The best musical thing on the internet

The Session with Christian James Hand

Apr 04, 2021

Hello friends. Happy Spring, etc.

Meet Christian James Hand.

Some of you who follow me on the twitter or the Eye-Gee have probably noted my recent obsession with the work of one Christian James Hand, a radio DJ, musician, and producer, who hosts The Session, a multiple-times-a-week Instagram live “show,” where he presents breakdowns/dissections, and offers commentary on, classic songs.

The Session is sort of like Song Exploder on steroids (but better).

First things first here: immediately follow TheSessionIGLive on Instagram. You’ll thank me later.

Ever since I was turned onto Hand’s breakdown of “Nights On Broadway” by the Bee Gees at the end of February, I have been hooked. (Thanks Jon Smalt for the tip). Since then, with stems in his hand that he’s carefully loaded into his computer, I’ve spend hours late into the evenings staring at Hand’s face on IG, listening to his assiduous breakdown of the individual parts that contribute to the brillant whole of a classic song. And I say classic, I mean classic. He’s done “Papa Was Rolling Stone” by The Temptations, “Train In Vain” and “Rudy Can’t Fail” by The Clash, “Wasted Years” by Iron Maiden, “Rocket Man,” by Elton, Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life,” “Funky President” by James Brown, The O’Jays “I Love Music,” “Sympathy” by the Stones, Zep’s “Whole Lotta Love,” “Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson, “Boogie Wonderland” by Earth, Wind & Fire, and more.

And here’s how it works: He starts with the “Engine Room” - the drum and bass tracks. Then he moves through the individual stems, combining and building the parts of each instrument of the song until he gets to the vocals - which (one of a few rules), out of respect to the singer, no one is allowed to chat during.

The Session is glorious music rediscovery, and once you sit through one, not only will you re-up your appreciation for a song you’ve taken for granted for so long, you’ll double the pleasure with an appreciation for the craft of songwriting, arranging, singing and playing. Oh yeah, the average time of a session: about two hours. But the time fucking flies cause it’s so amazing.

While the music is the star, it’s Christian’s presentation that makes the hang so damn fun. He comes to the music as a fan, with a high level working knowledge of performance, spouting off enough little bits of history and insight into the stems so that he’s experiencing it WITH you. Not once does he feel like the boring Professor, mostly because he doesn’t present the music like some high brow fucking music educator. He knows when to use layman’s terms, and when he can get inside baseball. Musically, he knows his shit. He’s funny, insightful, a bit self-deprecating, and more than once during a session he’ll shout out “Holy fuck, did you hear what just happened there?” pointing to a guitar lick or drum fill, or keyboard run, that he’ll then replay. You’re as giddy and enlightened as he is during those times, reacting in a similar way when great music hits you.

The Session started out as a radio segment, and Hand expanded to doing live events. Since the pandemic, he was forced to go online to do his thing. The Session community chatting along during the sessions is also a fun part of the full experience. Sometimes a famous musician show up in the chat, but mostly it’s just a bunch of us music fans, sitting around, listening to these critical breakdowns, marveling along with a deep sense of wonder. He undresses one song at a time, so that you can understand the beautfy of each fully clothed song.

So, check out The Session. You’ll be glad you did. And tell a friend about it.

Update: check out the complete Session Archive here.

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And now…here’s some new jams on the player I recommend:

New Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream) and Jehnny Beth (Savages)