James Fairs: All Around You
New Music from the Jamez Band
James Fairs, as part of the Chicago sensation Cryan’ Shames, used to rock out like Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, and Bob Dylan — a definite 1960s sound. Here’s a sample: The Sailing Ship (1967).
Since then, Fairs wrote songs for Chaka Khan, toured with and produced work with Gregg Allman, and toyed around with bagpipes. Turning to musical technology, he is now CEO of IMI Innovations. About 8 months ago, he started posting new songs on YouTube.
When you watch a video on YouTube, at the end you get suggestions for other videos you might like. For the latest song by the Jamez Band, “All Around You,” the YouTube algorithm pulls up titles like: Ancient Knowledge, Life’s Hidden Truths, What is Life, and, strangely, Quantum Computing Explained. The song’s lyrics are not posted, but from just the sound and title, they nailed it.
Starting with a brief introduction filled with bass notes that rattle the speakers, the drums kick in an up-tempo beat, and a few seconds later the song grows stronger still. The lyrics urge you to “look out past the horizon,” to find “a new vision of the world that’s all around you.”
Given the lyrics, it’s easy to imagine that the first part of the song represents the heartbeat of infancy, then life speeding up in adolescence, growing stronger in maturity. Somehow sensing this, the algorithm decides the song is about “Life,” and the search for meaning.
Fairs tells us that if we listen “past all the noise” we can find a connection to something timeless. YouTube seems to agree.
YouTube: “All Around You” — James Fairs
