Rhyme or Reason.

I keep telling myself that it is not just Youtube sensations becoming the next generation of musicians.  However, these days, there does not appear to be any consistency as to why a song breaks or becomes destined for a VH1 special on one-hit wonders.

Jeffrey Gaines had released three (3) studio albums between 1992-1998 and not until fans heard him crush Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” on 1998’s album ‘Galore’ did he start getting national attention.  Even though the song originally appeared as a B-Side to the 1993 single, “Headmasters of Mine” in 1998 (5 years later!), it reached #22 on the U.S. Adult Top 40 chart.  It did not matter to most fans that he had strong original songs like “Hero in Me” and “I Know a Man”.  And that he had a review from the Chicago Tribune that stated, “Gaines’ deceptively simple, disarmingly direct rumination on life finds an audience of those desiring more from music than a fleeting flavor-of-the-month buzz.”  Fans came to his shows wanting to hear “In Your Eyes” and I saw it first-hand at Avalon on Landsdowne Street in Boston, MA in 2000.

On the flip side, Ben Rector released five (5) studio albums between 2007-2015 and not until select radio stations this year started playing the title track from his most recent album ‘Brand New’ did the music industry start to take notice.  But reading that his new album went to No. 3 on Billboard Top Current Digital Album Sales chart when it was released was not what caught my attention.  What initially drew me to Rector was not his original music but his memorable September 2009 cover of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin”.  And eventually that was followed up with the unique February 2012 cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Want to Dance with Somebody”.  And even though he is touring to support his latest album, in a nod to Elton John, Rector and his band have earned the nickname “Bennie & The Jets” by opening every show with a cover of that song. 

There is part of me that is just happy that both of these extremely likable musicians “made it”.  Jeffrey Gaines continues to tour up and down the East Coast and Rector is happily making the rounds of TV talk shows.   I believe it is their original songs that will allow them to continue to make music, but I am sure they will also smile the next time someone yells “Freebird” at one of their shows.

Thanks for reading.