Welcome to my space here! I gig mostly in the midwest and some in Canada, and I love making music and jamming with friends. For a full BIO (and more songs to hear!) and other info you're welcome to check my regular music website (davidnefesh.com).
I just completed my 2nd CD "Pureheart" in January of 2006. We recorded it in the studio, and it's a collection of contemporary folk songs, as well as some pop and rock-influenced stuff -- a blend of acoustic and electric sounds with lyrics arising from my personal experiences and evolution.
I come from a long background in music, but only came out publicly as a singer-songwriter in 1999. It's been an amazing ride since that time and I'm blessed to have had so many supportive friends and influences along the way.
There's enough war and poverty in the world that I think we need the universal language of music to remind us that we all have the same color blood, and that if we're human -- we're all hurting on one level or another.
I'm fed up with mainstream radio, which is primarily fueled by big business dictating to folks what they ought to be liking and buying -- Blah! And so I don't listen to radio anymore, but I do spend lots of time playing guitar, jamming and gigging--solo and with a band--and recording, as well as some producing.
Music and my psychotherapy practice feed my music and my soul, as do my friends and others. I love watching people unfold in their truth-seeking--it's all about living, learning, and growing, taking risks, stretching out, taking a deep breath and bravely jumping off that cliff and seeing what happens, and finding ways to re-define ourselves. Coming out. Stripping ourselves of our masks and illusions--thus, the title of my first CD ("Stripped", that is).
Increasingly, we live in a culture that values quick-fixes, "convenience," and owning things over the transformational beauty of chaos, suffering, and self-discovery. Modern psychology and psychiatry has almost completely lost the "psyche" aspect of things--reducing human suffering to "chemical imbalances," "mental illness" and the like. This is supported by huge (and very wealthy!) pharmaceutical companies telling us what is "normal" and "abnormal" (whatever those are--and who gets to decide?), and rigid "scientific" and academic types in the field who fear their own uncertainty.
But alas, we all live with illusions in dealing with the unknown, and the fact that we are relatively unimportant in the bigger scheme of the universe. I think we are all lost (and sometimes "found"), we all suffer, and yet there is so much collective fun and learning, growing, healing, and love to share--and through this sharing, the potential to make the world a better place. I hope that my music conveys this "soul-collective" part of life in some small-but-meaningful way.
I'm always open to collaborations, double bills, etc with songwriters/bands in Michigan the midwest and Ontario and gig swapping--anything from acoustic/electric, contemporary folk, folk-rock, to pop & rock-inspired stuff.
So, in brief, this is me. Enjoy browsing and feel free to send me some words and reactions to whatever. :)
If you prefer regular email: [email protected]
REVIEWS
BRUCE EDWARD WALKER
Writer & former Professor of Literature at the University of Detroit Mercy:
"In the race between the tortoise and the hare, the tortoise wins. It's a story for the ages. And when David Nefesh decided to pick up his guitar and start writing songs in 1999, he too proved that slow and steady wins the race...He continues to practice psychology during the day while also creating music celebrating his rediscovery of youthful idealism...The songs on Pureheart delve into the aspects of relationships between close friends, lovers, and family...(My Own Mars) captures a youthful playfulness experienced by individuals entertaining the early years of middle age. Called by name, each character is an alien to an outside world that chooses to take itself too seriously......Nefesh finds the magic in daily living..."
GAIL WORLEY
NYC rock critic and freelance music writer (worleygig.com):
"...Gifted with a strong, emotionally honest vocal delivery...an astounding guitarist...lyrical inspiration from his own experiences of loss, love
and soul-searching and laces his songs with a spiritual subtext that's both refreshing and inspiring. It's a basic premise, but one full of complexity and nuance. David Nefesh is an artist to watch."
JOSEPH MCCOMBS, San Francisco freelance music writer:
"An unfailing sincere folkie, David Nefesh comes from the school of 'earnest 'til it hurts'...some notable lyrical moments...a fine folk reflection on the order of what Bob Mould and Billy Bragg have been up to in the past decade."
DERRICH WOEHLE, Psychotherapist & musician:
"Nefesh can at once entice the listener into a world of both pain and rejoicing, loss and recovery, into a place all of us know, but few ever express."
AVRUM ROSENSWEIG, Radio & TV show host (CFRB Toronto) & founder of Ve'ahavta humanitarian organization (veahavta.org):
"Nefesh's tunes are so universal in their content that I often feel as though he is singing about my life. His songs deserve to be accompanying me on my way to work in the morning when I tune into my favourite radio station."
SUSAN WEBER, Singer-Songwriter (Ohio):
"David, thank you for a special musical evening. It's great to know you and your music...Your songs are thoughtful, perceptive, comforting and spirited -- I would say a good range of life's possibilities bundled warmly. Surely you could tell your audience was enjoying you and your muse in our midst."
ULA EINSTEIN, NYC Artist (artula.com):
"...personal lyrics and rhythms (that) touch a chord...with depth and range of expression...committment to reaching out (that) seems boundless...on the pulse of the universal heart..."
MAGGIE FERGUSON, Singer-Songwriter (Michigan), WXOU Radio show host (Oakland University) & Co-host of Live! at the Living Room acoustic showcase:
"Your album (Pureheart) is beautiful. You have real good sense for fine musical arrangements..."
NOAH LEAVITT (10):
"I can't believe you're not on American Idol!"
