Jeremy Bass Shares "The Greatest Fire"

(Press Release) On his upcoming full-length The Greatest Fire (Jan. 19th, Jungle Strut Music), Brooklyn-based songwriter Jeremy Bass is accompanied by equally accomplished players in the form of Nick Luca who has toured and recorded with Iron and Wine, Jon Rauhouse who tours and records with Neko Case, Tom Hagerman of DeVotchKa, Jacob Valenzuela of Calexico, and Joel Graves of Everest, among others.
 
The pedigree of the players on The Greatest Fire backs up the songwriting quality that saw Bass win two prestigious songwriting awards – the John Lennon Songwriting Competition and the UK Songwriting Contest – for tracks from his previous pair of 2015 EPs. It is interesting to note that while Bass’ world-class turns of phrase are impressive, especially for an emerging songwriter, he actually makes his bones as a classical guitarist.
 
Bass has logged countless hours mastering the instrument that he was originally trained on in Italy and Spain, and his ascension as a composer ultimately led to The Secret City, the arts organization for which Bass serves as musical director, receiving an Obie Award – off-Broadway theater’s highest honor.
 
“I wanted this album to be an expression of everything I was capable of, to feature the best songwriting I’ve done to date and to let rock n’ roll shine through the more diverse influences of my previous records,” Bass says.
 
And while his sound bears little resemblance to one of his heroes, Bass relates wholeheartedly to this Tom Waits quote: “I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.” The songs on The Greatest Fire take this idea as gospel, both in ideology and practice.
 
“I thrive on the interplay between what people think they’re hearing, and the actual content beneath,” Bassexplains. “I think that’s where the best songwriting happens.” Bass mentions Hank Williams and Merle Haggard’s outlaw output as examples of this juxtaposition.