If you like the album, please support it by buying through iTunes, CD Freedom, or Amazon.com.

Download the complete album plus both bonus tracks in a single zip file now!

Individual tracks (click to play, right-click to download).

Album Tracks

1. Crazy About You
2. Stood Up
3. Burden
4. You Were Wrong
5. Take You Home
6. The Piper
7. Forty Pounds
8. Undeserved Curse
9. Jonah
10. The Counter
11. You Can Play This
12. Biloxi
13. I’m Fine
14. Anjileen

Bonus tracks:

1. Anjileen (extended alternate version)
2. Why Is It Wrong (To Be Against War)

Check out Chris’s music videos on YouTube!

Chris Bartlett’s debut Explo-Sound Records CD is now available through iTunes.

Now iPod users can download and sync all 14 tracks. If you have iTunes installed on your computer just click here to go directly to Chris’s album page.

Also available is a free downloadable bonus track and all lyrics just by clicking here. There’s no obligation. You don’t even have to give your email address.

Chris’s CD is also available for sale or download through CDFreedom.com.

For free streaming preview tracks, visit Chris’s MySpace page.

Explo-Sound Records recording artist Chris Bartlett now has four complete songs from his debut CD available for listening on his MySpace page.

Previously only excerpts were available. Now the entire songs can be listened to.

Complete lyrics are also posted for each of the four songs.

For a free bonus track and lyrics to all the songs from Chris’s CD, visit www.explo-sound.com/bonus.

Chris’s CD is available for sale and download at CDFreedom.com.

Explo-Sound Records is in indirect, informal talks with members of Thelonius to produce an “official bootleg” CD, which would feature existing homebrew recordings of some of the group’s legendary live shows around Athens, Macon, and Milledgeville, Georgia. The proposed project title is “Thelonius: Best of the Bootlegs.”

We thought we’d let you know — in case you hear rumors — that this much is true. If anything develops we’ll let you know.

EXPLO-SOUND RECORDS PRESS RELEASE
January 3, 2007

Chris Bartlett to host two Macon CD release parties

Singer-songwriter Chris Bartlett will host parties in Macon, Georgia January 12 and 13 celebrating the official worldwide release of his self-titled debut Explo-Sound Records CD.The first party will be held Friday January 12 at 10 p.m. at the Red Eye Tavern, corner of Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard and Cherry Street.

The second party will be held the following night at 10 p.m. at Rivalry’s Sports Bar and Grill at Forest Hill Road and Northside Drive.

Bartlett, a Macon native, signed with Explo-Sound Records in March of 2006. Chris’s CD is available now online at www.cdfreedom.com/artists/explosoundrecords, and will be available for purchase at both parties.

Visit www.explo-sound.com for more information.

Chris Bartlett’s MySpace page is www.myspace.com/chrisbartlettmusic.

Click on the photos for hi-res versions.

Chris Bartlett’s debut Explo-Sound Records CD is now available for purchase online at CDFreedom.com!

You can purchase the actual “hard goods” CD or a downloadable version, or purchase individual tracks. Preview clips are available for all tracks.

Click here to go straight to Chris’s CDFreedom.com CD sales page!

Chris Bartlett’s CD has arrived! We received our first shipment on Friday, and we were busy all weekend stuffing envelopes for an immediate mailing to selected radio stations all over the country.

Here’s how the dates are shaping up. We’re fast tracking everything, so we requested adds for December 14 from radio stations. We’ve decided this will go in our books as the “official release date” of record, with retail releases following as fast as we can line them up.

We’ve already sent the first shipment for retail sale to CDFreedom.com, and Chris’s CD should go live for download or “hard goods” purchase there in just a few days. We’re also lining up other online outlets which we’ll let you know about later.

There’s a lot of positive buzz from everyone who has heard the CD, and we’re very excited. Chris has some sample excerpts posted on his MySpace page. Excerpts from all tracks will be available at CDFreedom.com.

Plans are well underway for two local CD release parties for Chris (in Macon, Georgia), scheduled for January 12 and 13. But there’ll be plenty of opportunity to buy the CD online before then, and we hope Chris’s fans will show their support in any way they can!

Chris Bartlett’s official Explo-Sound Records bio is now posted. You’ll find it here, or just click on the link in the left column under “Pages.”

We really like our funky cartoon-style logo, the one you see on every post on this site. We think it just screams “Indie label!” We plan to keep it around for a long time.

But we realized we needed a more “serious” logo too. A discussion with out art department yielded the very nice second logo you see here.

It’s more of a tuxedo to the cartoon logo’s baggy pants. And it will be the logo that appears on our CD releases and promotional mailings.

We plan to always make occasional use of our original cartoon-style logo though. It will continue to appear with posts on this site. It’s already a part of our history here at Explo-Sound Records.

Explo-Sound: We’re in the Explo-Sound Records studios talking with Chris Bartlett and Habersham Hall about Chris’s upcoming CD release. We’ll talk track-by-track in a bit, but first, let’s get an update and get your comments on the cover.

Chris: I wanted a classic album cover with a strong, simple graphic statement. I had a talk with the creative team, gave them my thoughts. I think the artists nailed it.

Hall: I agree. Very strong concept.

Explo-Sound: Chris, care to give any insight on the meaning of the cover?

Chris: That’s really something that individuals have to decide for themselves. Yes, it has meaning, but I don’t want my explanation crowding out somebody else’s feelings about it — like when the music class teacher tells everyone exactly what they should be picturing when they hear a certain piece of music. Individual interpretation and enjoyment is squashed. I’ll just say I love it for what it is — a great album graphic.

Explo-Sound: Any more news on release date?

Hall: We’re awaiting word from the manufacturer on shipment. That’s about where we stand now. By the way Chris, I just read your MySpace blog entry about the wait. It was perfect. About the answering machine — how’d it go?

Chris: I think it was something like, “I feel like I just left a 62-minute message on the world’s answering machine, and I’m just waiting for the world to get home and check the message and respond.” You liked that, huh?

Hall (laughing): It was perfect. Just perfect. We do have promo CDs ready for mailout. They feature four tracks from the CD. They’ll drop soon after we get the full CDs. We’re planning to fast track the CD’s release almost immediately after that.

Explo-Sound: Well let’s run through the CD tracks and get your thoughts on each one.

1. Crazy About You

Chris (laughing): Well of course we all know the world needed another song with the word “Crazy” in the title.

Hall: I think the world will be glad to have it. It’s a strong song. Production-wise, Chris pictured this with a spartan, framing acoustic guitar track and a mood that gave a hint that it’s a little darker than the lyrics imply. Chris kills on the lead break.

Chris: It was Hab’s idea to lead the CD with it. Good call, I think. It sets the opening tone.

2. Stood Up

Chris: I love singing this.

Hall: I was surprised you wanted it keyboard driven. Total changeup from the acoustic-driven demo. It works though. R & B influence throughout.

Chris: Yeah, it’s just fun. (Laughing) Take-a-hike songs are always fun. But not a lot of songs cover this kind of thing — it happened and this person blew it with me and made themselves not worth hanging with at all. The frustration is easily solved by taking yourself out of the equation, and this is a reminder you don’t have to put up with that stuff, which is just trash anyway. That’s really what the song is about.

3. Burden

Chris: This is my homage to classic 6/8 love ballads. Like the old slow dance hits.

Hall: Just the basics — guitar, organ, bass and drums, with the organ taking the harmony. Works great. Very strong love ballad.

4. You Were Wrong

Chris: The power sweep begins.

Hall: The first of 5 or 6 powerful and radio-friendly tracks in a row. Chris’s guitar work is terrific on this one. I don’t think there’s a keyboard on it.

Chris: Yeah, it’s all guitars. We had a lot of fun with the tracking. It’s kind of a dark song but there’s a brighter reckoning in the chorus. I drew the song from my personal experience — and some from others. Lots of people have suffered similar loss in love. It’s fairly dark, but it’s more empowering than just a wallow-in-your-self-pity song.

5. Take You Home

Chris: Hab calls this my pop anthem.

Hall: Oh yeah, in the best sense of the term. I think it’s awesome. Builds to a classic pop anthem crescendo. I love it.

Chris: It’s a song that morphed in meaning from the song as I originally wrote it. Even now the way I see it is not the way others will see it. It’s hopeful and upbeat, but not cheerful. There’s a lot of longing to help someone in need, maybe be a rescuer — and I don’t necessarily see that as a positive. But I don’t want to take that away from anybody else.

6. The Piper

Chris: I wrote this years ago. I was reluctant to put it on the CD at first.

Hall: I think it’s just too good. It would have been practically a crime to leave it out. Real fun change of pace, almost a shanty. Chris sings it in a deeper chest voice for fun too.

Chris: And we tweaked it and made it more relevant. I took some good advice that I don’t have to be so serious all the time. So it’s a nice release for whatever tension there is in the rest of the album.

Hall: It wouldn’t be the same without it.

7. Forty Pounds

Hall: It’s poetry. Powerful and moving. It’s one I’d use the word “epic” for.

Chris: Well, thanks, but this is getting a little embarrassing. (Chris smiles). But what it’s about… I don’t know how many people experience substance abuse or know someone entangled in it, but it’s another rescue scenario, this one more hopeful. It’s drawn from many sources, personal and otherwise, with an attempt to capture the intensity of such experiences.

Hall: I think it does. And that’s why it is so moving and powerful.

8. Undeserved Curse

Chris: A contemplation on the negative things that happen to us. It pretty much can be taken at face value.

Hall: And it’s another powerful piece of writing. I don’t have the words.

9. Jonah

Hall: We’ve previewed the CD for a few close friends, and this one stops the show. They just sit there with their mouths open, stunned, then they just say, “awesome,” or “incredible.” One even said “genius.” It’s just Chris singing and playing acoustic guitar, no backing tracks. Chris has been pretty close about the meaning of this one, haven’t you?

Chris: I don’t think I’ll ever tell. It’s very stream of consciousness, but it has a lot of personal meaning, I don’t know if I’ll ever tell. What’s most important to me is what it means to the listener.

10: The Counter

Chris (smiling): Somebody started calling this my “Waterfalls” at the tracking dates. And you were one of them, weren’t you?

Hall (laughing): Oh yeah. Only because of that slight cautionary tone though. I love the bridge you added at the last minute. Great opportunity for some retro horn synths and crescendos. And your voice cut right through them. Not many performers can do that.

Chris: I remember knocking out that bridge actually during the tracking session. It seemed like the song was lacking a little extra touch for completeness. Turned out great. I’m happy with it.

11. You Can Play This

Chris: This started as a studio jam and turned into a full track.

Hall: One of those that sort of evolved and produced itself. I love the build, the drums and the fat arrangement that came out of it. Of course those layered acoustic tracks are just big to start with. How many acoustic guitars on that?

Chris: You didn’t keep count? (Laughs.) Tons. An acoustic army. I think I even borrowed a few guitars so they would sound different and the sound would be fatter.

Hall: I’m sure the drummer had a blast. Got to really hit it hard.

12. Biloxi

Chris: This was one I played a lot live. So many people liked it I couldn’t leave it out.

Hall: This version is such a development from the original tracks too.

Chris: Really reworked and freshened — keyboard driven now and more of a power approach. The mellotron adds a lot of classic mood. The song itself actually is a documentation of something a friend went through on his way back home from a failed romance in west Texas. I spoke with him several times on his way back and it sort of inspired me to put those words down.

13. I’m Fine

Hall: I love that the CD is finishing so strong. Another great track.

Chris: I wrote this late in the project, but it was something I was thinking a lot about. It’s a soundtrack to any number of hardships. “This lesson learned” is just one of those phrases that stuck in my mind, and the song evolved around it. It’s a real trick to play through on the twelve-string, but it works. Love the synth vox backing arrangements toward the end. And at the very end, listen for the quick switch to six-string for punctuation. Works great.

Hall: Strong and moving song.

14. Anjileen

Chris: This is another one that started as a studio jam.

Hall: We had a longer version you did, but this one was just lightning in a bottle. It had something… well something sort of indefinable, something evocative that couldn’t be left off the CD. And it’s a perfect coda.

Chris: Kind of cool that it was the first thing we recorded after I signed with Explo-Sound, when I was just feeling out the studio. And now it’s the track we decided to use to close the album. So it was like a common thread or full circle that tied the project together. We tried to re-record it, make it longer, but couldn’t match that first night in the studio moment. That moment, that energy, couldn’t be recaptured.

Thanks, Chris and Habersham. Check back soon for release date information. Also you’ll be able to preview selected tracks soon on Chris Bartlett’s web page.