WANTED

Jeff Gladstone & The Bad Ideas

featuring Bonnie Northgraves

 

Buff Allen – Arnt Arntzen – Steve Charles – Mike WT Allen

WANTED

1. How Big Is Your Heart?
2. Red Wine
3. Whale In The Zoo
4. I Never Say No
5. If
6. Forgiveness As A Last Resort
7. The Smokin Gun
8. Finger In The Air
9. Afterthoughts

All songs by Jeff Gladstone ©2017 SOCAN

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Jeff Gladstone: Upright & Electric Bass, Vocals

Bonnie Northgraves: Trumpet, Piano, Vocals

Buff Allen: Drums

Steve Charles: Guitar & Accordion

Arnt Arntzen: Banjo & Guitar

Mike WT Allen: Baritone & Tenor Saxophones

Kathleen Nisbet: Violin

Bonnie, Kathleen, Steve, Jeff & Ben Elliot: Vocals

 

Design: Emma Segal

Photography: Jonathan Dy

 

Recorded at CREW Studios on December 12,13 2016 & March 11 2017

Recorded, Mixed & Mastered by Andrew Spindor

RED WINE

 

The opening growls of Jeff Gladstone’s “Wanted” shudder out of a crap pair of speakers and ripple across a freshly-poured glass of Kentucky Straight Bourbon set down on a borrowed table in a rented town. This is steamy, backroom stuff that deserves a better brand than I can afford. It’s like sitting down with an old friend I’ve just met. Bourbon is the perfect flavor for this conversation: It’ll burn a bit and leave me walking funny.

By the end of it I’m inclined to leave a little something extra for the bartender, because he’s got a loose pour and I know I’ll be back. Gladstone poses the thesis of each tune and his “Bad Ideas” kick it around for a few minutes in a classic take on old medicine. I was privy to some rough-cuts and have been sneaking it when I need to feel that all is right with the world. In these dark times a little of what Gladstone calls “Cowboy Noir” is just what we need.

Outlaws and gunslingers, fingers in the air, smoking guns, late nights and later mornings. This is an album of group-shouts and stomp-alongs, melodies to hum in hangover showers, beautiful wails of vocals and horns, rolling banjos that dig into places left unexpectedly unexplored, shattering drums that speak to the primal… this is a modern tale wrapped in the time-tested.

Turn it up.

Give it a bit of space on the couch and find yourself settling in at the bottom of a glass. Drink it with your earholes and leave the bartender a good tip because you’ll be back to pick up right where you left off.

-Bruce Horak

 

“Gladstone knows how to make a song theatrical, from the country-inflected “weatherman” to the introspective piano ballad “two birds” and his musical range touches on folk, jazz and blues… Gladstone’s lyrics are often as memorable as his melodies”
-Kathleen Oliver, The Georgia Straight

“Leonard Cohen meets Nick Cave meets Johnny Cash meets Jonathan Richman.”
–Jane Avery producer

“Moments of quiet beauty were juxtaposed with raucous celebration, all of it held together by the wit, lyricism and musicality of Jeff’s songs…a weirdly wonderful cabaret-from-hell feel to the whole proceedings.”
-Peter Anderson, award winning actor and playwright

ABOUT JEFF: Jeff Gladstone started writing music on a trip to Europe & the Middle East, and playing gigs in Calgary in the 1990’s. Since moving to Vancouver he’s established himself as an actor and teacher with Vancouver TheatreSports League and Bard on the Beach, and performing in theatre and music festivals from Vancouver Island to New York. Jeff’s first album Hell of a Girl was recorded by Terra Hazelton featuring a cast of well-known Toronto jazz musicians. Since then, Jeff Gladstone has been developing his songwriting and signature ‘cowboy-noir’ sound. The self-released EP gained traction in Vancouver’s rEvolver Festival as a live theatrical opera staged by his brother Ryan’s company Monster Theatre. After being featured with glowing reviews in the Vancouver Sun, The Georgia Straight and other online publications, Jeff decided to carry on the project to other stages, sharing the spotlight with some of Vancouver’s legendary jazz performers. Earning a strong fan base performing regularly in Vancouver over the past couple years led to a successful Kickstarter campaign for WANTED: a live off the floor recording that encapsulates stories of dangerous love, red wine, lonely whales, dying soldiers, a gun-wielding femme fatale, flipping the bird and bittersweet afterthoughts.

Media Inquires:

Jeff Gladstone

email thebadideasband@gmail.com

 

LYRICS

HOW BIG IS YOUR HEART?

 

Could a guy like me and a girl like you

Ever be friends

In a world where suspicion makes a little white nest

In the hearts of the people we love

 

I’m not gonna ask you to give up your bed

Or sentence yourself to my whims

I just want to ask you one little white question

Could we ever be friends

 

How big is your heart?

Does it run from the ocean to your little white wrist?

How big is your heart?

Does it stand like a lighthouse in the little white mist?

Or does it balance itself on your boyfriend

And settle when the little white pill goes away

Or is it as big as a rainstorm

If I turned around would you stay?

Just til the morning makes day

 

I’m restless and I’m reckless

And I should be arrested

For a friendship we just shouldn’t start

Are you free and can I see ya

It’s a big bad idea

But baby how big is your heart?

 

How big is your heart?

Does it run from the mountain to your little white neck?

How big is your heart?

Do you think it could captain this little white wreck?

Or does it balance itself on your boyfriend

And settle when the little white pill goes away

Or is it as big as a rainstorm

If I turned around would you stay?

Just til the morning makes day

 

 

 

 

 

 

RED WINE

 

First had it as a baby, mama rubbed it on my lips

To send me off to dreamland and so she could turn her tricks

Red wine red wine

She loves me in the morning she keeps me up all night

She never lets me catch my breath she holds me awful tight

Red wine

She always been a devil and I’ve always been a fool

If she ever leave me god knows what I will do

Red wine

 

Some say the devil’s bourbon some say he lives in gin

But that devil is a kitten to the demon that is in

Red wine Red Wine

I’ve had my trouble brother I’ve seen my twisted road

I’ve been to hell in hong kong and jail in Singapore

Red wine

She always been a devil I’ve always been a fool

If I ever leave god knows what she may do

Red wine

 

And the years swim by and by and by

Every dollar goes to buy and buy and buy

Red wine

 

One day I met my true love, she had golden hair

But red wine she got jealous and she helped her down the stair

Red wine Red wine

Red wine is my lover Red wine’s my only friend

The only colour I can see from here until the end

Red Wine

I’ll always be a devil and I’ll always be a fool

I pray to god she’ll kill me I don’t know what to do

Red wine

 

Now I sit me down in darkness, my throat is mighty dry

Everybody leaves you and we pretend we don’t know why

The stomach is a liar A brain will fool you some

But when lips like the taste of poison you’ve nowhere left to run

Who knows if I may find peace below or up above

I ponder as the red wine starts to mingle with the blood

Red Wine

 

 

I NEVER SAY NO

 

I’m not going call her

Oh I’m not going call her
No I’m not going call her
But baby I could never say no

 

I’m not going to see her

Oh I’m not going see her
No I’m not going see her
But baby I could never say no

 

I’m not going to kiss her

Oh I’m not going kiss her
No I’m not going kiss her
But she just walked away

 

I’m not going to miss her

Oh I’m not going miss her
No I’m not going miss her
But baby I could never say no

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHALE IN THE ZOO

 

Well I’m lonesome can you tell

Its all over my breath

So I won’t disappoint you its true

Hope you’re happy hope you’re swell

Hope you’re on crystal meth

Cuz I feel like a whale in the zoo

 

You’re a tricker you’re a saint

You’re a flicker at midnight

You’re away and I’m all out of booze

I’m so sorry no I aint

For it feelin so damn right

But I don’t make my mistakes in twos

 

I spent up all my kisses

On the pulltabs of your eyes

Til my heart was all wet and my lips was capsized

You done told me no promises I done told you no lies

 

Now im fitted for a grave

On the side of Mount Baldy

And I’m not good at riddles its true

So just tell me who saves all the sinners

Why won’t you just help me why can’t you just save me

I’m as lonesome

As a whale in the Zoo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IF

 

If I came stumbling to your cabin

While the moon began to rise

If I was bleeding on your doorstep

Would you look into my eyes

 

If I was a soldier on a black horse

While the war raged on outside

If I was noble and a good man

Would you lay down at my side

 

If I could make it til the morning

While the sun made us blind

If I could tell you what you wanted

Would you listen and be kind

 

If I was a sailor and a husband

A tattered sail, a broken oar

If I was dying in your arms dear

Would you take me to the shore

 

Would you kiss me once On my forehead

And drop your mercy like a stone

And tell the children I’m gone a’ hunting

And I’ll see them when they’re grown

 

I know you’re strong

And you don’t need me

But If I was a sailor

If I was a soldier

If I was a good man

Would you forgive me

And then forget me

As you send me

Out to sea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FORGIVENESS AS A LAST RESORT

 

Girl/Boy you done me wrong I only want to get along so baby I

 

What’s that thing about

Take the log out of your own eye

Before you stick a needle in mine

Cross my heart I hope you die

 

I thought you were my friend

Or at least not an enemy

But now I know what you say when I’m not around

I’m not that tough it really hurt my feelings

 

It can take all of one’s courage

To not react

 

We all can learn a thing or two

About the power of a negative thought

So I guess this song is a passive aggressive way of saying I forgive you

 

You treated me so wrong

You took me for a song But baby I forgive you

 

You made it all a game

You’re the only one to blame Baby I forgive you

 

Even though everything’s your fault

And you got arrested for assault Baby I forgive you

 

You’re hell bent on destroying me

But I don’t want to be free So baby I forgive you

 

You could stab me in the heart

You could leave me in the dark But baby I’d forgive you

 

You make me so ashamed

I will never be the same But baby I forgive you

 

Though by god I’ve had my fill

I’m not dying on this hill So I forgive you.

 

Even Jesus would never forgive what you’ve done

But baby I forgive you

THE SMOKIN GUN

 

A wooden match sits so still on your stomach

As I hand you the box and you lie on the bed

The sulfur burns as it touches your cigarette

Your lips how they pull, the cherry how red

 

Blue smoke rises to the ceiling

The blinds they cut out the sun

You and I burn so brightly

Cuz we so love the smoking gun

 

 

A single bullet sits so still on your neck bone

As I hand you the pistol and you rise from the bed

You cock the hammer as you step in your black boots

Your lip how it curls and your nails painted red

 

A cigarette that burns so brightly

Turns to ash when its done

You and I burn so brightly

Cuz we so love the smoking gun

 

 

He was just a lonesome stranger

We just had a little fun

You and I burn so brightly

Cuz we so love the smoking gun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FINGER IN THE AIR

 

You were my whole world my sun and my moon

We fit together like the dish and the spoon

If we were so happy why was I blue?

I thought those days were over now I’m runnin into you

 

After you’d gone

I started to think I was the crazy one

Now seeing you baby after all those years

Brings me to something and it ain’t quite tears

 

So you stop for a little candid conversation

I ask for a light

 

You say there’s something still between us but baby read between the lines

The sky it isn’t crying I’m just taking something out of its eye

I got a finger in the air but baby I’m just waving goodbye

 

They say no man’s an island

But I’m sailing from your shore

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder

But it just made my little heart go wander, wander

 

Finger in the air but baby I’m just waving goodbye

The sky it isnt’ crying I’m just taking something out of it’s eye

You ask about the weather I’ll just take the temperature of the sky

It’s right next to the index look it up it says goodbye

 

Finger in the air but baby I’m just waving goodbye…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AFTERTHOUGHTS

 

So I’m at this party

This girls talkin to me and its goin really well

And she says what are you doing after?

I said after what?

 

After the afterthought After the backwards glance

After the afterparty after we dance

After that little dress after Ive touched your hips

After I stumble as we smoke and I fall into your lips

 

After the stone cold stares after it all goes south

After I fall asleep inside your mouth

After the tylenol after the smoke alarm

After I write my number in blood on your arm

 

After this? After all?

 

After the aftermath after the veil is torn

After he yells at you and cries til morn

After you pack your rings, that little dress

After you come to me, we’re both a mess

 

After we fall in love after we find a place

After I can’t read the expression that is written on your face

After go all in after we go all out

After we stick it out together through flood and drought

 

After this? After all?

 

After the aftermath after the veil is torn

After I yell at you and we cry til morn

After you pack your rings, that little dress

After you don’t come home, we’re both a mess

 

After the towels dry After the moneys spent

After your battery is always at 1 percent

After the quiet nights After the time alone

After the stupid fights After you lose your phone

After me, After you

After us, What will we do?

Baby, After all?

CHARTS