by Andrew Lawrence Jackson (CD, 2008)

After One AM is an album of minimalist rock songs by Andrew Lawrence Jackson that emerged from a period of personal catharsis in the summer and autumn of 2007. Jackson composed the songs during one week of intense self-reflection and when it came to arranging and recording these songs, looked to another seminal rock album: John Lennon /Plastic Ono Band.

The 1970 album was Lennon's cathartic first solo release as a singer-songwriter following The Beatles, and John went for a raw sound with minimal instrumentation. The resulting songs possessed an intense honesty and directness that was arresting. So when it came to arranging and recording After One AM, Jackson along with sound engineer and co-musician Rick Cuevas kept the songs simple and direct. In the recording notes, they refer to these song arrangements as the “Plastic Andy Band.”

Check out the bittersweet longing of "Time Is Running Out", or the honest, cautious optimism in songs like "I Hope We'll Be All Right", "The Tide Has Turned", and "Relax and Go Easy.” Jackson sums up the 14-song suite as “a snapshot of my emotional, psychological, and artistic state at that time.”

“I Hope We’ll Be All Right”

In December 2007, Jackson and Cuevas completed production on the album After One AM. It was released online at CD Baby and iTunes in January 2008. Later in 2008, Jackson produced a music video for the song “I Hope We'll Be All Right” with longtime collaborator Boris Zubov (Boris Darling Productions). The video, filmed on location in downtown San Francisco, involves a lost bunny, an art car, and, well, see for yourself!

A serendipitous meeting with entrepreneur Jonathan Dugan at a 2007 Christmas party where Zru Vogue was playing led to Jackson’s albums becoming available for download from a new web service Dugan was launching: LegalTorrents.com (beta). For some time, Jackson had wanted to make his music available to a wider audience, even if that meant distributing the music free. LegalTorrents made that possible (thanks, Jonathan!) with a new torrent model that combined Creative Commons licensed content with a user community and options to donate to support content providers. After One AM was Andrew Lawrence Jackson’s album debut on LegalTorrents.

Album Credits

All songs written by Andrew L. Jackson. Performed, recorded, and produced by Andrew L. Jackson with Rick Cuevas at Rick Cuevas Studio, Palo Alto, CA, USA.