Tired of the ceaseless bad news? Get behind this Kickstarter and get into some important new music for 2024. Longtime Topanga resident and Community Advocate JG Crawford is set to release his Album “From The Mountain Top” in May. Ripe with anthems and themes of political cooperation, universal love, anti-war and a little bit of romance, the album is sure to become a standard.
Jim, as he’s known to his friends, has played nearly a dozen Topanga Days and at least as many Topanga Peace Alliance fundraising Events over the years and his music came to be known to a man named Mark Howard. Mark engineered the Daniel Lanois’ sound on Bob Dylan’s “Oh Mercy” and “Time Out of Mind” albums, among many others. He loved Jim’s voice and wanted to record it with an old Frank Sinatra RCA-44 mic, using some of his best players.
They recorded live over four days in a house in Topanga. Mark assembled a band of superb musicians including Jimmy Paxson who plays drums for the Dixie Chicks and Stevie Nicks; Hal Cragin—Joni Mitchell’s bass player and Michael Chavez—keys for Leonard Cohen and John Mayer. Jim’s friend Marcy Levy even joined along to sing a duet with him. She wrote for and sang with Eric Clapton in the day.
They managed to lay down eight original tunes and two covers, including “Lay Lady Lay”—Bob Dylan’s classic done with a danceable vibe. Jim’s music took on new twists and turns under Mark’s supervision and what has emerged is “From the Mountain Top”, a varied palette of simple pleasures. The title song speaks of Political team-work to heal this divided world of ours and is put to a reggae beat. Hands of Jesus is a rockin’ anti-war song calling for cease fire and living in peace and harmony. The Light, a ballad Jim wrote in honor of John Lennon, the night he was shot identifies the light that shines in all of us and calls on us to “Make Love Grow”.
A Kickstarter campaign for the album offers early release rewards like signed CDs, Vinyl, a “Make Love Grow” t-shirt and more in exchange for early support for the project. Learn more at
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jgcrawford/from-the-mountain-top-jg-crawfords-new-album
