What I Mean, by Jeff Hulett

What I Mean

by Jeff Hulett

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Full Digital Discography

41

releases

Get all 41 Small Batch releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Jeff Hulett: A Mixed Bag of Collected Works, Strange Nog: A Small Batch Holiday Compilation Volume 4, Snapshots & Visions, All Dressed Up Volume 3, The Josh EP (Something Borrowed), Live from the Blue Room, The Light I'm Sending You, Rarely Last, and 33 more. , and , .

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1.	Something's Wrong 02:24	info	buy track
2.	Happy Sad 03:04	info	buy track
3.	Belong 03:06	info	buy track
4.	Just Like This 03:42	info	buy track
5.	No, Not This Again 03:18	info	buy track
6.	What I Mean 05:05	info	buy track
7.	What Happened 02:47	info	buy track
8.	Druthers 03:36	info	buy track
9.	Trap 05:09	info	buy track
10.	Better Off 02:52	info	buy track
11.	Rest Easy 04:01	info	buy track
12.	No, Not This Again (Instrumental) 01:55	info	buy track

about

Jeff Hulett
What I Mean
Small Batch 2021

What I Mean is the new collaborative effort featuring many familiar names of the Small Batch universe. It is another effort to find music, joy, and a deeper understanding in the concentric circles of crises of our trying times. Through the many stages and faces of the ongoing pandemic, I've spent many hours writing and crafting songs. It keeps me going. It keeps me connected, both with my fellow artists who play and work on the songs, and the audience who share in them.

Saturdays are usually a good day to record. My family does their own thing around the house, whatever that might be, so I have the space and time to create.

But one Saturday in August was different. My wife Annie had finished her second week of teaching and she was wiped out. She came into the bedroom where I was starting to piece together “No, Not This Again”. She collapsed on the bed and fell right to sleep. She was in the room when I cut the guitar. She heard me play a kick drum with a mallet and push a tambourine on my chest. She heard the shakers, the tapping of keyboards and the multiple vocal tracks. If you listen closely, you can hear her leg and body moving on the sheets, like brushes on a snare drum. When the kids came in to check on us, I thought I was at a good stopping point. But the track kept pulling me back to tweak this or that and make a different edit. Like the addition of harmonica or adding a brief whistling part.

The day wore on. The girls were swimming in our stock tank pool in the backyard. They hadn’t heard what I had been working on all day, so I asked them if they wanted to. What happened next had never happened before in my 16-year relationship with Annie. I turned on the Bluetooth speaker we use and the music played. Suddenly, Annie began to ball. I started to cry, too; the kids looked confused.

"Do you like it," I asked?

I was reminded of my proposal to her so long ago. She cried then, too. She said she loved the song. She said again and again that the lyrics were exactly what she was feeling. She shared it with some colleagues, and they agreed. Annie has always been my best fan and my best critic. She is honest and offers constructive criticism, but this seemed different. This was that deeper understanding we are all looking for.

We listened to the song together many times and talked through the night. It connected us and made everything seem okay for a while. The song is simple and almost predictable. It's repetitive and folky. I wrote it in five minutes and recorded it in less than a day. “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift,” Einstein said.

So, while the version you hear on this record is brimming with all kinds of bells and whistles, I think I’ll always favor the rough mix we listened to on that August afternoon, because of the way it touched Annie, and made me feel like I was able to create and give something meaningful, music that connected us.
Now, I give it to you.

Thanks for listening. Love. – JH

credits

released December 17, 2021

All songs written by Jeff Hulett. Spoken word in the beginning of the song Belong was written by John B Spaedt. Album art by Tom Martin.

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