Jason Kirk and Redwater

JASON KIRK AND REDWATER

After wandering the world, Jason Kirk’s grandfather settled in Sundance, Wyoming to raise his family in the Black Hills. The hills were a wonderful, spiritual place to live and grow. Jason's dad left when he was only three and his mom was left on her own to raise the alien boy and his sister. Although the single parent household had its challenges, Jason’s creative side was nurtured from an early age. Mom was a folk singer throughout the seventies, and their home was filled with classic rock and folk music. Since she was also in local theater productions and part of a singing and dancing troupe (a saloon type act), Jason was on stage from age 8, including a stint as a dancing cowboy at around age 10. Jason was also fond of hanging with his Aunt Jenny, ten years his senior, as she rocked in the eighties and rebelled with the worst of them. He always hung with the olders.

Jason was a well rounded kid that loved fishing and basketball. He began playing the saxophone, trumpet and piano at around age twelve, then switched schools in 7th grade to join a more prestigious local music program. He started an a capella group called JJW, (a la Boyz2Men) when he was fourteen and began winning talent competitions, traveling all around the Midwest. He also was busy writing songs, almost from the beginning of his love affair with music.

About that time Nirvana came onto the scene and took over music (from Jason’s point of view). So at age sixteen, he added guitar playing to his creative repertoire, and formed a punk band called Allergic. When the band achieved notoriety in the tri-state area, the talk began about coming to Los Angeles to seek fame and fortune. Jason was hesitant though; for good reason. He was awarded an academic and music scholarship to the University of Wyoming and was to be the first in his family to seek a college education. The opportunity was cut short though when Jason got in some trouble on campus. After a chain of irrational decisions, Jason, his sister, and his Allergic bandmates found themselves headed for Hollywood.

The culture shock of tinsel town took its toll, and Jason’s bandmates soon headed back to the Midwest after a dose of L.A. dream crushing. Jason stayed on, got management and recorded a solo album at age nineteen. His dark side, however, began working overtime as he was swept up in the underbelly of the L.A. music scene. About this time, he met local musician/producer Cliff Brodsky, and the two became friends and collaborators. Cliff convinced him to clean up, and with a fresh beginning, Jason produced a new album on his own. The Jason Kirk Band project was well received…garnering airplay in the Midwest, and Jason was suddenly being courted by major labels. But the experience once again drew out some personal demons and he alienated those around him with enough destructive behavior to sour the opportunity.

Now aged 21, he took a break from the music industry, but stayed in Los Angeles, working various colorful gigs, including Cadillac salesman, skyscraper window washer, pornography warehouse manager…even security director at NBC.

After about three years of hiatus filled with a healthy dose of soul searching and growing up, Jason hooked up again with his friend Cliff Brodsky. The two began writing and producing music together again, in a new spirit of creativity and positivity. Jason made a new commitment to pursue his musical destiny. The effort was backed by his newly assembled musical posse, affectionately named after a place that had been inspiring to Jason and his grandfather…a modest but magical creek that flowed through Beulah, Wyoming called Redwater.

Jason describes a spirit of positivity as the thread that is woven through the new album from start to finish, “It’s an R&B influenced, groove influenced, power pop rock beach groove record…a positive musical storm!”

The title cut is “The Answer.” Jason explains, “The process that resulted in my coming back to music was about finding and embracing oneself as a whole, the good with the bad. The answer I found was that, yes, I am a little crazy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t achieve what I want to achieve. Turns out the craziness actually powers some of the artist in me, and “the answer” is to embrace it all, but keep the destructiveness in check by flooding my dark side with positivity and simplicity.

“HER HIGHNESS” is about an ex-girlfriend...the theatrical narrative flip-flops from begging and pleading for life, to giving up, to being proud, to being desperate, to being completely subservient.

“FREAKY” was inspired by an occasion where Jason’s trainer (while spotting him on the bench-press) espoused an elaborate philosophy on the importance of telling girls upfront that he gets very freaky. Jason channeled Ryan, wrote song in twenty minutes.

When Jason saw a character in a lyric that his friend Rod had written down named Maxx Paxx Bent Rhythmic Man…Jason decided the man was him, and co-wrote the song “SISTER SOUL”…about a girl named Cecilia. The song pays tribute to the power of women, including the drug-like effect of their love, their command over men, along with their healing power. It’s a soaring eighties-style pop/soul ballad.

“SCAVENGERS” was written when Jason quit all his jobs, and before his musical comeback started kicking in again, he had no income. He began talking about energy and manifestation constantly (translation – bullshitting) as a method of snaking women into taking care of him.

“THE WANDERER” was written at age fourteen, after a vision of cloaked figure that walked the earth. The character lives from instinct without speaking, and when followers accumulate in the thousands, he leads them to a hillside where he removes the cloak…revealing…what will be continued in a sequel song for the next album.

The song “TAKE IT AS IT COMES” is light in mood, about having a good time and not taking yourself too seriously…living in the moment. It’s friendly enough to be played on Sesame Street, if it wasn't for the lyrical inclusion of the F-bomb.

“ALL THE WAY OK” is an uncomplicated musical throwback. Reminiscent of Al Green and Marvin Gaye, it strives to paint visuals and pay tribute as a simple and (hopefully) eloquent love song.

“FANTASTIC MAN” is a scathing review of Jason’s life lead in duality., making light of the dark, manipulative Hollywood scumbag who puts on a whistling and crooning front for the women, "No matter how scummy I am, women will still fall in love with me because I am a bad boy.”

“BRIGHTER SIDE” is part of a trilogy wrote a couple years ago, about Jason going sober, finding innocence, becoming a man and taking back happiness.

“BANK” is total spoof that musically has “that funkadelic thing” going on. Its lyrics are an expose on Jason’s personal party scene, complete with Hollywood, girls and money.

Jason Kirk and Redwater can be found playing the club scene in the Los Angeles area, and Jason is looking forward to leaving the studio behind and hitting the road, “The live show has another layer, we incorporate a mysterious and theatrical dark dimension to engage and provoke the audience just a little; to stir them up and take them away, but not too far before we lead them safely back to the party.”

The album is scheduled for spring 2007 via Brodsky Entertainment, with a national tour being planned in support of the release.