Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel #2” gets reinvented as “Balmville Motel” by Richard McGraw.

“…he has written a small & perfect chorus” – Said The Gramophone on McGraw’s “Hurting Heart.”

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Richard McGraw by Kevin Sprouls, creator of the Wall Street Journal-style portrait.

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Hear “Balmville Motel,” Richard McGraw’s take on Leonard Cohen’s classic “Chelsea Hotel #2.”

[STREAM + WIDGET]: http://fairtilizer.com/track/richardmcgraw-balmvillemotel

[MP3] http://www.fanaticpromotion.com/projects/richardmcgraw/mp3/richardmcgraw-balmvillemotel.mp3

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Richard McGraw discusses the creation of “Balmville Motel”:

“It started as a joke when I replaced the words ‘Chelsea Hotel’ with ‘Balmville Motel’, a crumby run down place in my hometown of Newburgh, NY. I took it seriously when I felt there was a story that needed to be told of my teenage lust and rejection. I would describe the details of the heart ache, but from an older, more stoic, perhaps wiser perspective. It’s a similar perspective Cohen takes when recalling his incident with Janis Joplin at the Chelsea Hotel.

I started writing it in 2002. It would take me five years to complete. I gave up on it for a year or two because it was such a daunting task. ‘Chelsea Hotel #2’ is a concise masterpiece. I wasn’t trying to re-write the perfect song, nor was I trying to fill his shoes, but I had to at least be driving towards his ball park, or be somewhere near his neighborhood, and that was no easy task. My re-write turned out more long winded, and I used the chorus ideas from his original version of ‘Chelsea Hotel’ (http://dai.ly/92Z2R6).

With Jay Foote’s (of Sufjan Steven’s Welcome Wagon and Diane Birch) arrangements and Fulton Lights production, ‘Balmville Motel’ turned out to be more of an epic rock ballad. I am inexplicably grateful for the life and work of Leonard Cohen.” – Richard McGraw, 2010

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Richard McGraw
Burying The Dead
(Non-Utopian Records)

MP3: “Balmville Motel”
MP3: “Hurting Heart”

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Richard McGraw Links

EPK : WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : MYSPACE : TWITTER : PURCHASE

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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion, Inc.

WEBSITE : TWITTER : FACEBOOK : E-MAIL

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