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Jeffrey Pepper RodgersJeffrey Pepper Rodgers
  • Music
    • Albums
    • Pepper & Sassafras duo
    • JPR Band
    • Lyrics
    • Free Range Acoustic playlist
  • Books
    • Complete Singer-Songwriter
    • Beyond Strumming
    • Rock Troubadours
    • Teach Yourself Guitar Basics
  • Lessons
    • Grateful Dead videos
    • Workshops
    • Private lessons
    • Free online lessons
    • Beyond Strumming guide
    • Songwriting Basics for Guitarists
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Workshops
    • Songwriter showcase
  • Gallery
    • Videos
    • Photos
    • Instagram
  • Songwriting
    • Complete Singer-Songwriter
    • Songwriting toolbox
    • Behind the Song
    • Songwriting Basics for Guitarists
  • Shop
  • About
  • Contact
    • Contact JPR
    • Booking info
    • Electronic press kit
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Writing

Jason Mraz Acoustic Guitar magazine

Behind the song: “Lucky” by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat

February 13, 2018 February 13, 2018Acoustic Guitar magazine, Behind the Song, Complete Singer-Songwriter, Interviews, Songwriting process

“Lucky,” the sweet, swaying duet written by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat with Tim Fagan, was originally released on Jason Mraz’s 2008 album We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. ...

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Behind the Song: “When the Master Calls the Roll” by Rosanne Cash

January 26, 2018 January 26, 2018Acoustic Guitar magazine, Behind the Song, Complete Singer-Songwriter, Interviews, Songwriting process

“When the Master Calls the Roll,” a brilliant story song from Rosanne Cash’s triple-Grammy-winning album The River and the Thread, has a back story that must be a rarity in...

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Free Range Acoustic Spotify playlist

Free Range Acoustic playlist

January 13, 2018 February 10, 2018Lessons and playlists, Writing

I’m lucky enough to spend my days and nights immersed in music—listening, writing about it, interviewing artists, teaching it, playing it. I just created a Spotify playlist called Free Range...

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Behind the song: “Sunny Came Home” by Shawn Colvin

November 22, 2017 February 12, 2018Acoustic Guitar magazine, Behind the Song, Interviews, Songwriting process

“Sunny Came Home,” Shawn Colvin’s bright-sounding but lyrically dark song that scored Grammies in 1998 for both Song of the Year and Record of the Year, has a highly unlikely...

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Chris Thile on being a “serious, curious” musician

November 17, 2017 November 17, 2017Acoustic Guitar magazine, Interviews, Writing

I think serious, curious musicians owe it to themselves and to the music-loving public to avail themselves of all the tools. You run into a lot of people who are...

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David Rawlings on writing songs from tradition

October 24, 2017 October 24, 2017Acoustic Guitar magazine, Guitar, Interviews, Lessons and playlists, Songwriting, Songwriting process

[Poor David’s Almanack] came out of 20 years of thinking about folk music and the roots of things, and seeing that so much beauty comes out of the fluidity of...

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Into the Here and Now

September 7, 2017 March 29, 2018Creative nonfiction, Songwriting process, Writing

Through the doorway and into the street, around the corner and past the groaning school bus and down the hill… I walk through the waking neighborhood but actually see very...

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Songwriting lesson: how to write a bridge

August 15, 2017 August 15, 2017Acoustic Guitar magazine, Complete Singer-Songwriter, Lessons and playlists, Songwriting

Think of the timeless ballad “Something,” from the Beatles’ Abbey Road, in which George Harrison muses on his lover’s allure over a wistful chord progression in the key of C. He...

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Acoustic Guitar August 2017 Joan Shelley

Joan Shelley on fishing for songs

June 21, 2017 June 21, 2017Acoustic Guitar magazine, Interviews, Songwriting process

The analogy of fishing has been used before. You’re just trying to be there at the right time, when your brain is in the right state for catching new images,...

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BeatleCuse 2017 poster

Re-creating the Beatles’ “Within You Without You”

April 11, 2017 April 20, 2018Acoustic Guitar magazine, Beatles, Behind the Song, Performing, Shows

In the summer of 2016, musician and producer Paul Davie contacted me and my duo partner Wendy Sassafras Ramsay about performing in his annual BeatleCuse concert—a major event involving 70 musicians from the...

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Recent Posts

  • Jerry Garcia birthday tribute at Passim
  • Spring tour with Maria Gillard and Martin Swinger
  • Behind the song: “Lucky” by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat
  • Behind the Song: “When the Master Calls the Roll” by Rosanne Cash
  • Free Range Acoustic playlist
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