From my new digital EP release.

https://johnbatdorfmusic.com/product/an-extraordinary-ordinary-life/

An Extraordinary Ordinary Life

Why Don't You Move Home

Here is the opening track from my new EP. You and order it now on my website.
www.johnbatdorfmusic.com

I Saved My Finest Love Song Til Now

Well I love the fact that in this digital age, songwriters can release their new material within weeks of the original idea which for me was approximately 5 weeks ago. This song was inspired by the sudden life threatening health issue that was discovered out of the blue and man did my life’s perspective instantly change. This song kept haunting me and begged to be written. Not knowing my long term future was, I went into my studio and with Michael McLean’s help, “I’ll Let Roy’s Song Carry Me Home” became my potential “Happy Trails” song. At this point, the real life ending is a lot happier than the song’s ending but I love when real life becomes art. Thank you all for the support!

"I'll Let Roy's Song Carry Me Home"

Song By"
John Batdorf and Michael McLean 2022
BATMAC MUSIC BMI  /  Shining Star Music ASCAP

Acoustic Guitars/Vocals/Bass/Keys/Percussion By:John Batdorf
Electric Guitars and Mandolin By: Michael Dowdle
BGVs By: Bill Batstone
Fiddle By: Scott Foxx
Produced and Arranged By John Batdorf/John Batdorf Music

Lyrics

I'm not a wannabe cowboy
And I'm not at home on the range
I like to fish, but that's about it
And Cowboy hats make me feel strange
But the road took a turn that surprised me
And I'm more than just down on my luck
If I was a drinkin’ man, I'd probably take my van
Down to the bar that's surrounded by trucks
Though I never liked country songs much

So I can't soothe my soul in a bottle
My woman I'd never forsake
I'm not church goin' and God isn't showin’ me
Where guys like me catch a break
So I'm here on the highway just drivin'
But I'm feelin' Roy Rogers nearby
He's smilin’ at me and singing a melody
And I'll be damned if I know why
It kind of makes me wanna cry

And the wind is whispering a farewell, all night long
But there's something comforting me in this darkness
It sounds in my head like some old country song

I stop for gas and pick up a soda
I pull back onto Route 70
A deep brand of lonely got his arms round me
This ain't how the end's supposed to be
But then Roy and Trigger are with me
And showin' the trail I should go
This one ain't happy as I hoped it could be
But I don't feel so all alone
I'll let Roy's song carry me home

I'll Let Roy's Song Carry Me Home

This is my newest digital release from what will be eventually a part of new EP down the road.

Don't Waste The Waiting

This is a song about me and my musical journey that continues today.

I never had a million sellin’ record
Or a song that topped the charts
But I was Touched by an Angel
And my music touched some hearts

I wasn’t the biggest rock star out there
But I shared the stage with some
I sang my heart out every show
And man did I have fun

And  I ... often hear folks ask me
Why I…didn’t soar much higher
And I…have a very honest answer
I never got paid the megabucks 
But I was famous enough,
I was famous enough

I never had a private limo driver
But the story that I tell
I drove myself to the Oscars
Then I sang with Adele

I signed a record deal with Atlantic
And was welcomed to the fold
They gave that new guitar
I used in Muscle Shoals

Still I...often hear people ask me
Why I spent my life freelancing
And I have a very honest answer
I really liked bein' my own boss
Cause I was famous enough

When we started a family near forty years ago 
No fans would hang out round our door 
But I kept writin' songs in between all the little league
How could I ask for more

My fame never turned me into something
I know that I'm not
I never longed for something 
That I've not already got

When I started on this journey
I never really knew    
That I'd have friends come out to hear
What I still love to do

And  I ... often hear folks ask me
Why I love to sing so much
And I…have a very honest answer
I found some fans that seem to love my stuff
Cause I was famous enough
Guess I was famous enough
‘cos Earle Bailey played my stuff

Song by:
John Batdorf/Bat Mac Music BMI
Michael McLean/Shining Star Music
2022  All Rights Reserved

Additional Electric Guitar By:
"Michael Dowdle

Famous Enough

In this crazy world we live in today,  "Something Is Always Bothering Me!"

Something's Bothering Me

Old Man Dreamin'
This is really an autobiography about my career starting in 1967 when I drove cross-country with a band from Ohio to Los Angeles, California and signed a record deal with Atlantic records in 1970. The song is filled with lots of little inside information musically and lyrically about my journey in the music business, including that infamous slide riff from "Wham Bam Shang-alang." The second verse uses Batdorf and Rodney song titles. If you weren't a fan "back in the day" and a lot of these inside jokes don't make you smile, I hope the "old men" listening to this will identify with the the bittersweet dreams of being an old guy in a young guys' business.

06 Old Man Dreamin'

I grew up as a teenager on my own in Los Angeles from 1967 on. This is an enhanced story about a guy like me being befriended by a young women and the total bliss the night lead him to. There is a first time for everything so they say!!!

Lillian

This is one of three new songs just released here in 2023. The title pretty much John's over fifty year commitment to writing and recording!

https://johnbatdorfmusic.com/shop/

I'm Not Givin' Up

This is one of three new digital releases. I love writing songs!

At This Age

Track three in my latest digital releases.

Come Tomorrow

This is the 5th song that completes my new EP, "I'm Not Givin' Up"

Cheer Me Up

None Of Us Know

“Beep Beep” was the first completed song for my new CD. My wife and I were visiting Bend, Oregon in June of 2014. We were staying in a hotel and I woke up very early and didn’t want to wake her so I put on headphones and turned on my computer. A few days earlier I had been working on a new idea starting off like most of my songs, with a guitar figure and then the rest just kind of came. I recorded the guitar and added a melody that came to me as I listened. Luckily, I saved it and added it to my music so I could access it while we were away from my studio in Los Angeles. As I listened to the music for some reason I thought about the Beatles and the first line came, “I got the fever back in 64, ain’t felt nothin’ like it since, nothin’ like it before” and the song just poured out. The whole reason I took such an interest in music at all was because I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show and freaked out! I left for California three years later and three years after that, signed with Atlantic Records at age 18. They set the bar higher than it ever was before when it came to talent, songwriting, singing, recording techniques and just about everything else they did. To this day, I use their double time percussion technique to change a song section’s feel and learned all about writing a bridge from listening to their awesome records. “They changed the worlds ‘cos we were all listening!!” I was so lucky to have grown up listening to this incredible band that launched so many other great bands and did indeed change the world forever. 

01 Beep Beep

I wrote this song in 1974. I would have been included on the fourth Batdorf and Rodney record that never happened. It only existed on an obscure "Live At McCabes" CD until I re-recorded it in 2006 and included it on my first full length solo CD, "Home Again". I asked Mark Rodney to help me with the guitars and vocals which he did. The song was extended to add a guitar solo which I played. I really love the vibe. I can almost smell the cannabis!

10 Where Are You Now

Ever wonder why a song hits you right up side the head and you think, why? I wish I knew but many times I have had to stop my car and listen to something on the radio that screamed out, "Listen to me ". I love when that happens and that is what this song is about. Don't It Make You Wonder Why from the new solo CD, "Next Stop, Willoughby".

Next Stop, Willoughby

4-18-2017

Don't It Make You Wonder Why

Music meant everything in the Summer Of Love.

Still Burnin'

Summer Of Love

Batdorf & Rodney

Happy Town

From the 3rd and final album by Batdorf and Rodney

Life Is You

Is It Love

She Made Me Smile/Caught In The Rain

Love the vibe of this track. Barry Beckett killed the Rhodes!

Portfolio

One Day

Home Again

Me and You

Let Me Go

I wrote this song when I was barely eighteen and recorded the original version in 1971 in Muscle Shoals for the Batdorf and Rodney debut record, “Off The Shelf”.  I really loved going back and revisiting and reinventing  the songs of my youth and that’s what my new CD, “Me And My Guitar” is all about. The CD and download is available for now only on my website. www.johnbatdorfmusic.com

2. You Are The One

I recorded this song originally with the band Silver in 1976. It peaked at #16 on the Billboard charts. Last year, the record was included in the Guardians Of The Galaxy ll blockbuster movie and soundtrack. The song got close to 8 million hits on YouTube so I decided to redo the song acoustically on my new CD, Me And My Guitar.

1. Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang

The last record Batdorf and Rodney released was Somewhere In The Night. Clive Davis loved the song as did I. Helen Reddy was riding a hit and had planned to release her version next but Clive wanted to beat her to the punch so our version was released and entered the hot 100 on Billboard the first week. A power struggle began between Jeff Wald, Helen’s manager and Clive Davis. After all was said and done, our record peaked at #69 because radio was so afraid of offending Helen and her manager, many stations chose her white bread generic version and neither of the records broke through. Barry Manilow waited a few years and got the hit with a typical “Barry” version that didn’t do the song justice. After all these years, I decided to do the “unplugged version” of this great Richard Kerr/ Will Jennings song.

3. Somewhere In The Night

Sometime we just write songs for fun. Back in 2004 my son had a girl over to our house who quite mature for her age. My wife met her and said to me, "I can't believe she's only sixteen!" Well sixteen became seventeen so the Beatle's tie in would work. Just a fun song from my solo debut EP, Side One.

Side One

Only Seventeen

This was off the first album, "Off The Shelf" and became and instant "turntable hit" for us and but Batdorf and Rodney on the map. B Mitchell Reed, a progressive DJ here in LA worked for KRLA AM played this like crazy as did DJs all over the country. This was cut in Muscle Shoals Sound in 1971 with Roger Hawkins on drums, Barry Beckett on keys and David Hood on the bass. This album was produced by Atlantic Records President Ahmet Ertegun. This cut was the first and only take we did.

03 Can You See Him

I wrote this song in 2014 after my wife and I visited Central Oregon for the first time because it felt like home and now it is!

Beep Beep

Feels Like Home

Singles Anyone

Broken

This is from my newly released CD, "Last Summer".
CDs and downloads are available at:

https://johnbatdorfmusic.com/product/last-summer/

By John Batdorf and Michael McLean 2020 All Rights Reserved

https://johnbatdorfmusic.com/product/last-summer/

Prayin'

Rocking acoustic music  with soaring vocals! Turn it up.......

01 Home Again

This is the opening track from my new CD, "Last Summer".

https://johnbatdorfmusic.com/product/last-summer/

I Wanna Be With You

John Batdorf was part of the sublime folk rock duo Batdorf and Rodney and lead singer of Silver whose hit Wham Bam in 1976 was part of the blockbuster movie's Guardians Of The Galaxy ll  soundtrack in 2017. Have a listen to nearly 50 years of original music.

John Batdorf

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