Nov. 19—Because it seems, Jeffrey Bailey’s return to his musical profession wasn’t almost as tough as he anticipated.
Sadly, drastic change and consequent turmoil have plagued different areas of his life.
Previous to final March, Bailey was most frequently seen courtside as the pinnacle coach of Cheyenne South’s boys basketball staff. Through the COVID-19 lockdown, Bailey returned to his authentic ardour and started recording an an album after a 20-year musical hiatus, risking his status in songs full of susceptible lyrics.
For the reason that launch of that first album, “Orange Moon,” he is just about residing a unique life.
The place as soon as he was nervous about how his gamers and college students would reply to his music, he is acquired appreciable help from the neighborhood, and is recurrently enjoying reside reveals in Cheyenne and Laramie.
“(It has been) nothing however help, actually,” Bailey stated in a cellphone dialog with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. “I run into former gamers again and again, and that, in and of itself, is only a actually neat expertise, as a result of I’ve simply constructed so many good relationships with them.
“However they’re simply encouraging and supportive. I’ve even had some gamers I’ve run into which have caught me enjoying, stated ‘Hey’ and listened.”
Alternatively, Bailey has struggled by means of a divorce, determined to step away from his 10-year profession as a basketball coach and, in a gut-wrenching choice, taken a break from his tenure as a highschool artwork instructor.
“I’ve needed to form of rediscover who I’m in lots of methods,” he stated. “I am about to reimagine what my life goes to be transferring ahead.”
His sophomore album, “Highways,” is scheduled to be launched on Dec. 13. It’s self-recorded and self-produced, this time with extra inspiration and focus than he might contribute to his first go-round.
Bailey’s audio manufacturing has come a good distance. He is devoted time to exploring and integrated completely different colleges of instrumentation, like drum-and-bass music, exchanging his solo guitar work for some tracks that depend on strictly bass and piano pushed construction.
The ultimate result’s a comparatively low-budget launch that instantly feels extra naturally assembled, as opposed concurrently educating himself on the inside workings of audio manufacturing on “Orange Moon,” a challenge he admitted to being dissatisfied with.
Maybe essentially the most impactful change, even with an overhaul in manufacturing worth, is the core of Bailey’s songwriting on the tracks “Dagger,” “Discover Your self,” “Highways” and “Outlaw” — the primary 4 songs on the album.
It is to be anticipated that the latest occasions in Bailey’s life deeply affected the tone and lyrical content material of his latest songs, exemplified within the album’s title observe:
“Highways
Are my approach
To be a slave
A slave”
Throughout this era of his life, writing and poetry turned therapeutic. Due to their cathartic nature, he stated this veiled emotional perspective is “woven all through” the album.
“I’ll say I did lots of penning this time round, going by means of a number of the issues I have been going by means of,” Bailey stated. “I dug up a number of the poems that I’ve written that uncovered my emotions and my mindset in a really detailed approach.
“There’s lots of complexity that goes into piecing all of it collectively. For me, at the very least, it made a few of my songs extra significant.”
Impressed by musicians like Justin Vernon of the indie-folk band Bon Iver, he gravitated towards cryptic lyrics that power the listener to make sense of the narrative on their very own.
In contrast to earlier than, Bailey approached nearly all of the songs on “Highways” lyrically earlier than including instrumentals. The place earlier than he sought to create lyrics that intensify a music’s instrumentation, he now desires to raise the emotion of his writing with an applicable accompaniment.
“I feel individuals are going to have the ability to join with the lyrics and the music collectively,” he stated. “I feel they are going to have the ability to really feel, in their very own lives, possibly a number of the similar issues that I’ve felt.”
Will Carpenter is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s Arts and Leisure/Options Reporter. He may be reached by electronic mail at wcarpenter@wyomingnews.com or by cellphone at 307-633-3135. Comply with him on Twitter @will_carp_.
