Oh Restless Heart

by Tim Hassall

Oh Restless Heart Cover Art
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  • Digital Album

    1. Uncompromisingly accurate guitar tabs for every track!

    2. NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN extracts from Hassall's lyric journals showing the composition of every song.

    3. Beautiful hi-res cover artwork

    4. Complete lyric zines (for use in shower or car)

    5. Behind the scenes photography from recording sessions in studios Dubai and Nashville.

    As well as the immediate download of Oh Restless Heart in any audio format you desire!!!!!!!

    Buy Now  $5 USD  or more

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about

‘References to Americana sit alongside mentions of Dubai’s landmarks as Hassall charts a life spent traipsing from one country to the next, making wry observations at every turn. The result is an original, global sound that Hassall hopes will have global appeal, and could see him springboard to bigger things from Dubai….he might just be the vanguard of a wave of new local talent.’

MATT ROSS, FYI MAGAZINE, 09.30.2010

Celebrated singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tim Hassall is releasing his much anticipated debut solo album, Oh Restless Heart, a collection of ten songs showcasing his unique song craft and expansive musical vision.

Produced in collaboration with Joshua F. Williams (Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder) at Dubai based-recording studio, Creative Kingdom, Oh Restless Heart is the result of a remarkably personal, global journey and sheer dedication to the art of songwriting, which lies at the heart of Hassall’s music.

Hassall’s music is inspired by a wide range of influences, loosely occupying the “singer-songwriter” genre. Songs are observational and narrative driven, with heavy helpings of alt-country, folk, indie, electro, soul and talking blues, the album showcases Hassall’s musicianship, playing acoustic and electric guitars, dobro, banjo, harmonica, alto saxophone, piano and percussion.

Hassall has garnered the admiration of musical peers and much critical praise - twice voted TimeOut Dubai Nightlife Award winner (Best Alternative Artist 2009, Best Local Band 2010), as front man of the ‘incredible live outfit’ Tim Hassall and The August Company (Andy Buchan, Editor DJ Magazine Middle East), and considered ‘a real wordsmith’ by Grammy award winning mastering engineer Doug Sax (The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, Ray Charles, James Taylor).

Key to understanding Hassall’s musical vision is in his collaborative approach to the production of Oh Restless Heart. Having notched up countless hours on stages across the Arabian Gulf, America and Britain, Hassall recruited over 20 musician friends to play on Oh Restless Heart, chosen for their musicality and ability to bring emotional intelligence and vibe to the recordings. This varied group of musicians reflects the diversity of Dubai, with European, American, Asian, Australasian, Arab and South American backgrounds.

For those musicians based further abroad, Hassall used Skype to compose and arrange guitar parts and vocal harmonies. Recording studios were booked in Los Angeles and Nashville for tracking, and final takes digitally transferred back to Dubai and into the mix. This enormous collaborative effort was held together by a common belief in the strength of Hassall’s music, and a desire to be involved in a creative project crossing musical and cultural boundaries on a scale never before attempted in the UAE.

credits

released 01 October 2010
Music and lyrics written by Tim Hassall.
Produced by Tim Hassall and Joshua F. Williams.
Additional tracking by:
1) Warren Whitten @ Tracking Rooms, Nashville, TN
2) Jeff Irwin @ Private Residence, San Diego, CA.
Engineered by Joshua F. Williams with Ali Vowels.
Mastered by Doug Sax with Sangwook “Sunny” Nam @ The Mastering Lab.
© Tim Hassall 2010.

Complete players listing on 'Oh Restless Heart':
Ben Harris; Bass Guitar
James Sinclair; Drums
Alan Cunningham; Drums
Duncan Jones; Drums
Erin Rae; Vocals
Kara Gray; Backing Vocals
Sophie McAdam; Backing Vocals
Dia Hassan; Backing Vocals
Alex Cadiz; Backing Vocals
Faye Roberts; Backing Vocals, Keyboard
Bernie Steponitis; Piano, Organ
Nathan McMath; Tenor Sax
Dan Tremmel; Trumpet
Katy Hassall; Celtic Harp
Simon Short; Mandolin
Jeff Irwin; Lead Guitar
Reiner Erlings; Piano, Programming
Joshua F. Williams; Programming, Percussion
German Cortez; Percussion
Guy Brooksbank; Good vibes
Ali Vowels; Percussion

tags

tags: acoustic country country-alt dubai experimental folk folk funk indie singersongwriter soul spoken word talking blues unsigned

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Track Name: Texas Sunset
I watched a Texas sunset
Orange light fading to the smoke of a cigarette
With 1500 miles on the clock
And 25 days to get to New York, New York

Slept some in the tent, some in the car
Lost count of numberless beers in numberless bars
Listening to Country and Cajun radio
Dreaming of falling in love at a junction rodeo

The appeal of rings and things, never held me
The road always called me back to the door
Lyrics light my fire,
Worn hands finger-picking inspire me
To play forever more
To follow the street lights to the music,
And sing till dawn

Countless characters and countless tales
Of state parks and cheap hostels
The ocean the river and the bay
All travellers are just birds of prey
With no time to clear the road
Keep an out for the state border patrol
Devouring everything as we go
Good bye Arizona, hello El Paso

The appeal of rings and things, never held me
The road always seduced me back to the door
Harmonica lights my fire,
Rock n rollers inspire me to
Play forever more
To follow the street lights to the music…

I got weighed down in Memphis and Nashville
There’s too many good singers just to pass through
Drawing on condensed car windows, see
She’s more gorgeous than Winslett
But I ain’t no Leo
When a parking lots as romantic as it gets
And you’re staying with who you meet next
I guess New York City will have to wait
Cause I’m high in Atlanta airport tryin’ to fit two guitars in an overhead crate
Track Name: Marilyn Monroe
She listens to the radio
but they don’t play the kind of songs she likes
The playlist is prearranged
and filled with songs picked by marketing guys
Instead she’d settle for a living room friends and guitars
Instead of synth hooks and beat mash up cooks
She’d settle for tapes bootlegged in bars

He goes to modern art galleries
but don’t understand what they promote
An abattoir of modern life
on canvass don’t give him no hope
Instead he’d settle
for a painting of mountains in the snow
Instead of intelligent strokes and violent jokes he’d settle for a photo of Marilyn Monroe

They met in the theatre
and marvelled at all the people acting insane
Held hands in the interval
and kissed later on standing in the rain
Instead of one night they’re planning a future and use affectionate names
Instead of dropping out they’re buying a house and forgetting about when the world was insane
Track Name: I Know A Girl
I know a girl that everyone loves,
She’s popular because she loves love
She’s always welcome round my neighbourhood
And every guy I know has been with her if they could
Oh she’s so confused
Doesn’t know which boy is right but
Lets them take her home for the night cause
She’d rather fuck than fight

Yes I know a girl that everyone loves,
She’s popular because she loves love
She’s always drinking way too much
Stumbling down staircases says it’s a phase but
It’s been going on since we were kids
Escalated from Smirnoff to spliffs now
Packs her crack in a pipe for her kicks
She tries to walk the line but she’s high off her tits

I know a girl that everyone loves,
She’s popular because she loves love
She lost her childhood grew up too fast,
Now not so fantastic considering plastic, yeah
Everything in her life’s so mundane
All the boys their clumsy hands feel the same
Can’t even remember half of their names
Or the last time that she came

Yes I know a girl that everyone loves,
She’s popular because she loves love
She’s always confessing her secrets to me,
I’m just a friend but it aint all that easy when
You’ve got secrets that you’re trying to hide
but there ain’t nobody left to confide in that
You’re completely obsessed smitten and in love
With a girl that everybody’s loved.
Track Name: I Wish
As she leads me through the palace
She points out that it aint paint it’s real gold
She seems to know every story
That these walls have ever told

And we’re standing by a river on a balcony
Until security move us along
And I take her by the arm and I whisper
‘This would be a good place to sing you one of my songs’

she says ‘I wish’, ‘I wish’

Well in the club there’s hardly room to stand
They’re playing the blues, it’s getting real loose in here
I close my eyes and let the guitar wash over me
I feel the weight of this city, disappear

Outside he offers me a cigarette
Knows I just cant turn ‘em down
With cherry candy glowin’ from his lips
he says ‘it must be about time that you jumped town’

‘I wish’, ‘I wish’

Well, it’s that time of the night
so I put my cards on the table
Offering the last train ride back to mine
Uncomfortably she turns to her friends in the station
Explains she’ll be going my way for the night

She’s only coming over for one thing
And it aint a cup of tea
Lying naked with her hair on my shoulder
I murmur ‘that you like gold to me’

She says ‘I wish’, ‘I wish’

Well he knows he’s quite a talker
At night we debate fiercely
But at 3am curled up in my thoughts
Well she agrees with me

That there’s an ancient way of living
Buried deep within our bones
There’s a desire within in each of us
To burn our money to burn our clothes
And to hurtle towards a freedom
To run the race alone
To leave society and all its machines
To leave the city and these assholes.

I said ‘I wish’, ‘I wish’, ‘I wish’, ‘I wish’

But you just can’t stay, but you just can’t escape
And you just can’t stay, and you just can’t escape
Track Name: Bribing The Reaper
You know I’ve swam across the top
of the bottomless seas
And I’ve met with the mayor
and seen the same fear in him as me
I’ve borrowed from a beggar
and I’ve stolen from the store
And I’ve gained a little depth
but I’ve shallowed even more you know
This life’s been good to me the passin’ not too unkind
I learnt to beg and steal
and use the resources of my mind
They say that the kingly thing to do
is to sit in the lowest seat
And I learnt to do my talkin’ with the sharpest knife to carve the beast

And I’ve camped in the deserts where the rivers run dry
I’ve sang to the earth and to the moon and to the sky
I caught the train to Morocco by the river there, just
Smoking smooth hasish and breathing bitter
Marakash air you know
When you’re staring at girls
and all you can see is their eyes
They might wear a veil they might wear a disguise
But if you should know to hide one thing, you should know it’s them eyes cause
They tell too many truths, too many stories, to few lies

And now the old are getting young,
and the young are getting poor
The sick are taking pills
to bribe the reaper from their door
It’s not yet winter, but it’s already cold
And soon you’ll hear them tell tales
of young payin’ to be old
In shuffles lawyers you can hear them in their ranks
Sleepin up in the rafters or in their paper tanks
Religion is coming down you can hear it on the air
Some believe that we’re believers but I believe we just don’t care so
Turn on the news and see newsmen
running from a noose
It’s all an advertisement selling you the truth
Walls will fall and walls will be built
And wars will be fought and blood will be spilt
But why get involved when there’s so much to do?
It’s such a big world and you’re just a little you
Hours, minutes, seconds, well they be tickin’ down
And if you wake or if you sleep this crazy place still spins round

But don’t heed my words or believe the rhymes I say
I’m just another beggar lookin’ for a place to play
I’m the one standing on the street at night and
I’m the one that lost front teeth in a drunken fight and
I’m the one the hopeless the unemployed that you pass
I’m the lost the addict the drunk and the destroyed
I’m the one that these kids wish they could have been and
I’m the one that had to live with these dying dreams and
I’m the one begging you all to come along and
I’m the one dyin’ to sing you the last song
I’m the one and there’s more to take my place
just, look into the mirror and you’ll see it in your face
Track Name: Little Black Dress
It don’t take the news to give me the blues
Or a shot to my chest to make me loose rest
And the passin’ of time don’t trouble my mind

All it takes, all it takes, all it takes is a little black dress and I’m a mess.

When I turn out the light, well I sleep alright
With my money and my love I’m not too uptight
And the game’s just a game it’s not the truth or a test unless

She wears a little black dress

Now the legends of old don’t weigh much on my soul
Nor the book-keepers tomes diminish the worth of my prose
Cause most all of time well im doin’ my best

Still all it takes, all it takes, all it takes is a little black dress and im a mess

And the sharpest mind you aint likely to find
Even though I cut back on the smoke and the wine
Almost everyday I’m working to pay my way out west

Back to a little black dress

Back to a little black dress
Track Name: Homeland Of My Heart
I was driving through the backstreets with my father
I was walking through the market place with my friends
I was lying on the beach with my head against my woman
Thinking how sweet it is to be back home again

Now I’m drinking from the cup that I painted
Wearing the clothes of my youth
Sleeping in the bed I first got laid in
While dusting off old photos from school

Now a beautiful day can turn grey
And tomorrow might seem so far away
But the daybreak will surely bring the light
Now friends might come and go
But there’s those that you really know
Will never leave you behind
Leave you behind

I was drifting through my future like the captain
Of a life raft in waves ten feet high
Studying the stars for my next destination
Thinking how calm the seas must be on the other side

Now a beautiful day can turn grey
And tomorrow might seem so far away
But the daybreak will surely bring the light
Now friends might come and go
But there’s those that you really know
Who will never leave you behind

And I know the difference between surviving and living
It’s about waking with a smile on your face
And I’ve seen the changes coming
I just hope that this progress takes us to a better place

Now the homeland of my heart never changes
Even though they’re building there all the time
The skyscrapers and runways are but phases
Only family and friends can stand the test of time
Track Name: Price To Be Paid
Slipped back home all alone
Trying to keep myself to my family and me
Spotted at the beach taken out to lunch flat whites and carrot cake,
At the Lime Tree Café by the bay
The marina bouncers are lame
Only letting the vacuous and beautifully tame
Girls into a den where finely dressed men
entertain with their salaries and cosmetic grins

In a city where a buck can be a matter of luck
Your skin colour your lifestyle your wasta
Determine your rise as much as your mind
Like skyscrapers they’re slowly cracking
On the backs of the men who been building them
Imported by self-styled pharaohs
Where the washing of bills and the ringing of tills
drown out any notions that question

Ethics in a land that places faith in its
candid glamour and hype on billboards
In place of social foundations build monorail stations
to ease congestion while enlarging the airport
Followed by road-side stares everywhere everyday
it’s all perspective people say
Buy a model home in a mall and deck it out with kitsch décor
from Arabian heritage stalls

Cause there’s a price to be paid,
Cause there’s a price to be paid

Slipped back home all alone
Trying to keep myself to my family and friends
Spotted at the beach taken out to lunch flat whites and carrot cake,
At the Lime Tree Café by the bay
The marina bouncers are lame and we’re all so artificially tame
And around and around and around and again,
And we dance and we drink and we spin and we sing

Da dum da dum da da da dum,
Da dum da dum da da da dum
Da dum da dum da da da dum,
Track Name: Old Friends
Old friends, a summer’s end
Flying back home across the sea
Pieces of my memories, wash up on me
Wooden box keepsakes of the past

Old friends why do we have to part?
You’ll never rust in my heart

Old friends, I’m coming over again
And epic days will soon be rollin in
Old friends dust off the workin’ week
Cause when we’re together it’s like it’s supposed to be

You pour the drinks, and I’ll think of the next song
Suddenly it’s 7am, oh my how time has flown
But we can’t go to sleep yet, there’s another chorus to be sung
Warm up some coffee and watch the risin’ sun

Old friends why do we have to part?
You’ll never rust in my heart
Track Name: Waylaid Into The Night (I Shall Bury You With My Song)
When you die my brother when you die,
Don’t you go quietly into the long dark night,
May you clamour and claw break down the door
So I know, so I know, how to fight

When you hurt my dear sister, when you hurt
Don’t you reach for the bottle, you’ll only make it worse,
It’ll drag you down, run you into the ground
When you hurt, my sister, when you hurt

When you cry my father, when you cry,
When you are waylaid, into the darkest night,
May I be by your side, to shoulder your pride,
When you cry my father, when you cry.

When you shake my mother, when you shake,
When you regret every decision that you ever made,
May you draw on me, only love can set you free,
When you hurt, my mother, when you hurt
when you hurt, yeah yeah, when you hurt.