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Judgment", and the AECOS, SECOS, and TECOS CD's (or single
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The AECOS, SECOS and TECOS CD's featuring a variety of country,
country rock, contemporary folk, pop and urban folk are available for
$9.97 (or less), or 99˘ downloads by clicking
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If you would like to listen to 30 second snippets of the
songs on AECOS, SECOS, and TECOS, and peruse the lyrics before
purchasing, click here: Songs.
Our Story
Songwriters Jim Purtell and Ricki
E. Bellos met through a Songwriters of Wisconsin International
meeting and Jim was impressed with a critique Ricki did of one
of his songs. A few days later, Jim sought out Ricki and
asked if she’d like to tinker with some of his lyrics on a
song called "If This Is Love" and he was impressed
with her work.
Since that time, June 2010, Jim
and Ricki have partnered up (Jim writes the melodies and Ricki
writes the lyrics) and written over eighty songs in a variety of
styles as exemplified on their new 2011 release entitled AECOS
(an eclectic collection of songs) featuring Jon Statham and Lisa
Mowry, produced by Jon Statham and Jim Hendrick. Jim
Purtell was the executive producer for the CD.
Music fans who are drawn to easy
listening music will hear hints of Ricki and Jim's musical
influences including sounds reminiscent of James Taylor, Paul
Simon, Joni Mitchell, Lucinda Williams, Brian Wilson, Vince Gill
and the Beatles.
In
January 2012, Ricki and Jim released their second CD called
SECOS featuring Jon Statham and Elise Lieberth produced by Jon
Statham and Jim Hendrick. Jim Purtell was the executive
producer for this CD as well.
Jim and Ricki have entered only
two song contests to date and they were finalists in the 2010
Nashville Songdoor Songwriting Contest with a song called
"IF I Ever Saw You Again" and they won the 2011 Ft.
Myers, FL song contest sponsored by the Ft. Myers News-Press
with a song called "If I Close My Eyes". Both of
these winning tunes are on AECOS with ten other songs.
In August 2013, Ricki and Jim
released their third collaboration entitled TECOS with 14 songs
featuring six excellent vocalists. Jim Hendrick produced
the CD and Jim Purtell was the executive producer.
Jim has been actively involved in
producing videos to some of the songs with Colleen Miller and
Jim Hendrick and the videos can be seen on our Videos
page.
Thanks for visiting, Jim & Ricki
Bios
Jim Purtell
Jim Purtell is a founding member of
the Songwriters of Wisconsin International (SOWI) having
attended the first meeting in 1983. He is one of two
active founding members of the organization. Jim has
placed several songs in the SOWI song contests through out the
years and won the Modern Country category in 1998 and 1999 and
was Songwriter of the Year in SOWI in 1998.
Jim is a guitarist, preferring Martin
acoustic guitars, and he played professionally on the road in
the mid 1970’s, but has not performed since. In recent
years, after a lengthy hiatus, Jim has been focusing his efforts
on songwriting.
In 2010, Jim co-produced a music video
for one of his songs called "The Waiting Goes On" and
it garnered a Telly Award for video excellence.
Jim is affiliated with BMI and he
teamed up with partner Ricki E. Bellos in June 2010. Now
Jim focuses on melody composition and his partner writes the
lyrics.
In May 2011, Jim and Ricki released
their first CD of original songs called AECOS (an eclectic
collection of songs) featuring Jon Statham and Lisa Mowry.
The songs are of several different genres including contemporary
folk, Americana, modern country, adult contemporary, pop and
urban folk.
Jim and friends co-produced a music video currently on www.youtube.com
for their song "If I Close My Eyes", a mellow
reflection about island life on Ft. Myers Beach, Matlacha and
Lovers Key. The video was filmed at several locations in
southwest Florida and in Appleton, WI.
Jim completed another music video and this one was
filmed at his house in Oshkosh, WI in the Summer of 2011 with
his sister Colleen Miller's help to a Bellos/Purtell composition
called "Almost There". It's likely there will be
more videos in their future.
Ricki
Bellos
Ricki suffered for a long time from serious stage fright, yet
she wanted an outlet for her creativity. It took her
several years to decide that songwriting would be the vehicle to
express her artistic feelings. After playing the guitar
for thirty years, Ricki had only eight songs completed.
She decided to get serious about writing and to date she has
written music and lyrics to over 100 songs.
Ricki won an Honorable Mention in the SongDoor International
Songwriting Competition in 2007 and 2009 competing as a
soloist. In June 2010, she met fellow songwriter Jim
Purtell through their local songwriting group, Songwriters of
Wisconsin International. Jim approached Ricki about
co-writing and she thought they’d write a few songs and then
go their separate ways. Ricki had written with other
writers, and continues to do so, but her experience at that time
was composing melodies to other writer’s lyrics. Jim
wanted to reverse the process and have Ricki write lyrics to his
melodies. What began as a songwriting experiment has
blossomed into a songwriting partnership. Jim composes all
of the melodies and Ricki writes all of the lyrics. Ricki
and Jim have written over 80 songs since their partnership began
in June 2010.
Reviews
"I enjoyed it very much. It sounds great and the
songs are beautiful & effective. I love the
combination singing male & female Jon & Lisa. My
favorite track so far is "If I Ever Saw You
Again". Sounds like Artists who are out there doing
it with these wonderful songs behind them."
Mike Caro, New York
"I listened two times through, and thoroughly enjoyed
it! This is an AWESOME accomplishment. The lyrics
are terrific and the harmonies are soooo good. "
"Out Of Place" is very moving. I'd have to say
my Top Two are "If This Is Love" and
"Angelina"...with a close third "If I Ever Saw
You Again". I think the themes are so universal and
appealing.
Beth Williams, Boston
"I've been enjoying it very much. I just listened
again after perhaps a week and frankly -- I still enjoyed it as
much...."
"I cannot criticize a single thing --- production wise and
musically/melodically, my hats off to you and the team!!"
"There's a nice flow to the whole. I also feel that
you manage to come across as a 'Band' - don't know if that was a
goal -- but I did think in terms of Fleetwood Mac and how many
voices/styles/writing...."
"The Harmonies are terrific -- hats off to the
singers. I found the male singer in particular very easy
on the ears -- maybe addictive, particularly because of that
most fabulous vocal run he does on one word near the end of
Surrender --- my favorite song -- close second Angelina and
ending on Unwind, great!."
"If I Close My Eyes --- comes to mind long after the CD is
done....... I personally will continue to enjoy this."
Joice Marie, New Hampshire
"An eclectic collection of songs indeed -
it felt like I had the radio tuned to an imaginary channel that
plays adult pop songs that have intelligent lyrics."
"My favorites were Do It Right, If I Ever Saw You Again,
Angelina, If I Close My Eyes, and Wish You Well. The CD
had a nice sequence too with a highly catchy number leading it
off and its lyrical bookend coming next. Unwind (very cool
intro there) was a nice one to end on too. If Ever I Saw
You Again probably resonated with me the most because I have
lived that lyric."
In
January 2012, Ricki and Jim released their second CD called
SECOS featuring Jon Statham and Elise Lieberth produced by Jon
Statham and Jim Hendrick. Jim Purtell was the executive
producer for this CD as well.
Ricki
Bellos