Larry Weiss' new CD "Cuts and Scratches" available now on CD Baby. Click on the CD cover to buy the album.

Sample some audio clips from this brand new album here!

 

In art as in life, there is both poetry and truth. Legendary tunesmith Larry Weiss uses both to create stark, and visceral musical portraits of the human condition.

An artist and composer of extraordinary depth and virtue, (Rhinestone Cowboy, Bend Me Shape Me, Lay Me Down Roll Me Out To Sea, Jeff Beck's Hi Ho Silver Lining, Spooky Tooth's Evil Woman, Jerry Butler's Mr. Dream Merchant, plus 100’s of other recorded compositions to his credit), Weiss was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey. “There was an ongoing variety of music being played in our house, everything from Beethoven to Thelonius Monk mixed with show tunes and great standards.  When I was nine or ten, my father gave me a guitar,” notes Weiss, adding, “I learned to play two chords, and knew right then and there, music was the road I wanted to be on.” Little did he realize, though, that road would lead to amazing fame, and would begin right across the river in New York City.

“My first job writing songs was for a publisher in the 1650 Broadway building”, Weiss continues. “I began to learn the craft of songwriting from some of the great black writers." Artists like Dionne Warwick, Nat King Cole and a bevy of R & B acts like Chuck Jackson, Baby Washington, and the Shirelles, began to take notice and record his songs.

A prolific artist in his own right, Weiss’s own songs explore the emotional state of loss, while still allowing listeners to embrace their pain, in an honest, hopeful and uplifting way. On the opening track “I Am Somebody”, off of his current CD release entitled “Cuts and Scratches”,  he observes: ”It’s hard to be yourself..the world is so demanding.. hard to free yourself and reach an understanding of what life’s all about..what to live with…what you can’t live without.”

In his ‘Black And Blue Suite’ LP that some say contained the blueprint, the original version of what would become his iconic “Rhinestone Cowboy”, he sings…“there’s been a load of comprimisin’ on the road to my horizon..while in the last verse…’there’ll be a load of compromisin’…wisdom is waiting inside of us if we only take the time to stop and listen.” “I’m very grateful to be where I am now and writing about life as I see it,” he admits, wistfully.

The father of two beautiful daughters, and a musical son, Weiss’s journey continues. Weiss poetry and truth's belong in our lives. His own personal narrative continues to deepen and broaden over time, in a simple yet achingly beautiful way. Painting and defining with melody's and words, the cultural landscape that has become the thing we call life.

For more information or to contact Mr. Weiss email him at: larry@larryweiss.com.