Jeffstunes progress on Youtube

Now it's time for some original material. This song, and the following few are not on the album. For various reasons. There are 30 second sound samples for all tracks that are on the album "Sight Or Sound" at:

Sight Or Sound - Jeff Edwards

It's also available on Amazon and Ruckus so far. There are fifteen tracks on the album, and only 10 of those are in full on my Youtube channel.

The name of this composition is "Tell me why". It's another composition from a few years ago. The theme of the song is a relationship that ends, seemingly without reason. I'm sure there are many that can identify with that situation. I am fond of this tune, but the chorus was a little too weak for my ears. I considered there were better songs to choose from.

Here it is:

More Dad stuff now.

My Dad. Part 5.

As I suggested previously, he once lived in a place named "Cowgate road" in Greenford, West London. In his mother's residence. Music is something he was crazy about. So it was no surprise that he got into the scene. His tools of choice were the Guitar and Harmonica. There was only one serious endeavour in music with him, and it was a band called "The frasier chorus". They were a harmonica outfit, and my father was on the chromatic. They had very little in the way of success. They never secured a record contract, but they did enjoy touring with bigger, well known bands.

Being on the scene, meant that he mixed with names that are still recognised today. He has recounted a few tales to me. I found one or two very surprising. Even by the standards of today. Although during the sixties, it probably wasn't that surprising. Now I'm not sure if this happened in Cowgate road, but I've been told by my father about Lulu and Brian Poole of Tremeloes fame. My father never really liked Lulu. He had a few names for her but none of them are repeatable here. He said that she did anything for the lights of fame. I wouldn't say that was unusual. Many people did. He pointed out to me that the both of them were sexually active behind my grandmother's couch. Floors are cold and hard. Well this one was. Why didn't they use the couch. It would have been far more comfortable. Unless someone else was sitting there :)

To be continued.......

Let's catch up with what's going on with my Youtube channel.

My subscribers are up to 953.

My channel views are now 22,268.

Aggregate video views are now 374,240.

Another original next that was a result of a suggestion.

Eighty two videos completed. This latest video is one on my request list. It's "Run" by "Snow patrol". The full version. I've been asked

to sing this by a few people, and I couldn't recall it by name, but when I heard it I recognised it immediately.

I think the song is great. I have used pictures of roads, paths and lighting to set the mood of the video. It's just a slideshow again :)

Have a listen and see if you like it:

My album page on CDBaby has had over 100 hits now, and the product has been delivered to 3 companies so far.

Amazon, Napster and Ruckus. I keep searching on a daily basis to see when it's listed on those sites. There's

nothing yet. The merchandise shop is currently under construction. If you would like to listen to some

short samples from my album you can visit my CDBaby webpage at:

Sight Or Sound - Jeff Edwards

Here's the next installment of the extracts from my fathers life.

My Dad. Part 4.

The relationship between my mother and father didn't last very long. Their first meeting was when she was going out with someone called Michael. After the break up with Michael, my father just happened to make it known that he was around. They are so different from each other. I think you could only uderstand the union if you had met him. He had an irresistable personality. An absolute charmer. Just about everybody loved him, and a lot of them knew what he was like. Perhaps it was that desire for unpredictability. Very soon into the relationship I was conceived. I have asked her what it was that determined the end of their relationship. It ended up being more than one, due to my mother's tolerance. One of those was where my father emptied out the electric meter, and left my mother to answer the landlord. My mum would never steal from anyone, and she was horrified to be accused of the theft. In one sense she knew it was him, because apart from the landlord, they were the only two who had access to the house. She could only deny the accusations. The landlord loved my father so much that he didn't believe it was my father.

The other pivotal point in deciding the end of the relationship was at my mother's 18th birthday party. My father attended the party with some accessories. They were a woman on each arm. I think that would just about do it for most people. I don't know if he did that deliberately to get her to end it instead of him. Knowing him, I'd say it was certainly a possibility.

So it was all over before I came into the world. My mother married someone called "Jeffrey" shortly afterwards. Now you know where I got my name from. He pleaded with my mother not to reveal to me the identity of my real father. Instead he wanted to pretend that he was my natural father. Everything was fine until his own child came along. There was a noticeable bias torwards his daughter. My mother believed in fairness, so as a counter measure, she showed bias toward me. My stepfather was a violent man to my mother (unlike my father). So much so that I spent time in hiding as a baby with my mother. One of those places was an attic in a convent. Our associations ended with him when I was about 7. I didn't realise who my real father was until I was 18, and i didn't meet him until I was 21. So the things I tell you about his life are stories I've collected from him, and family. There's more to come. I can appreciate why my mother tried to keep me away from him in my youth. She feared that I might follow in his footsteps, and I'm glad that she decided upon that course of action.

To be continued.......

There's a big milestone around the corner concerning my Youtube statistics. A thousand subscribers looms.

It's done pretty well over the last week. There is now 938 subscribers.

The channel have increased to 21,815 and the complete viewing figures for all of the videos I have uploaded are 364,724. I'm getting well over a thousand a day at the moment.

That is the end of the cover versions and requests for a few songs now. I've got a string of original songs to upload in conjunction with the distribution of my new album. The first four of these didn't make the cut for the album.

Now on to the eighty first vid. This was yet another request, and it's called "Afternoons and coffee spoons" originally by "The crash test

dummies". I felt I wanted to do something a little cheeky with the video. You see many people singing behind locked doors, using whatever is available as a mic. Well, I went a bit further than that :)

See what you think of my version of "Afternoons and coffee spoons". There's a role call of objects in the video

description, but I think you'd have to go to Youtube and view it to see that :)

Now for the continuation of some of the events of my father's life.

My Dad. Part 3.

My Dad's mother (Nan) lived a large part of her life in a place called "Cowgate road" in a suburb of London

called Greenford. That place has a few memories for a number of people, as I will explain later. It wasn't long

before my father became involved in criminal activities. He became involved in a west london gang, and became

quite an influential member. Dad couldn't keep his hands off of other people's property. Unfortunately at some

point during his involvement, firearms came into play, though I never heard of an instance of him using any.

I've got a couple of interesting tales to tell about this time. One was a robbery that he took part in. It was an art robbery in Chelsea. He told me that he was running away from the scene with his hands full, across Chelsea

bridge, and had to lighten the load. So one of the artworks was tossed into the river thames. If the authorities ever wondered where one of the missing paintings went to. The answer to that question is "At the bottom of the thames". The rest of the haul was concealed in his mother's attic without her knowledge. So she was a little surprised when the police raided her home and produced a collection of paintings. They eventually captured him and

he paid the price in prison.

One thing that could never be underestimated about him was his smooth tongue. On one occasion he was arrested for a crime,

and conviction and prison were sure to follow, but amazingly he managed to talk his way out of the situation. He engaged one of the officers in conversation about music. There weren't many people that weren't fascinated by music in those times. Anyway, this

policeman revealed to my father that he had an old violin. My father enthusiastically suggested he bring it in

for him to examine. He managed to convince him that he was an expert in old musical instruments (which he

wasn't). Very soon the officer brought the violin into the station and allowed my father to examine it. My father got very excited about it and he convinced the policeman that this violin was rare and worth money, and he offered him a few hundred pounds to purchase it from him. That was a lot of money then. The policeman quickly accepted his offer, and my father sourced the funds through his contacts, and the result was a very satisfied police officer. As far as the crime my father was arrested for, well he didn't get charged. Oh yes. The wonderful violin. It was worth nothing. I'm not sure where my father obtained the money, but one thing is for certain. It wasn't his own money.

To be continued......

Here's an update on my album "Sight Or Sound". I've been playing around with the user interface on CDBaby. It's pretty good, because it

tells me how many people visit my page on a daily basis. Also which companies the album has been sent to for

distribution. There's only one at the moment, and that is "Amazon". However, delivery doesn't mean

it's on sale there yet. That process can take from one week to 3 months. Depending on how quick the company processes it.

You can listen to clips of all the songs on "Sight Or Sound" at:

Jeff Edwards - Sight Or Sound

Here's the Youtube stuff.

Subscriptions to my channel are now up to 920.

Channel viewings are 21,490.

Aggregate video views are 358,999.

My next video will be the last cover version for a little while. It will be "Run" by "Snow patrol".

There are two major things I want to cover in this post. One is a song on someone else's Youtube channel, and the other is the release of my first album "Sight Or Sound".

I'm going to talk about the album first.

As of yesterday, it was officially on sale. Though only through CDBaby at the moment. Apparently it can take from a week to a few months to be available in all other areas. That's ITunes, Amazon, Napster and a load of other places. The album is a digital release only, so CD's are not currently available, but they may be in the future. This depends on how well it goes, and whether there are any offers for investment.

The final track order for the album is as follows.

01) Soaked to the bone. *

02) So blue.

03) Convey. +

04) Take me home.

05) Don't wish it away.

06) Broadcast fantasy.

07) Keep on waiting (The stood up song). *

08) Escape.

09) Twist of fate.

10) Blow away.

11) Unknown. *

12) Counting down the days. *

13) Sight Or Sound. #

14) When I grow.

15) You think it's all over. *

I've put some marks at the end of some of those to give you a bit of extra information below. So where you see these symbols, this is what they mean.

* = These tracks are not currently on Youtube.

# = Features the talented "Steve Morgan" on guitar.

+ = This track is the official promotion track that will be offered out to companies, royalty free for promotional purposes only.

There's a fascinating story behind the last track on the album. It actually started out as a sports song, and was converted into a normal song. It normally happens the other way around! In it's original form, it was aired several times on a number of radio stations during the 2006 world cup campaign. It was then called "They think it's all over", after the famous Kenneth wolstenholme quote.

You can listen to clips from all tracks on the album by visiting the purchase page, at the following link:

Jeff Edwards - Sight Or Sound album

Now the other thing. A Youtube video. This was put up by a Youtube member going by the name of "KarenEng". It's a duet with her and I. It's that wonderful old classic "You don't bring me flowers" by Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand. I've wanted to put this one up for a long time, but finding the right female vocal wasn't easy. That was until I found Karen. She has a wonderful voice. Take a listen and see what you think :)

Last but by no means least. The Youtube statistics digest.

My subscribers have breezed over the 900 mark to 912. That magic 1,000 doesn't seem so far away now.

My channel viewings are picking up and are now up to 21,373.

All of my videos have been watched a total of 356,896.

I think I got the potential video order mixed up in the last post. my next video upload will be "Afternoons and Coffee spoons" originally by the "Crash test dummies", because I've already got that one prepared :)

More on my father's story in the next post.

Now I'm going to do something acoustic. This is the third of my dad's all time favourite songs. There are so many different ones he loved, but I chose to do only three together. I might do some more in the future. This one is called "Baby can I hold you tonight". There was a very well known cover version by Boyzone, but my favourite is stil the original by "Tracy Chapman". It comes from a fantastic album.

There was a comment recently on one of my vids, saying that I should stop relying on backing tracks. So for this one, I sat with my guitar. I have to tell you my opinions about backing tracks. I think that there is absolutely nothing wrong with using them. We can't all play musical instruments, and they can be very useful. How many lead singers of bands just sing? Quite a few to my knowledge. Some people forget that the voice is probably one of the most versatile instruments you can play. So my advice to those using backing tracks. Keep on. If people criticise you for it, then just ignore it. The most important thing above anything else, is that you enjoy what you are doing. Not everybody will like it. Could you think of any singer that is adored by 100% of the earth's population? Some people love what you do, and some people hate it. An e-book I was reading recently said that if 1% of the populationof the world like you, then you can count yourself as a success, because 1% of the worlds population is over 60 million people! :)

Now for the song. I hope you like my gentle take on this wonderful tune.

My Dad. Part 2

My father was very partial to females, and he acted upon his desires many times. One female at a time was not always the order of the day. There was one story I was told about two girlfriends he had. They were bi-sexual and were very much into each other, if you know what I mean. Anyway the sleeping arrangement were three people, one bed. This lasted for a while. I'm curious to know what the neighbours were thinking.

It's baffling how he became to be my father. Even more so when you know my mother's background. If fate turned a different corner, then I would have been the son of a certain "Mungo Jerry". Does the name ring a bell? How about the number one hit "In the summertime"? Mungo spent some time pursuing my mother. It all came to a head when he asked her why she wouldn't go out with him. I think the answer put him off for good. Perhaps it hurt his pride. My mother replied "It's because you are too ugly". I always wondered who I had inherited the compulsion for honesty from. After looking at old photographs of him, I have to say I'm in agreement with my mother. Good call mum :) Though I'm sure there are many women out there that found his very rugged appearance attractive. Just not my mother.

As time passed, the paths of my mother and father crossed. If you took their backgrounds into consideration, you would be scratching your head at the union. My father had a below par hereditary C.V., whilst my mother's side of the family stemmed from 19th century aristocracy. Well as far back as I can trace. I'll probably research the family tree at a later date to see how far I can take it back. I reckon the mothers side of my family will be easy to map out, but I'm not as confident with tracings my father's roots.

To be continued...

Now for the nitty gritty stuff. The Youtube figures. The subs have been up and down over the last few days, but are still slightly on the increase. The total currently stands at 893. Channel views are up to 20,958 and the aggregate figure for all the viewings of my videos is 349,427.

So what's coming next?

I've prepared some covers to upload whilst I've been working on my album. I'll give a track listing in the next post. Coming up next is a crash test dummies song. Then after that is a duet with another Youtuber!

This is the 2nd of 3 tunes in memory of my father who died recently. It's my version of Through the barricades, originally performed by the group Spandau ballet. For those that don't know, it's about Northern Ireland.

See what you think.

I said I was going to start telling a few tales about my father's life, and so I will. Though I only know a fraction of what went on in his life. Still it's enough to raise many eyebrows.

My Dad. Part 1

I'll begin with the basic stuff. His birthplace was a place called Hammersmith, in West London. His mum Lily was a loving and kind person, but his father sadly did not live up to that reputation. He was an Irish waiter. The dad used to beat his mother whilst John was there. It isn't any surprise that he despised his memory. He didn't stick around for long. His brothers and sisters all share a different surname to him. Fortunately they had a better father. As a youngster he used to get into lots of trouble. This was just a sign of what was to come in the future. Just a sign though. Some of the individuals he met in life ended up quite successful, and some of those achieved fame.

John joined the Navy at a young age. Though he only managed to hold in there for under 4 years before being dismissed. He got a reputation for fighting, and as a gambling man, he used to set up fighting fixtures with side betting. During his service, and many fights, he managed to get away with only one loss. Part way through his service, he decided to take it upon himself to leave the Navy, short of his compulsory term. Hiding with travelling gypsies, and eventually at his mothers house. This is where the Military police finally caught up with him. Picture the scene. The M.P.s talking to his mother on the doorstep, whilst John was escaping out of the back window. He didn't get very far before they captured him and returned him to Portsmouth.

To be continued...

Some exciting news for me. I've finally produced my first album. It's called "Sight Or Sound". As finances are stretched to the point of breaking, the availability of the album will be through Digital sales only. It has been a struggle doing all the jobs myself. The performing, mixing mastering and artwork etc. It's certainly kept the costs down though. So it's going to be available in many places including Itunes, Amazon, Napster etc. I don't want to come across as an anorak, but I was really extremely proud to have got the barcode for the album. Hooray! It now has a global product identity, and that's official :)

It's looking like it's going to be available to buy in about a month from now. Then it will spread to other online stores in the next few months. I'll be blogging it when it does, and telling about any reviews etc.

Let's get down to the youtube stats.

My subscribers have increased to 890. Only 10 off 900.

The channel viewings have passed the 20k landmark, and now stand at 20,672.

The total viewings for all my videos is now up to 343,712.

Next up is an acoustic cover. The third of my dad's favourites.