DOUG IRVING: Half-plugged

Doug Irving

Half-plugged

© 2003 Guodproductions/Adirondack Records (634479200908)

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Eclectic, lying somewhere between country and pop

notes

I guess it all started when I first heard strains of "Kismet" and "The Sound Of Music" floating in the air around the house...I think I was six.....it's been music ever since....I have been writing for decades but only since moving to Nashville has stuff really started to happen...I did make a minor splash back in the late 80's with a single called "A Trick Of The Heart." It charted in the Cashbox Country Top 100 (when there still was Cashbox)and was from my 'Sunday Mornin' Sun" album (which will soon be available in CD form here thanks to brother Bruce)...which brings me back around to how this writing thing got started.
Bruce was a little older..maybe a little wiser...certainly a lot more cerebral in the early 70's...it was kind of a give and take...I got my first guitar for Christmas in 1966...it was the acoustic kind but needed some fret work (yikes!!!)...actually the strings were about 3/4" above the fret board...looking back I must have been thinking..."either get some serious calluses or
get better and move on to the next guitar"..I chose the latter and got my first electric guitar a year later...it was Beatles white album time and Bruce and I started to get into that....he'd try out the guitar...he must have liked what his fingers felt 'cause he got his own not long after that...much is a blurr but I do know that he went to college in Pittsburgh and came home looking like John Lennon ( I mean JUST like J.L.)....and he brought home songs he'd been writing....I picked up the bug in 1972 and had my first song published. It was a little ditty called "Wonderful Days"....must have been having a lot of those back then...but Bruce and I would work on song ideas from time to time but I believe we didn't start actually co-writing until the late 1970's in Rochester, where he, his close friend Rob Simbeck and I would toss around ideas at Bruce's apartment in Brighton....I remember it well...I was in College at Fredonia (voice major) and we did gigs at the Rathskellar at the University of Rochester...we developed a style which I believe still permeates our writing today...the summer of 1977 saw me release my first single, "Good To You" which gained a lot of local (upstate New York) air play and the next summer I released "Sailin' Away"....it was a rush to hear myself 'on the air'...it still is...Bruce and I wrote the 'B' side "The Girl Next Door" and we were off and running....probably more like walking...It took a few years and some major geographic moves before the next project-my first album. We had two co-writes on a San Antonio, Texas area compilation album called "Sounds Of San Antonio." I released "Tunesmith" in 1984. It held another co-write, "You Are Not Alone." After that we took a rather protracted hiatus and really didn't start getting back into writing until two years ago.
We have, however, made up for some lost time. Bruce released his first CD in the fall of 2003 and we have five co-writes on that one. He has one "When You Find Love" on my soon to be released CD "Generations."
As previously mentioned, I did have some success in between "Trick of the Heart" and another heart song "A Place In My Heart," which was twice voted song of the year by the Northeast Country Music Association....five albums have followed (with a sixth due out in the late winter), over thirty indie cuts by artists like Sandi Kight, Kimberly Dahm, Deborah Benson, Mirinda James, and Rick Sousley (whose version of "16 Bars" is recieving significant airplay all over the Southwest).
Look for an EP release in January of five songs from the upcoming CD "Generations." The 15-song CD will be out in the late winter and is already getting airplay in the Northeast on stations WYNK 105.7 and 100.3 (the Point) in Glens Falls, New York.

reviews

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  • Stunned
    author: Mr Ed

    Half-plugged: Love By Now w/ Shelly was the first of Doug's songs I listened to. I wasn't disappointed by that one or any on either this album or Generations. Do yourself a favor and give a listen and you'll find yourself doing as I did, singing along with the songs the first time you hear them. The words that are in us all Doug pulls out.

  • You'll want to turn up the volume on this one!
    author: Meg Irish

    HALF-PLUGGED showcases Doug's talent as a sensitive, intelligent Singer/ Songwriter. You'll be turning up the volume on this one so you won't miss one single word or the beautiful harmonies. DEATH ROW PREACHER and SAME DESTINATION are especially moving while 16 BARS has me up and dancing around the living room. Memorable melodies with thought provoking lyrics.

  • Honest interpretation of how to learn from life and move on
    author: P J Caldwell

    Plain spoken verses on how to take lifes hard lessons and move on for the best. Also how important it is to stop and remember what is important in life and those around you. Doug comes across like the type of people you want on your side. The music is well matched for the message.

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