Harry Nagle

A songwriter/pianist/guitarist for over 15 years, Nagle’s recent gathering of moments involves a completely new style of music compared to the acoustic guitar-based music since leaving Itchy Trigger Finger. Songs featuring piano, long languid guitar lines, moody atmospherics offer a new sensitive interplay between instruments and the listener. "Cynthia's Smile" promises to envelope listeners. Close your eyes, relax, put the headphones on and take the trip.
Nagle grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, moving to New York at the age of 20. He was adopted when he was a handful of days old. The only important information about his lineage was provided by a priest who told his adoptive father, “He should be exposed to good music.” And he was. Harry's parents took him to see Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Bach, Cole Porter. His older cousins, who babysat him, exposed him to the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who. His dentist exposed him to..well… Johnny Cash.
“As far back as I can remember, I used to make up songs, either on the bus on the way to school when I was a kid, or walking around the city later. As a young kid growing up in rural Pennsylvania, I learned to be alone with my frustrations, loves, fears. Songs spoke to me and for me. I didn't feel so bad when I’d sit on my bedroom floor and hear people like John Lennon (on Plastic Ono Band ) sing about some of the same feelings. In Middle School, I used to be grounded a lot, stuck in my room with just the AM radio. I just sucked in and researched all the music I liked. I had big lists of song titles with all these misspelled band names. But I couldn’t really get much money to afford much of it till college.”
“I began writing songs on piano after trying to read music unsuccessfully. My hands and imagination would jump out ahead of my brain.” Later, Inspired by the Who, Neil Young, and the Punk revolution, Nagle got an electric guitar. “I was 16, misunderstood and pissed-off. I needed to make a big sound - I needed to scream. So, I co-founded a punk band. My first amplifier was my parent's Magnavox Voice of America reel to reel tape recorder. I'd overdrive the speaker in it to get some kind of distortion. It made a really raunchy sound.”
Harry is a 20-year veteran of the New York music scene, having co-founded, written for and played lead guitar in the band, Itchy Trigger Finger, which opened for such acts as; Ben Folds Five, Everclear, Face to Face and Freedy Johnston and toured with the 1995 Lollapalooza Festival.
In the late 90's, after quitting ITF, Nagle wrote and recorded an 18-song CD called "The Astrid Tapes," named after the woman whose liaison with Nagle inspired all 18 songs. An intimate portrait of a relationship, the CD package includes love letters, original pictures, poems. “I wrote most of these songs over a 4-month period and I realized after a while that when I put them all in the order in which they were written, they told the story of me and Astrid together, apart, up and down.”
Nagles has spent his time recording for films also. One of the “Astrid” songs was chosen for the soundtrack of the feature film, "Drowning on Dry Land" starring Barbara Hershey and Naveen Andrews. Also, Nagle co-wrote music for “Raising Victor Vargas” and has scored other indie films. He also penned the song “Burst” which was featured in the award-winning indie film “David Searching.” He has had various songs beak the top 100 and was a featured artist on the 90's landmark website MP3.com.
Hundreds of songs and many phases of musical evolution later, Harry has come full circle. “I wanted to convey music in a simpler, more personal fashion, like the music that touched me personally growing up.”
----- Michael J. Nelson