Singer-songwriter Valentine releases single 'Christmas Eve'

The singer and songwriter called Valentine has released the second of two new seasonal singles, “Christmas Eve.” The song has been released concurrently with his first single, “Snowflakes.” Like all material from Valentine, these singles have been proudly published entirely without financial or managerial support from the corporate music industry. Traditional yet unique, altogether catchy, friendly and familial, “Christmas Eve” by Valentine presents the sounds of the holidays in a way that truly deserves its name.

Valentine, whose music style cannot be expressed in terms of artistic influences or similarities, has called his sound “pop country jazz,” without special emphasis on any one of the genres. While his recent debut single, “Snowflakes,” sounds decidedly pop and country at once, “Christmas Eve” leans slightly more toward the country and traditional Christmas and country genres.

Both songs showcase Valentine’s unlikely skill for blending sonic traits into new amalgams never before heard. This talent is largely how jazz figures into his highly creative mode of music making, the results of which are pleasantly original and warmly inviting.

“I wrote ‘christmas eve’ in memory of the farm I grew up on a few miles from the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah River,” Valentine relates.

He writes his song titles in lowercase out of humility to “the big storyteller and designer.” He goes on to explain, “This is where the world’s first bluegrass festival took place. It’s called Watermelon Park and it’s right on the river. The story goes that Bill Monroe started the bluegrass genre

and then Flatt and Scruggs left Monroe’s band and popularized the genre, starting with the Watermelon Park Bluegrass Festival.”

In the same tradition, Valentine seeks to begin his country jazz category of music in earnest.

“Bob Marley popularized Jimmy Cliff’s new reggae genre around the time we were going to Watermelon Park, so my starting the ‘COUNTRY JAZZ’ genre is almost normal to me … I only hope that I am the one to popularize my genre, and not someone else. Hence, [I've written] a 40-song library with 30 pure country-jazz songs and 10 others that bleed into other genres like country rock, country radio and Americana ballads and homages to western two-step, rockabilly and bluegrass. They’re all intended to illustrate how the pure country jazz is indeed a new genre. Country jazz is the natural outgrowth of the time and place and music of my youth.”

Also very much of note are Valentine’s production principles, which throw out many contemporary habits and standards in favor of older methods which help him achieve his characteristic tone. This tone is natural and raw, without falling into what is popularly called “lo-fi” music. Joining the minority of true audiophiles, Valentine has returned to analog recording, and in addition has ditched digital reflexes such as gating and limiting the wavelengths of entire tracks.

Commenting on his studio process, Valentine writes, “The process of ‘limiting’ reduces musicality and dynamics, so I refrain from it. I also tune A to 432Hz to resonate healthfully in prime numbers like nature, as opposed to the exaggerated 440Hz originally implemented to give classical music more ‘pop.’”

Valentine’s current official bio describes him as “a philosopher philanthropist who has dedicated his life to solving the socioeconomic problems of our day. In his spare time he has written-produced-directed three motion pictures and recorded a library of 40 songs in Nashville, as well as a 50-song Broadway library.

“In order to attract attention to his vision for solving our problems, 10 of his songs are political and have accompanying music videos soon available on iTunes, YouTube and TheValentineAmendments.com, a site dedicated to Valentine’s amendments to the US Constitution with video explanations filmed in Nashville in front of the life-sized replica of the Greek Parthenon, birthplace of democracy.”

Additionally, Valentine’s site for commercial music may be found at ValentineSongs.com.

“Christmas Eve” by Valentine is available online worldwide. Be sure to also hear his debut pop-country-jazz single, “Snowflakes,” also available everywhere from the Web.

-S. McCauley

Lead Press Release Writer

www.MondoTunes.com

“Christmas Eve” by Valentine –

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Eve-Single-Valentine/dp/B00QNADSJG/

Website -

http://www.thevalentineamendments.com/

http://valentinesongs.com/ (currently under construction)