Songs Never Heard
A craft podcast that spotlights some of the best songs you've never heard.
Songs Never Heard
S1E7: Good Friday (Jack DeValera)
A transplanted melody turns a personal crisis into heartfelt acceptance.
Good Friday on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/5y3u6kdmmzi6xA1jpw0JgN
More of Jack's music:
Robert Howell:
My name is Robert Howell, and in this series I'll be sharing and digging into some of my favorite songs that I've come across during my time in the underground songwriting scene. Songs written by talented people who are creating music that deserves wider recognition. Songs that, unfortunately, most of the world may never hear.
Welcome to Songs Never Heard.
This episode's song takes us on a journey through a parent's struggle, leading to a request for reprieve that reaches far beyond just surviving the week. Let's hear "Good Friday" by Jack DeValera.
Jack DeValera:
The diagnosis came at half past ten
Outside the hospital I tripped and fell
Cast out her hand to me and caught me well
That news, it's a shock when you hear
I always tend to wait
By half past eleven all appointments were made
She marked up the calendar and set the dates
Get some sleep then she said
Tomorrow's Monday, it's a long week ahead
Good Friday,
Friday be good to me
It's been a long hard week
Friday oh Friday be good to me
Pile the books up high
Looking for a paragraph to ease my mind
50 world religions every one I tried
But no difference it makes
I'm still a prisoner in my Abrahamic cage
Good Friday
Friday be good to me
I would surrender at the sight of thee
Friday oh Friday be good to me
Takes an hour just to get you dressed
Two hour tantrums, Christ I try my best
Not to curse the fates and forget all the rest
Of all the beauty you bring
I think you speak in tongues,
Try my best not to hit you, though I did that once
You are my heart. You are my heart. You are the setting sun.
I'll stand beside your bed
Hold my breath and put three kisses on your head,
Good Friday
Friday be good to me
I would surrender at the sight of thee
Friday oh Friday be good to me
Robert Howell:
That was "Good Friday" by Jack DeValera, and if you weren't paying close attention to the lyrics, you may believe you just heard an upbeat, almost cheerful song with a catchy melody and springy arrangement. But "Good Friday" deals with serious subject matter, a parent grappling with their child's diagnosis, searching for the meaning of it all, and wrestling with moments of exhaustion and frustration. This contrast isn't accidental.
"If you're going to talk about heavy subject matter, you have to give the listeners some sugar to sweeten the medicine," Jack explains. This philosophy shapes not just this song, but his entire approach to songwriting. "I heard a good quote once, 'If nothing's funny, nothing's serious.' That's my songwriting worldview in a nutshell," Jack says.
Most of his songs lean more comedic and sarcastic, but even when he ventures into more serious territory, like he did with "Good Friday," Jack maintains what he calls a "light touch." The result is music that can carry you along with its lively energy, while delivering truths that might be difficult to absorb any other way. That deceptively buoyant arrangement becomes the very thing that makes the song's emotional weight digestible, allowing for a deeper emotional impact due to the contrast.
Part of what makes "Good Friday" compelling to me is how Jack structures the story it tells. "The idea is it's three phases," he explains. "Verse one, parent receives a diagnosis about a child. Verse two, they try to come to terms with it. Verse three, they do come to terms with it through love for the child."
Each phase has its own emotional territory. The 'diagnosis verse' captures the initial shock, the literal stumbling outside the hospital, needing someone to catch you when the ground feels unsteady. The second 'coming to terms' verse shows the frantic searching that follows, including "piling the books up high," and looking for some explanation that might make sense of it all. And the 'acceptance' verse reveals the resolution. Not through finding answers in books or religious revelations, but through the daily complicated reality of love itself.
Jack is able to authentically write about this progression because he draws from his own experience raising his son with autism. The song's emotional journey doesn't follow textbook stages of processing difficult news. Instead, it maps an organic path from disorientation, to seeking meaning, to finding peace through personal connection. And it works because it's grounded in lived experience.
The authenticity that runs through "Good Friday" reflects a deliberate creative philosophy that Jack developed early in his songwriting journey. He says, "I made a conscious decision that if I wanted to write GOOD songs, I should draw for my own life." Jack believes the best way to stand out is to be true to who you are. He says, "I think there are so many talented writers and musicians in the world, but what makes a GOOD artist in these saturated times is someone who can get their worldview and personality across in their music.
For Jack, this means mining his daily experiences for material, telling me, "Not all my music is autobiographical, but it's all influenced by my day-to-day and what goes on in my head. Bringing up kids, being in a long-term marriage, worrying about the shit state of the world, and wondering if God exists.
This approach allows Jack to perform musical alchemy by transforming ordinary moments into compelling songs. Rather than searching for dramatic scenarios or exotic experiences, he finds deep meaning in the suburban realities of family life. The struggles, the questions, the small revelations that come from simply paying attention to the detail of what's actually happening around him. It's a philosophy that makes "Good Friday" feel both simple and rich at the same time.
That "simple and rich" quality Jack achieves with "Good Friday" comes from a significant evolution. In his recording setup. He was able to upgrade from a lot of the computer based virtual instruments he used to use. "It was the first time I had access to all real live instruments. A real piano, a real drum kit , a real bass, et cetera," Jack explains. "We moved to a new house and I had a shed I converted to a studio."
The result is deceptively complex. While the song feels straightforward and uncluttered, it's actually built from several layers. Keyboards, drums, guitar parts, bass, all carefully arranged to sound spacious, not dense. "I took my time with the arrangement, which I'm happy has some nice space in it," Jack says, "I'm proud of what I got on this one. It was exactly the sound I wanted. I didn't have to compromise."
Some of the charm comes from happy accidents and resourceful choices. When I asked Jack what might be interesting about this song that a listener would never guess, he told me the piano was completely out of tune and the drum kit cost just 100 euros and was purchased the same day he recorded the song. Interesting indeed, and yet, these limitations definitely didn't constrain the music. In fact, they became part of its character.
The title, "Good Friday," isn't just clever wordplay, it's the spiritual framework on which the entire song sits. Jack's original concept was simple. A story about someone going through difficult trials and ultimately asking for reprieve. The connection to Good Friday, the Christian day of suffering before resurrection, gave him both the title and the word play that drives the chorus. 'Good Friday. Friday, be good to me.'
This religious flavoring runs throughout Jack's work, though not by conscious design. " In Ireland, all the Catholic imagery growing up was very powerful and got embedded in our imaginations," he explains. That embedded imagery surfaces naturally throughout "Good Friday," from the biblical 'cast out your hand to me' to the formal 'I would surrender at the sight of thee.'
Jack's approach to these religious elements is often intuitive rather than calculated. The 'Abrahamic cage' line? "I just thought it was funny," he says. The 'three kisses' that are reminiscent of the Holy Trinity? Jack told me "The Trinity thing was a happy accident. I wrote the line and later noticed the religious connotation.”
This casual incorporation shows how deeply those Catholic influences have shaped his creative instincts. Appearing, even when he's not consciously reaching for them. While Jack might consider 'three kisses' a happy accident, it's lines like these that invite deeper listener interpretation. Echoing the song's broader spiritual themes.
"Good Friday" exists because Jack was willing to abandon a melody that wasn't working. He had written the lyrics to a different melody beforehand, but was never satisfied with how they fit together. Rather than forcing the words to work, Jack says, "I thought the lyrics deserved another try, so I transplanted them to a new melody."
This approach has become one of Jack's techniques when a song isn't quite clicking. Rather than continuing to pursue a combination of words and music that doesn't seem to be meshing, he's learned to separate the two elements and experiment with new combinations. For "Good Friday," this process led to a pleasant surprise he hadn't anticipated.
"The cadence and flow of the melody in "Good Friday" is actually kind of unusual with the switch and meter in the refrain," Jack explains. This is another example of something unexpected, becoming something unquestionably good. Those subtle meter changes in the chorus are not only a result of him following his creative intuition around a songwriting obstacle, they're also what make it so catchy and memorable.
When I asked Jack where "Good Friday" falls in his songwriting arc, I was surprised to learn he's only been writing seriously for a handful of years. "I'm 44 now and I only really started making up songs seriously a few years ago. Age 39," he explains. "I played in bands when I was younger and dabbled here and there, but the first time I sat down to truly write songs was pretty recent."
That means "Good Friday" represents just a few years of focused work. Though Jack has packed a lot of songwriting into that time with multiple EPs and albums. The song's thoughtful approach to melody, narrative, structure, and production all come from someone still relatively new to dedicated songwriting.
Unlike Jack, I don't believe all good songs must rely on the songwriter's worldview or personality, but I do believe Jack's method of doing this allows him to create excellent music. And Good Friday is a prime example of that. Drawing from his own experiences and perspectives to take real life moments and express them in unique and beautiful ways. Even if the subject matter can be a little heavy at times.
At the end of the week, at the end of the day. To me, "Good Friday" is very good indeed.
"Songs Never Heard" is created and produced by me, Robert Howell. It's a tribute to all the seldom heard music that, in my opinion, rivals what you'd hear on the popular charts. If you're interested in having one of your songs featured, drop me a note at rrobhowell@gmail.com.
Until next time, keep writing.