Jason Robert Brown

Posted on April 15, 2006 at 5:52 pm

To celebrate the publication of “The Jason Robert Brown Collection,” two previously unreleased recordings of songs you’ll find in that book.

One of the main reasons I signed on to “Urban Cowboy, The Musical” was the opportunity to work with Jenn Colella, absolutely one of the most talented young actors in the musical theater. (The other main reason was the money.) I got to write a song for Jenn in the second act of the show, after her character “Sissy” has been dumped by “Bud.” We recorded this version for radio play, which explains why Jenn sings “Drop dead” instead of what I wrote, “Eat shit.” Anyway, here it is, so you can hear it before you throw it in front of some unsuspecting pianist. I’m particularly glad that we got to record this with Jenn, since no one will ever sing it better.

This is a recording from the very first solo concert I did with the Caucasian Rhythm Kings, June 18, 2002 at the Cutting Room on West 24th Street in Manhattan. It was a really exciting night, as I think you can hear from the audience screaming, and this version of “Moving Too Fast” represents everything I think we do best. So come to a JRB concert and see the insanity for yourself! (I’ll admit to a little Frankenstein-ing with this recording: there were four bars in the bridge where I played the wrong chords, so we replaced those with the same section from another concert a week later, and then I fixed some of the vocals in the studio when we thought we might put this on the album. But the audience response is all real, and I did really hit the high A’s!)

Thanks for listening! I’ll be back soon with more tunes and more news.