi-finalist (among the top 5% of all entries) this year in the UK Songwriting Contest. I was also a semi-finalist for "Saw A Man".

I spent much of my childhood on my grandparents' farm in western Kentucky just a mile and a half from the very same Green River that John Prine sang of in the song Paradise! I grew up listening to country and gospel music as well as watching the weekly Grand Ole Opry show on my grandparents' old black & white TV!

I started playing guitar at a young age and sang mostly covers for many years. But last year I began writing my own songs and I am enjoying songwriting so much! I get such joy from creating songs that simply did not exist before!

I have written about 50 songs and I am currently working on producing my first CD. I play guitar decently, banjo fairly well and fiddle...well...I'm still working on that one!

 

Things to know about me...

• I fancy myself to be a Troubadour, a Storyteller...I write mostly Americana songs
• I grew up in Western Kentucky (where my parents were born)
• desperate situation
  junkie with a gun
  one more fix would save us
  shot my way into the setting sun
  
  (the bridge from Coming Home)
  My grandparents' farm is just a mile and a half from the Green River that John Prine sang about in Paradise
• I continued growing up in Ohio and Indiana and California and Chicago
• I have picked leaves from tobacco plants and picked tunes from a Deering banjo
• My songs come from the heart...from the heartland...from Appalachia and thereabouts
• I have run with outlaws and spent the holidays with in-laws
• My Gibson Les Paul Standard was built on Wednesday, December 28, 1977 in Nashville, TN
• I have drunk directly from a spring in the hill
• I have rolled down a hill, in the spring, while drunk
• I bought my first Ovation acoustic guitar because Eric Clapton played one
• I have hiked for miles & miles only to have bears take my stuff
• I tried really hard to learn to play fiddle (I love the fiddle)...but fiddle is just too dang hard to learn to play (I hate the fiddle)...naw, I actually do love the fiddle and I am determined to get better at it one day at a time!
• I stopped smoking years ago when they got to 75 cents a pack
• I love to play banjo and ukulele and guitar and harmonica (but not at the same time)
• I have tried crazy stuff I'll not admit to here but also mostly given up that stuff over time
• I have grown up and grown apart and someday hope to slowly grow old
• I have fallen from haylofts, motorcycles, trees & grace...
  ...and fallen in love with Rose again and again

 

Who Are My Influences?

I love John Prine and Led Zeppelin, Gillian Welch and Pink Floyd, New Grass Revival and Yes, Neil Young and Jethro Tull, Cat Stevens and Yusuf Islam, Dolly & Taylor & Gaga & Amy & Madonna & Tammy, Willie & Waylon & Hank & Johnny & Merle & George, Smokey and Stevie, Elvis and Pearl Jam, the Jackson 5 and Michael, Prince and Jimi, the early Beatles and the later Beatles! There is very little music I don't like!

 

What's Up With Those Instruments?

Those are my primary instruments! I have written most of my songs on the Ovation (which actually belongs to my wife!) The Les Paul I have had since I was about 20 years old and it plays like a dream! Really an amazing guitar. The Deering Goodtime banjo helped me write three songs in the past couple of months so I am really diggin' it. I truly love my Strat but have not yet found my groove on it. I love how it feels and the light weight but I find myself always picking up the Paul instead. Maybe I need a nice setup for the Strat. The ukuleles are simply wonderful! I love the peace uke from Luna for its design and it sounds pretty good but the Riptide is really lovely! It is a little bigger so my hands fit it better and I really like the unique soundhole configuration.

Now I need pics of my fiddle, my 1978 Ovation, my harmonicas, Fender Super 6 Twin Reverb and other assorted goodies I have collected over the years! :)

Cool Events, Past, Present & Future

New CD

I am currently working on my first CD. This is very exciting! Right now I'm working on selecting 10-12 of my favorite songs to go on the new album. Then we'll do a big ol' recording session and production. More info coming soon!

Live Performances

I will be announcing several live performances coming up but I probably won't be doing much until the new CD is released.

Online Streaming Mini Concerts

I have several friends who are having quite a lot of fun with StreetJelly.com. Basically this is a live streaming service where I will set up a short (30-minute) concert and you will be able to attend it by simply tuning in at the scheduled time using your computer or mobile! I think there is a lot of potential for using this technology to be able to perform for friends and fans in farway locations. More coming soon!!

Music Videos

I have always loved music videos. I remember when MTV actually was all about music videos. I love that a video can be used to enhance or better tell a story from my music. I have several associates interested in helping out and I am very excited to begin working on my first music video!

So...Here's How to Reach Me!

Send me your name and email and I'll make sure you get,

• advance notice about shows
• early access to new CDs
• other assorted goodies and incentives!

Oh, and, rest assured I will never share your email with anyone, no way, no how! Troubadour's honor!! :)

Get in touch if you,

• like my music
• wanna buy my music
• want me to buy your music (hey it's only fair, right?)
• would like to collaborate on a song or a performance
• just wanna say "Hi!"
• have a question only a novice songwriter could answer!
• wanna discover me and record me and make me rich and famous
• have the words "T-Bone" in your name (see above)
• are serving time and just need a pen pal