Jerry Joseph – “The War I Finally Won”
Americana Highways presents this premiere of Jerry Joseph’s song “The War I Finally Won,” from his forthcoming album Baby, You’re the Man Who Would be King, produced by Eric Ambel. Baby, You’re the Man Who Would be King will be available on September 29 and this song, “The War I Finally Won,” will be released on July 18th.
Delight in the unexpected this year. Music lovers should have all eyes on this cross-pollination right now — what better and more complementary duo is out there that could come close to rivaling this team of Jerry Joseph and Eric Ambel in terms of having such disparate strengths? And yet at the same time, two things you can count on from each of them is heights and ecstatic peaks of energy in the flow of the music, and catchy hooks.
Baby, You’re The Man Who Would Be King was recorded and mixed at Cowboy Technical Services in Greenpoint Brooklyn by Mario Viele with additional recording at Evie’s Terrace in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. It was mastered by Richard Dodd in Nashville, TN.
“The War I Finally Won” is Jerry Joseph on vocals, harmonica and acoustic guitar; Phil Cimino on drum kit; Jeremy Chatzky on bass guitar; Charlie Giordano on Hammond organ; and Eric Ambel on electric guitar, electric 12 string guitar, acoustic guitar, tambourine and harmony vocals.
The harmonica sets this song up, and the energy builds to wild peaks just as you would expect. And then come the lines, over and over, like “every time I look into the mirror, I see the enemy is still right here.” The gang vocals are loose casual fun. The structure is clean, and the edges are rough, and it’s an exciting sign for what the rest of the album will be.
From Jerry Joseph “Covid had arrived and I usually go somewhere to write as I can’t seem to write at home, so I borrowed a caravan from my neighbors Sara and Al, parked it in my driveway, ran power and bought writing paper and candles and cool twinkle lights and thus had a writing space. I wanted to start with something different musically, I had been listening for the first time to a lot of Springsteen and after repeat listenings of Devils & Dust, forgoing a 40 year moratorium on neck held harmonicas, I said ‘fuck it’ and bought one and all the keys harmonicas and went out to my driveway to start writing. As I was heading out, there was a stack of kids’ books on the kitchen table and one of the books was titled The War I Finally Won so I stole that and off I went …”
From Eric Ambel: “’The War I Finally Won’ has Phil Cimino stomping out a heavy folk-rock beat with Jerry playing the acoustic and the harmonica. Charlie Giordano played our one owner Hammond A-100 organ. I had played the electric 12 string with the band at Cowboy and added more electric guitar, acoustic guitar, tambourine, and the harmony vocals at Evie.”
Find Jerry’s music here: https://cosmosexschool.com/collections/jerry-joseph
Enjoy our previous coverage here: Interview: Jerry Joseph Delves Into Demos and Live Tracks For “Tick”
and here: Key to the Highway: Eric Ambel
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