Are We Golden

Vinyl edition is a Series 33 release, limited to 33 copies.  Vinyl and digital download include the entire Jeff London discography, covering 10 years of recording, 87 songs (over 5 hours of music) as well as the complete lyrics and an essay by long time friend and recording engineer Adam Selzer.

GUY IN A SCENE …It’s easy to yearn for the days when our adopted home cities were full of optimism and possibility. It was Portland in the 1990s, under the radar and not yet discovered by chic restaurateurs, baristas with mustaches, and an IFC variety television show. Portland was off the radar, offering cheap rent, plenty of space, and an air of opportunity. I had been in Portland less than a year in 1998 when I discovered an all ages venue in the SE Woodstock neighborhood called 17 Nautical Miles. The venue was long and narrow, void of any character other than the baggy flannel attire of the crowd (we all know the stereotype was true) and the thick haze of Parliament and American Spirit smoke…a guy with an acoustic guitar whose ramshackle finger picking was struggling to keep up with his vulnerable vocal delivery. He had an old Casio keyboard on stage with him and on occasion, he’d use a piece of duct tape to hold down a key or two to provide some lo-fi drone accompaniment….muddled and jumbled playing gave a sense of urgency to some of the best lyrics I’d ever heard from a contemporary songwriter.

THE EXORCISMS …Looking at his tense shoulders and scurried manor as he walked off stage, I got the impression that he wasn’t up there necessarily because he wanted to be, but rather because he had no other choice. He needed to exorcise the songs. He was somewhat disheveled and scattered but upon talking to him, he appeared authentically appreciative that his music and lyrics had reached discerning, or at least encouraging ears. Sharing his songs, his life, his neurosis was a necessary catharsis. Or maybe I’m reading into it too much, who knew?

(excerpts of essay from inside booklet by Adam Selzer)