The American Poets - "Hurt"
Hurt
I'm so hurt
To think that you lied to me
I'm hurt
Way down deep inside me
You said your love was true
And we'd never, ever part
Now you want someone new
And it breaks, it breaks my heart
I'm hurt
Much more than you'll ever know
Darling, I'm so hurt
Because I still love you so
But... but, even... even though you hurt me
Like nobody else could ever do
I would never ever hurt... hurt you
Jimmy Crane and Al Jacobs
I'm so hurt
To think that you lied to me
I'm hurt
Way down deep inside me
You said your love was true
And we'd never, ever part
Now you want someone new
And it breaks, it breaks my heart
I'm hurt
Much more than you'll ever know
Darling, I'm so hurt
Because I still love you so
But... but, even... even though you hurt me
Like nobody else could ever do
I would never ever hurt... hurt you
Jimmy Crane and Al Jacobs
There is a narrow divide between acting and singing. Great actors crave great roles and great singers crave great songs. Both are storytellers who bring to life the words and music of writers and composers—with one big difference, the singer has the added burden of interpreting the music as well. Every songwriter knows that the words and music can never be any better than the singers who sing them.
When a song is really good, bringing together that just-right combination of words and music, vocalists will line up to take their shot. It is that mystical confluence of performer and role that makes a career, providing the singer and the song with an open door to immortality.
Rosemary Timothy Yuro was born in Chicago, on August 4, 1940, into an Italian-American family. By the time she was twenty-one she had found her song. The song “Hurt” was written by Jimmy Crane and Al Jacobs and was originally recorded by Roy Hamilton, the smooth-voiced R&B crooner of “You’ll Never Walk Aone” and “Unchained Melody” fame. His own version of “Hurt” peaked at no. 8 on the R&B charts in 1954 and remained an underappreciated classic. Seven years later, in 1961,Timi Yuro stormed onto the scene with one of the greatest bravura performances of the era, turning the Crane/Jacobs song into a classic, earth-shaking, two-fisted, blue-eyed, soul ballad. Her husky, smoky contralto, with its searing emotional edge, formed a perfect partnership with the words and music, creating what up until now was the definitive reading of the song. Ms.Yuro never again found another great role to play, although she had some chart success and performed in Vegas, opening for Sinatra, among others.
But the Crane/Jacobs song lives on, and has been performed by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Marty Robbins and Carly Simon. Juice Newton scored a No.1 country hit with it in 1985, making it one of the very few songs to ever cross over all three, pop, country and R&B charts.
Music, like all art forms, has a lineage. From Elvis and Roy Hamilton to Timi Yuro and Doris Day, these are just a few of the artists that have played the roles created by the songwriting duo—and now there are two more gifted performers we can add to that list.
When a song is really good, bringing together that just-right combination of words and music, vocalists will line up to take their shot. It is that mystical confluence of performer and role that makes a career, providing the singer and the song with an open door to immortality.
Rosemary Timothy Yuro was born in Chicago, on August 4, 1940, into an Italian-American family. By the time she was twenty-one she had found her song. The song “Hurt” was written by Jimmy Crane and Al Jacobs and was originally recorded by Roy Hamilton, the smooth-voiced R&B crooner of “You’ll Never Walk Aone” and “Unchained Melody” fame. His own version of “Hurt” peaked at no. 8 on the R&B charts in 1954 and remained an underappreciated classic. Seven years later, in 1961,Timi Yuro stormed onto the scene with one of the greatest bravura performances of the era, turning the Crane/Jacobs song into a classic, earth-shaking, two-fisted, blue-eyed, soul ballad. Her husky, smoky contralto, with its searing emotional edge, formed a perfect partnership with the words and music, creating what up until now was the definitive reading of the song. Ms.Yuro never again found another great role to play, although she had some chart success and performed in Vegas, opening for Sinatra, among others.
But the Crane/Jacobs song lives on, and has been performed by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Marty Robbins and Carly Simon. Juice Newton scored a No.1 country hit with it in 1985, making it one of the very few songs to ever cross over all three, pop, country and R&B charts.
Music, like all art forms, has a lineage. From Elvis and Roy Hamilton to Timi Yuro and Doris Day, these are just a few of the artists that have played the roles created by the songwriting duo—and now there are two more gifted performers we can add to that list.
Jeff and Christine Maldonado are the creative duo behind the band “The American Poets.” Their first CD with the group is entitled “Light of Life,” which is a reference to the Gospel of John, Chapter 8, Verse 12. Full disclosure, I play trumpet on two cuts. (Note to Jeff and Christine, always, always bring the trumpet up in the mix!) Using great South Florida musicians, they have brought to life songs that clearly come from the heart. However, before going off on a rhapsodic review of the CD, let me tell you a bit about Jeff and Christine.
Jeff Maldonado grew up in South Florida, taking private classical guitar lessons from teachers at the University of Miami. He attended the prestigious New World School of the Arts and then went to Los Angeles and studied at the Musicians Institute and Costa Mesa Community College, again focused on classical guitar.
Christine Maldonado attended Miami Beach High School, studying under famed band director, Doug Burris. She then won a full scholarship to Miami-Dade Community College where she was one of the Wolfson Singers.
Jeff had a couple of rock bands here in South Florida after returning from California. Christine worked at Spec’s Record Store, studied drums and played local gigs—also singing at North Creek Presbyterian Church in northwest Broward County on Sundays.
In the late ‘90s, Jeff was hanging out at Warehaus 57, a now defunct club in Hollywood, Florida when he ran into Christine. It was fate. From that time to now, they have been inseparable. First performing as “The Providence,” they released a well-regarded acoustic set on CD in 1999. In between all of the gigs and recording sessions, they got married.
I first came across these talented folk while enjoying Mexican food at the late, lamented Cancun Grill here in Hollywood, Florida. A funky, friendly place with excellent Margaritas, the Cancun Grill was a fixture in downtown Hollywood for many years. Jeff and Christine had a regular weekend gig playing there for several of those years.
Hearing their beautiful harmonies, excellent guitar playing and percussion, I was knocked out. I couldn’t believe they were playing in a restaurant when they ought to be in major venues on tour. Getting to know them over the years, I learned that they were smart and capable folk who knew how to market their music. Nonetheless, in spite of a large local support base, they haven’t “broken through” to mainstream success. This is a real loss for the mainstream!
Sitting down with Jeff and Christine, I asked them about the album and their inspiration for the various songs, all but one an original, within it. In a freewheeling discussion, I learned a lot about people I thought I already knew well.
“The first song on the CD is “Darlin’.” Who wrote the song?”
“Christine wrote that one,” answered Jeff.
“What was the inspiration for the song?”
“I wrote it when I got my first apartment and was on my own for the first time,” Christine said, “It’s about…it’s about my friends and I, and the ways that we let ourselves lose our way pursuing unequal relationships.
“You mean with guys”? I asked.
“Yes, but really anytime you pursue a dream and don’t stay true to yourself and who you are.”
“So “Darlin’” was written before you knew Jeff?”
“Yes!” She laughed. “It wasn’t about Jeff. He’s great!”
“So, who wrote “Nova?”
“I wrote it,” responded Christine. “I actually wrote it in the studio. We needed another song and I went into another room and started thinking about it. It just came out in a few minutes. When Jeff and I were thinking about having a child, we liked the name ‘Nova’ for a girl. I was thinking about a possible daughter, but the song could be about many things.”
“Interesting. Well, who wrote “Divine?”
“I wrote it,” Jeff said. “I wrote it before Christine and I were together. It’s about relationships and the way that we do things we shouldn’t to try and make things work. It’s about things that fell apart. It isn’t directly a spiritual song, but it’s kind of how, even when we get it wrong, God works it out in the end. That’s, I guess, where the name “Divine” comes from.”
“I noticed that this song is a lot more, how would I put it, guitaristic than the other songs written by Christine.”
“Yeah, I can barely play guitar,” Christine laughed. “When I write, I focus on the lyrics, the melody and chords, but Jeff hears the whole arrangement in his head.”
“Is that so?” I asked.
Jeff answered, “Yeah, I hear it as a whole finished song, with the orchestration and whatever. You know, I have to feel it, feel the sonics of the music when I’m writing.”
I agreed, “Yeah, me too. When I write a song, I hear the whole thing in my head, with a horn section, solos, the whole thing.”
“So, ‘Long Ride’ is the next song on the album?”
“Yes, I wrote it,” answered Christine. “I wrote it back in the time when I wrote ‘Darlin’. I wrote it about this guy who was driving me crazy. I thought I wanted him and I had this dream, this fantasy about how it would be with him, but he was really all wrong for me. Jeff and I met then, but he helped me as a friend in dealing with the relationship I was pursuing at the time.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, Christine and I were just friends then,” Jeff said.
Christine laughed and said, “He was really patient with me!”
“Wow!” I answered. “Who knew?”
“He always wanted to have wife who was his best friend. Tell him, Jeff.”
“It’s true. Even when I was a little kid, I used to pray and ask God to give me a wife who was my best friend. I guess, with the troubles my parents had, and the way my Dad treated my Mom, I wanted to have a relationship that was better.”
“That’s really cool,” I said. “So, who wrote ‘Birds of Song’?”
“I wrote most of it,” Jeff said, “but Christine helped me on the bridge. I had it as a little thing I worked on for years, starting before I ever met Christine. When we needed another song in the studio, I pulled it out and Christine and I worked on it there. It’s about my dream of love—the way that I envisioned a future love so strong that even the birds feel it.”
“Okay, Jeff, I have to ask about this next one, ‘Leaving Us Alone.’ It’s got a great guitar solo in the middle. That’s not something that most of your songs feature. So, for the guitar players out there, what kind of guitar did you use on that solo?”
Jeff laughed and said, “I used my favorite guitar, an ES 335 and I played it through my old Vox Cambridge amp. I really like that guitar. It’s got a great neck and I feel like I can play anything on it.” (What followed was a discussion of the relative merits of various guitars between yours truly and Jeff. I’ll spare the reader the details and just note that Jeff’s second favorite electric guitar is a Gibson SG.)
Christine chimed in and said, “I wrote ‘Leaving Us Alone’ as a reaction to all of the negativity on the news. It's about how we are left alone to fend for ourselves.
The government and other positions of authority in general, seem not to be concerned with helping the common man.”
“Now, the next song is ‘Hurt,’ which was written by your grandfather, Christine. Your grandfather had a number of hit songs. Why did you choose this one to cover?”
“Well, while it’s true that my grandfather wrote many songs, this is the one that always meant the most to me. I guess that I just felt it the most. What I wanted to do when I covered it was to bring out what I thought was the heart of the song. You know what I mean”?
“Sure. Is that why you slowed it down a bit?”
“Yeah, I wanted to dig into the lyrics and bring them out. They’re so beautiful…”
“Even though I love Timi Yuro’s version, I think I love yours more.” I said.
Christine laughed and said, “Well, thanks!”
Note to readers: Jeff and Christine are accomplished performers, but Christine’s singing on this song reaches something deeper than I’m accustomed to hearing from either her or Jeff. The heartache invoked by the lyrics is obviously felt by Christine’s “character” and she carries that heartache for all who have been rejected by a lover. Where Timi Yuro’s take on the song has the anguished force of a hurricane, Christine takes a cooler approach. Hers is the sorrow, the hurt of an abandoned woman trying to cope, to keep her head held high in the face of despair. On the verge of tears, but with a final declaration of “I could never hurt you” she determinedly carries on. It is quite a different approach to the song, which has almost always been done by others in the manner first perfected by Ms. Yuro and shows a different understanding of the song’s pathos. The exceedingly spare arrangement is an effective choice for highlighting Christine’s voice. She is, essentially, alone.
“Now, ‘Solemn Promise.’ Who wrote this one?”
Jeff volunteered that they both wrote the song. It was written as a gift to some friends for their wedding and was played by Jeff and Christine for the first dance at the reception.
Christine added, “Yes, I actually played guitar with Jeff on this one at the wedding and was terrible!”
Jeff quickly responded, “Well, we got through it okay.”
Laughing, we turned our attention to the next song.
Jeff Maldonado grew up in South Florida, taking private classical guitar lessons from teachers at the University of Miami. He attended the prestigious New World School of the Arts and then went to Los Angeles and studied at the Musicians Institute and Costa Mesa Community College, again focused on classical guitar.
Christine Maldonado attended Miami Beach High School, studying under famed band director, Doug Burris. She then won a full scholarship to Miami-Dade Community College where she was one of the Wolfson Singers.
Jeff had a couple of rock bands here in South Florida after returning from California. Christine worked at Spec’s Record Store, studied drums and played local gigs—also singing at North Creek Presbyterian Church in northwest Broward County on Sundays.
In the late ‘90s, Jeff was hanging out at Warehaus 57, a now defunct club in Hollywood, Florida when he ran into Christine. It was fate. From that time to now, they have been inseparable. First performing as “The Providence,” they released a well-regarded acoustic set on CD in 1999. In between all of the gigs and recording sessions, they got married.
I first came across these talented folk while enjoying Mexican food at the late, lamented Cancun Grill here in Hollywood, Florida. A funky, friendly place with excellent Margaritas, the Cancun Grill was a fixture in downtown Hollywood for many years. Jeff and Christine had a regular weekend gig playing there for several of those years.
Hearing their beautiful harmonies, excellent guitar playing and percussion, I was knocked out. I couldn’t believe they were playing in a restaurant when they ought to be in major venues on tour. Getting to know them over the years, I learned that they were smart and capable folk who knew how to market their music. Nonetheless, in spite of a large local support base, they haven’t “broken through” to mainstream success. This is a real loss for the mainstream!
Sitting down with Jeff and Christine, I asked them about the album and their inspiration for the various songs, all but one an original, within it. In a freewheeling discussion, I learned a lot about people I thought I already knew well.
“The first song on the CD is “Darlin’.” Who wrote the song?”
“Christine wrote that one,” answered Jeff.
“What was the inspiration for the song?”
“I wrote it when I got my first apartment and was on my own for the first time,” Christine said, “It’s about…it’s about my friends and I, and the ways that we let ourselves lose our way pursuing unequal relationships.
“You mean with guys”? I asked.
“Yes, but really anytime you pursue a dream and don’t stay true to yourself and who you are.”
“So “Darlin’” was written before you knew Jeff?”
“Yes!” She laughed. “It wasn’t about Jeff. He’s great!”
“So, who wrote “Nova?”
“I wrote it,” responded Christine. “I actually wrote it in the studio. We needed another song and I went into another room and started thinking about it. It just came out in a few minutes. When Jeff and I were thinking about having a child, we liked the name ‘Nova’ for a girl. I was thinking about a possible daughter, but the song could be about many things.”
“Interesting. Well, who wrote “Divine?”
“I wrote it,” Jeff said. “I wrote it before Christine and I were together. It’s about relationships and the way that we do things we shouldn’t to try and make things work. It’s about things that fell apart. It isn’t directly a spiritual song, but it’s kind of how, even when we get it wrong, God works it out in the end. That’s, I guess, where the name “Divine” comes from.”
“I noticed that this song is a lot more, how would I put it, guitaristic than the other songs written by Christine.”
“Yeah, I can barely play guitar,” Christine laughed. “When I write, I focus on the lyrics, the melody and chords, but Jeff hears the whole arrangement in his head.”
“Is that so?” I asked.
Jeff answered, “Yeah, I hear it as a whole finished song, with the orchestration and whatever. You know, I have to feel it, feel the sonics of the music when I’m writing.”
I agreed, “Yeah, me too. When I write a song, I hear the whole thing in my head, with a horn section, solos, the whole thing.”
“So, ‘Long Ride’ is the next song on the album?”
“Yes, I wrote it,” answered Christine. “I wrote it back in the time when I wrote ‘Darlin’. I wrote it about this guy who was driving me crazy. I thought I wanted him and I had this dream, this fantasy about how it would be with him, but he was really all wrong for me. Jeff and I met then, but he helped me as a friend in dealing with the relationship I was pursuing at the time.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, Christine and I were just friends then,” Jeff said.
Christine laughed and said, “He was really patient with me!”
“Wow!” I answered. “Who knew?”
“He always wanted to have wife who was his best friend. Tell him, Jeff.”
“It’s true. Even when I was a little kid, I used to pray and ask God to give me a wife who was my best friend. I guess, with the troubles my parents had, and the way my Dad treated my Mom, I wanted to have a relationship that was better.”
“That’s really cool,” I said. “So, who wrote ‘Birds of Song’?”
“I wrote most of it,” Jeff said, “but Christine helped me on the bridge. I had it as a little thing I worked on for years, starting before I ever met Christine. When we needed another song in the studio, I pulled it out and Christine and I worked on it there. It’s about my dream of love—the way that I envisioned a future love so strong that even the birds feel it.”
“Okay, Jeff, I have to ask about this next one, ‘Leaving Us Alone.’ It’s got a great guitar solo in the middle. That’s not something that most of your songs feature. So, for the guitar players out there, what kind of guitar did you use on that solo?”
Jeff laughed and said, “I used my favorite guitar, an ES 335 and I played it through my old Vox Cambridge amp. I really like that guitar. It’s got a great neck and I feel like I can play anything on it.” (What followed was a discussion of the relative merits of various guitars between yours truly and Jeff. I’ll spare the reader the details and just note that Jeff’s second favorite electric guitar is a Gibson SG.)
Christine chimed in and said, “I wrote ‘Leaving Us Alone’ as a reaction to all of the negativity on the news. It's about how we are left alone to fend for ourselves.
The government and other positions of authority in general, seem not to be concerned with helping the common man.”
“Now, the next song is ‘Hurt,’ which was written by your grandfather, Christine. Your grandfather had a number of hit songs. Why did you choose this one to cover?”
“Well, while it’s true that my grandfather wrote many songs, this is the one that always meant the most to me. I guess that I just felt it the most. What I wanted to do when I covered it was to bring out what I thought was the heart of the song. You know what I mean”?
“Sure. Is that why you slowed it down a bit?”
“Yeah, I wanted to dig into the lyrics and bring them out. They’re so beautiful…”
“Even though I love Timi Yuro’s version, I think I love yours more.” I said.
Christine laughed and said, “Well, thanks!”
Note to readers: Jeff and Christine are accomplished performers, but Christine’s singing on this song reaches something deeper than I’m accustomed to hearing from either her or Jeff. The heartache invoked by the lyrics is obviously felt by Christine’s “character” and she carries that heartache for all who have been rejected by a lover. Where Timi Yuro’s take on the song has the anguished force of a hurricane, Christine takes a cooler approach. Hers is the sorrow, the hurt of an abandoned woman trying to cope, to keep her head held high in the face of despair. On the verge of tears, but with a final declaration of “I could never hurt you” she determinedly carries on. It is quite a different approach to the song, which has almost always been done by others in the manner first perfected by Ms. Yuro and shows a different understanding of the song’s pathos. The exceedingly spare arrangement is an effective choice for highlighting Christine’s voice. She is, essentially, alone.
“Now, ‘Solemn Promise.’ Who wrote this one?”
Jeff volunteered that they both wrote the song. It was written as a gift to some friends for their wedding and was played by Jeff and Christine for the first dance at the reception.
Christine added, “Yes, I actually played guitar with Jeff on this one at the wedding and was terrible!”
Jeff quickly responded, “Well, we got through it okay.”
Laughing, we turned our attention to the next song.
“I take it that you wrote this song, Jeff, since it’s a father’s song about his son. Didn’t you write this one for Jonas?”
“That’s right. I wrote it when he was about a year-and-a-half old. He’s now fourteen! I wrote it as an encouragement to him. I wanted him to have something that would be his from me and would be with him even when I wasn’t. He learned how to play it on guitar and now plays it for me!”
“How about ‘Your Grace Alone’? Who wrote that one?”
Jeff answered, “We wrote it together. I had a chorus that I’d been messing with, but the rest was done in the studio.”
I asked, “Were you concerned about putting such an overtly Christian song on the album?”
Both Jeff and Christine looked a little uncomfortable. Jeff said, “Yes, it was a concern ‘cause not all of our friends and fans are Christians. We just put our faith in God and trusted that He would make it all okay. However, in the future, I think we would either do a Christian album or a secular album. It’s just too hard to try to market a combined effort. We just wanted to give something to our Christian fans and, besides, we wanted to write about all aspects of our life.”
“Yeah, I figured that might have been a concern. On the other hand, every time I hear that part where you sing ‘Immanuel’ I get chills!”
They both laughed and said, “Thanks.”
“So, let’s see what’s next. Oh yeah, ‘New Found Hope.’ Who wrote this one?” I asked.
“We wrote this one together. We actually wrote it for a small film that a friend was involved with. The film was about finding the courage to do what needed doing to mend a relationship. As it turned out, the song wasn’t used in the movie, but we liked it and decided to use it on the album. The message is that we should always make an effort to cast our fears and doubts aside and boldly face our challenges knowing that God will always give us the strength to carry us through”
“Well, finally there’s ‘All I Ever Wanted.’” I said.
Christine said, “I wrote it. It was one of my first songs written on guitar. I was really influenced by Sarah McLachlin at that time—I still am. What’s funny is that I wrote it before I met Jeff, but it means so much more now.”
By this time, Eija, their three-year-old son, was getting restless. He started singing the Beatles’ “Love Me Do” and I took it as my cue to leave.
I said, at the beginning of this article, that “There is a narrow divide between acting and singing. Great actors crave great roles and great singers crave great songs.” The American Poets understand this. Their carefully crafted songs and the beautiful arrangements they use to bring them to life are the roles of a lifetime, incorporating as they do the emotions and experiences of their lives and ours.
We have put some of Jeff and Christine’s songs below for our readers to hear. “The American Poets” CD is available for download on iTunes and the physical CD is available at CDBaby.com/cd/americanpoets. The earlier “The Providence” CD is also available at CDBaby.com/cd/providence. Check them out and you, too, may soon be fans of “The American Poets.”
Thomas A. Hall
“That’s right. I wrote it when he was about a year-and-a-half old. He’s now fourteen! I wrote it as an encouragement to him. I wanted him to have something that would be his from me and would be with him even when I wasn’t. He learned how to play it on guitar and now plays it for me!”
“How about ‘Your Grace Alone’? Who wrote that one?”
Jeff answered, “We wrote it together. I had a chorus that I’d been messing with, but the rest was done in the studio.”
I asked, “Were you concerned about putting such an overtly Christian song on the album?”
Both Jeff and Christine looked a little uncomfortable. Jeff said, “Yes, it was a concern ‘cause not all of our friends and fans are Christians. We just put our faith in God and trusted that He would make it all okay. However, in the future, I think we would either do a Christian album or a secular album. It’s just too hard to try to market a combined effort. We just wanted to give something to our Christian fans and, besides, we wanted to write about all aspects of our life.”
“Yeah, I figured that might have been a concern. On the other hand, every time I hear that part where you sing ‘Immanuel’ I get chills!”
They both laughed and said, “Thanks.”
“So, let’s see what’s next. Oh yeah, ‘New Found Hope.’ Who wrote this one?” I asked.
“We wrote this one together. We actually wrote it for a small film that a friend was involved with. The film was about finding the courage to do what needed doing to mend a relationship. As it turned out, the song wasn’t used in the movie, but we liked it and decided to use it on the album. The message is that we should always make an effort to cast our fears and doubts aside and boldly face our challenges knowing that God will always give us the strength to carry us through”
“Well, finally there’s ‘All I Ever Wanted.’” I said.
Christine said, “I wrote it. It was one of my first songs written on guitar. I was really influenced by Sarah McLachlin at that time—I still am. What’s funny is that I wrote it before I met Jeff, but it means so much more now.”
By this time, Eija, their three-year-old son, was getting restless. He started singing the Beatles’ “Love Me Do” and I took it as my cue to leave.
I said, at the beginning of this article, that “There is a narrow divide between acting and singing. Great actors crave great roles and great singers crave great songs.” The American Poets understand this. Their carefully crafted songs and the beautiful arrangements they use to bring them to life are the roles of a lifetime, incorporating as they do the emotions and experiences of their lives and ours.
We have put some of Jeff and Christine’s songs below for our readers to hear. “The American Poets” CD is available for download on iTunes and the physical CD is available at CDBaby.com/cd/americanpoets. The earlier “The Providence” CD is also available at CDBaby.com/cd/providence. Check them out and you, too, may soon be fans of “The American Poets.”
Thomas A. Hall
The American Poets
