An improvised song about living without. With footage of clouds and valleys, and some bass by Rob Jost.

World Without - Open Song #55

An improvised song about the enigma of war, with some old stock footage of American tanks and flags. Sung, played, mixed and edited by Jascha Hoffman.

Hello Soldiers - Open Song #56

Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" — played on kalimba — with art by the surrealist painter Yves Tanguy.

Mr. Tanguy Man - a surrealist Bob Dylan cover

A surreal improvised ballad — set against the metaphysical landscapes of the Italian artist Giorgio di Chirico (as animated by Julien Herman). Electric guitar by Cameron Greider.

I Love Crime - Open Song #57

Love Is In The Kitchen - Open Song #58

An unscripted song about a man who falls in love with the whole damn ocean. 

Words and music by Jascha Hoffman (2019). 
Video by Vanessa Gould from Jascha's footage of the Big Island (2020).

How I Fell In Love With A Wave - Open Song #59

A feisty little song with visions from the outer reaches of the solar system. 🪐

Song made up on the spot by Jascha Hoffman.
Electric guitar and bass by Cameron Greider.
Video from NASA’s missions to Saturn and Jupiter.

Mothers And Childs - Open Song #60

A fully improvised song by Jascha Hoffman.

Sisters - Open Song #61

A tribute to John Prine, recorded on the night that he died.
John Prine (Oct 10, 1946 - April 7, 2020)

Christmas in Prison - a tribute to John Prine

An improvised song by Jascha Hoffman, with electric guitars by Cameron Greider.

Rain All Week - Open Song #62

Bob Dylan's classic spiritual ballad—with a new verse, improvised live on the spot.

Performed by Jascha Hoffman with Cameron Greider on electric guitar. 
Live at Acme Hall Studios in Brooklyn, NY in July 2021.

Every Grain Of Sand - Bob Dylan Cover

An improvised song by Jascha Hoffman, recorded spontaneously on a phone in Hawaii.

Guitar and bass overdubs by Cameron Greider, mixed at home by Jascha.

Understudies - Open Song #63

To honor the 80th birthday of the great Brazilian songwriter Caetano Veloso, here is a loving rendition of his eternal anthem "Canto de Um Povo de Um Lugar." 

Jascha Hoffman (vocals & guitar), Cameron Greider (electric guitar).
Performed live at Acme Hall Studios in Brooklyn in July 2021.

Canto do Povo

A song about waking up early on the Big Island to watch the full cosmos fade into dawn.

Voice, kalimba and synthesizer by Jascha Hoffman. 

https://JaschaMusic.com

Behind The Blue - Open Song #64

Here's a solo acoustic version of Joni Mitchell's classic song "Borderline." It's a tribute to the human drive to split the world into two camps: right and wrong, good and bad, us and them.

Released in 1994, just as America was entering a new era of polarization, the song is a bitter ode to the all-too-common urge to protect ourselves by building walls to keep the world out.

On Joni's 79th birthday, and on the eve of another divisive American election, it seems like a good moment to feel into the borderlines in our own hearts and minds. 

Voice, guitar and keyboards by Jascha Hoffman.
Video by Vanessa Gould.

---

Everybody looks so ill at ease
So distrustful so displeased
Running down the table
I see a borderline
Like a barbed wire fence
Strung tight strung tense
Prickling with pretense
A borderline

Why are you smirking at your friend?
Is this to be the night when
All well-wishing ends?
All credibility revoked?
Thin skin thick jokes!
Can we blame it on the smoke,
This borderline?

Every bristling shaft of pride
Church or nation
Team or tribe
Every notion we subscribe to
Is just a borderline
Good or bad we think we know
As if thinking makes things so!
All convictions grow along a borderline

Smug in your jaded expertise
You scathe the wonder world
And you praise barbarity
In this illusionary place
This scared hard-edged rat race
All liberty is laced with
Borderlines

Every income every age
Every fashion-plated rage
Every measure every gauge
Creates a borderline
Every stone thrown through glass
Every mean-streets-kick ass
Every swan caught on the grass
Will draw a borderline

You snipe so steady
You snub so snide
So ripe and ready
To diminish and deride!
You're so quick to condescend
My opinionated friend
All you deface all you defend
Is just a borderline
Just a borderline
Another borderline
Just a borderline

—Joni Mitchell, "Borderline" (from Turbulent Indigo, 1994)

Borderline - Joni Mitchell Cover

A little song improvised live at Acme Hall Music Studios in Brooklyn in the summer of 2021.

Parking Lot - Open Song #65

Instrumental for "Strange But True" by Jascha Hoffman. 
Viola da gamba played by Loren Ludwig.

Strange But True (viola da gamba)

Jascha Hoffman is a singer and songwriter living in Brooklyn. With a background in journalism, his concept-driven albums mine dark themes to produce subtle and bittersweet songs that span genres from indie folk to classic pop. Drawing comparisons to independent artists like Sufjan Stevens and Josh Ritter, as well as masters like Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen, critic Paul Zollo has praised his "beautiful gift for the telling detail, the small use of language that lets us see humans at their most human.”

Jascha Hoffman

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