A free Christmas MP3 download: Jonathan sings on "Reliving the Past" by 9 On Bali

Ho ho ho, Merrrrry Christmas! In celebration of the Yuletide, I'm pleased to offer you a very cool FREE MP3 download! A couple years ago I had the pleasure of singing harmony on a song entitled "Reliving the Past" recorded by indie/ prog/ punk/ experimental band 9 On Bali. Now, after a few years of adding to the song and mixing it (18 times, apparently), the band has put the song up for free as the Cropcircle Collective Downloadable Song of The Month.

CLICK HERE to download "Reliving the Past, No. 18"

I start singing harmony vocals about halfway through the song, and at 3:46 and 3:49 you can hear me say "Where's my incentive?" Yayahoo, that's me, along with dozens of other guest vocalists! I love this tune, and I think I want to play it in concert someday.

My connection with the band began about ten years ago when I was a music journalist in Chicago. I was writing record reviews for Showcase Midwest Magazine, and two of the CDs in my mailbox were Let's Change the Subject by Chicagoland artist Dan Sweigert and the self titled release by Dan's band Star.Star. It was complex proggy experimental indie rock, and I gave the albums good reviews in the magazine. Somehow I began communicating with Dan, and eventually we even played a gig together...his band joined me (solo acoustic) at a little coffeehouse in Oak Park, IL. We each did a set, and at the end we played together...I remember that Dan's band backed me up on my song "Tell Me Where You Want To Go" from the Recital album...certainly one of my own most proggy and experimental compositions.

A few years ago I got an email from Dan, inviting me to contribute to a song he was working on with a new band, 9 On Bali. Dan sent me the early tracks of the song, I dumped it onto my computer, and did a vocal track. I sent my vocal track back to Dan, and he imported it into the master recording of "Reliving the Past." A few years went by, and I wondered what ever became of that song. I was pleased to find out earlier this week that the song had been completed, and was available for download!

Okay everybody, raise your glass of egg nog, and join me in singing:

"reliving the past....reliving the past...
where's my incentive to wake up today
when I keep reliving the past?"