Greg Copeland couldn’t be accused of not taking his time over his musical releases – ‘Boon Time’ is from his latest EP ‘Empire State‘ which will be released on September 6th. It follows on from the album ‘The Tango Bar‘ from 2020 which marked his first release since ‘Diana and James‘ in 2008 which itself was the follow up to ‘Revenge Will Come‘, his debut release of 1982. Not that this marked his first musical mark – Greg Copeland grew up Orange County California and was a high-school friend of Jackson Browne in the 1960s. Copeland co-wrote Browne’s early song ‘The Fairest Of The Seasons’ which was on the Nina Demos and Nico’s album ‘Chelsea Girl‘ in 1967. Co-writes with Steve Noonan would be recorded by The Nitty Gritty Dirt band and the song ‘El Salvador‘ was recorded in 1989 by Joan Baez.
However he took a long hiatus from music after his debut album, and he and his wife raised two sons. He started songwriting again in 2000. He says, “I could feel it coming. The odometer clicked over and it was like I came out of a deep freeze. Songs just started pouring out. It took me a couple of years to really trust it. After a while, I was leaving one job and starting another, and I decided to give myself a hundred days to do nothing but write. Most of the songs on this record appeared in a rush of bits and pieces during that period, and it took me nearly four years to sort them out.”
The cinemagraphic lyrically quick cut ‘Boon Time‘ hints at present violence and future uncertainties. Greg Copeland told Americana UK about the song’s recording saying: “We recorded this in a single session at Tyler’s studio. Jay’s first drum thwack, and it was all over. It was like that first cry from a healthy new baby: ‘Yeah, good, this is going to be ok.’ Then smash cut, black and white, straight into our local American danger. A quick weather report from a very dark place.”
Million thanks for this article. Great to learn to know, that Greg Copeland is still alive. He‘s Revenge Will Come was a record for eternity!