Jason Feddy Hitches His Wagon for a Star Search

I can see you’re making music ‘cause you carry a guitar,

But God help the troubadour who tries to be a star.

--Phil Ochs

*

Time will tell whether Jason Feddy should have heeded Phil Ochs’ admonition. Feddy, a British singer-songwriter, unsigned and unknown, is in the midst of a U.S. tour in which he hopes to strum Ochs’ fabled “chords of fame.” His bold adventure brings him to the Swallows Inn in San Juan Capistrano tonight and to the Larson House Recovery Home in Garden Grove on Friday.

Feddy, 29, lives in London and has played throughout Europe, where he has developed what he describes as a “grass-roots” following. Sales from two self-produced CDs financed his trip to the United States, where he’s been performing solo, accompanying himself on guitar. Ambitious and resolved to make a career of music, Feddy also has a sense of humor about his raw chutzpah.

“It’s either chutzpah or rank stupidity--whichever way you want to look at it,” he said with a chuckle during a recent phone interview from a friend’s house in Chicago. “It was just a risk I decided I had to take.”

Feddy’s current EP runs the gamut from adult contemporary, radio-friendly originals and covers (Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”) to bitingly sarcastic odes to rejection.

“I like to give you the whole spectrum of what I’m about,” he said. “I like to think that I’m focused in my songwriting. I’m very much into reaching out to people. If something has to be said, then as far as I’m concerned, it has to be said. I write generally from experience. I’m not much of a storyteller if the story isn’t about me.”

Feddy cites the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crowded House as influences, and it shows--his songs are melodic; his voice has good range, and his material is simple but memorable.

Feddy contends that the response to his shows thus far has been better than expected.

“It’s been fantastic,” he said. “We’ve sold loads of CDs over here, and the response from record companies has been unprecedented. We’ve had a lot of meetings. It’s been quite a thing.”

So the starry-eyed troubadour heads out for another show and another chance at fame. He makes his own breaks and takes his own lumps without complaint, happy just to play for an attentive crowd but hoping that perhaps the next gig will be the one that makes the difference.

“If I break even, I’ll be very happy,” Feddy said. “And if I go back home with a suntan, I’ll be very happy too.”

* Jason Feddy performs tonight at the Swallows Inn, 31786 Camino Capistrano in San Juan Capistrano. 7:30 p.m. No cover. (714) 493-3188. Feddy also performs Friday at Larson House Recovery Home, 10111 Larson Ave., Garden Grove. 8 p.m. $5 donation requested. (714) 537-9846.