Songbird

A loud storm brought my little one into our bed early this morning and as I scooped her up and drew her in I was overwhelmed by the pleasure of being able to comfort her so completely.  She snuggled in and was snoring away in mere seconds. I wish that all issues that my kids bring to me were as easy to solve. Whether it be fears that they may have, friendships they are struggling with, pressures they may feel, or just coming to terms with things they can’t control, their lives are already filled with many complex realities. What has surprised me of late though, is how much my counsel to them would cause me to look inwards. Introspection brought on by objectifying an issue.  It’s a gift really, parenthood. I get to have these two beautiful souls in my life and in my home. 

 

Today’s song is a cover song of Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird, a real Christine McVie treasure. Stevie Nicks gets so much of the spotlight of Fleetwood Mac–and deservedly so–that it is easy to forget just how beautiful of a voice Christine McVie has. That being said, I am posting Eva Cassidy’s version because I love her voice so much and her short life reminds me that today is what we get. Use it well. 

Have a wonderful Friday!

ASMR

People are fascinating. Whether or not I slow down enough to watch and notice, there are so many unusual quirks and idiosyncracies that make us who we are. I was reading recently about people who believe that they experience something called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response or ASMR, which Wikipedia defines as: a neologism for a perceptual phenomenon characterized as a distinct, pleasurable tingling sensation in the head, scalp, back, or peripheral regions of the body in response to visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and/or cognitive stimuli. 

Basically, it is anything you hear (or see, touch, smell etc) that for some reason of another gives you the goosebumps and a tingly sensation as well as inducing a calming effect on the listener. For some people this is triggered by whispering voices, or scratchy, rustling sounds. Google Bob Ross (the “Joy of Painting” Bob Ross) ASMR and you will find that there are people who watch him paint because it induces this tingly calm.  There are whole sites of compiled ASMR videos of people wrapping presents, turning pages in books, whispering etc. It is a tad bit weird, yes… but i’m going to go out on a limb and say that most people can remember at least one incident where a sound, created an almost transcendent goose bumpy calm. Yes…..? Just me?

This is totally not my usual type of song particularly for this blog, and I think its heavy airplay might make it off-putting, but the clicks get me every time.

Martin Garrix “Animals”

8.22

Friday at last. Ending a short summer with a really loooooong week, which thankfully, is over. This song puts me in a great mood and it is 100% a Friday song. 

Slaptop “Sunrise”  enjoy!

Swedes

I love the music of the seventies, but until my recent trip, I had never really listened to the 70s station on XM radio. I was surprised to hear Casey Kasem (who is recently deceased) hosting the weekly top 40. I was driving with my dad listening to 1976 in real time and Elvis was still alive. Very odd. My dad, however, was beaming. In fact, the entire trip was suffused with the music of my childhood. My parents had ABBA on steady, constant rotation, which is ok, because ABBA is pretty great. It got me thinking about dialects and accents and how much the Swedish voice lends itself to beautiful music, its lilting, sweet intonations adding a unique quality to the songs.

Today’s song is from Swedish alt-folk group, First Aid Kit.  I am pretty taken with their sound, it makes me happy just to hear it. And today’s song is about just that: finding contentment in the moment.

First Aid Kit “My Silver Lining”

Budapest

I’ve spent a week in my favorite place for a get away. Coming back home brings a bevy of to-do lists and catching up from the time away. The girls start school in a week and I am struck yet again, by how fast the summer has flown. I came home to a stack of mail, but also, happily, to a stack of magazines. I get an obscene amount of magazines. Too many, actually. It might be a case in point about the law of diminishing returns, as I sometimes can’t remember which ones I’ve read. That being said, upon return I found a special edition InStyle called Fashion Rocks, whose cover boldly promised “Your 10 New Fave Bands (You Just Don’t Know It Yet)”, and while some of their 10 are already current faves, and some are decidedly not my thing, I did find one that I truly love. George Ezra. His sound is happy, effortless, breezy fun. I dig it.

George Ezra “Budapest”

Enjoy

 

Something about Meg

I was lucky enough to get to see Ray Lamontagne for the second time last weekend and I’ve been mulling it over all week. He was quiet between songs,as he was the first time I saw him; compelled to communicate solely through his music. I’m not even sure he said “Hello Dallas!” or anything like that. He performed a mixture of new and old songs and it was a relaxed and very pleasant evening. One of his old songs that he performed is one that was a slow burn for me…not the instant love type of song, but one I gradually came to really enjoy. I think the beginning threw me initially with its kind of corny old timey Western opening, but as soon as the “Meg White-ish”drumming kicks in the song, it becomes pretty great, with its minor chord changes and intriguing message. Did he really have a long distance crush on Meg White? I looked back at interviews from around the time when Gossip in the Grain came out and found that he was somewhat cagey in his response, or at least not very direct. But what he does address is his proclivity for silence between songs. He claims to like mystery; comparing musicians who talk between songs to magicians who do their tricks and then afterwards tell you how it’s done.

Piquing my interest even further in Meg White in general is the fact that Jack White’s solo efforts haven’t quite resonated with me the way that the White Stripes ever has. The White Stripes seemed full of mystery to me. I remember when I first heard them and read up on them and you really couldn’t find out whether they were married or siblings (odd thing to create mystery about, but intriguing nonetheless). They were married for a time. Maybe they decided that keeping that part a mystery created a more interesting public persona. I don’t know.
This June there was a fascinating article on Grantland about Jack White’s current career trajectory and the fact that Meg White seems to haunt his current repertoire.

Jack White’s Meg White Problem

I love seeing musicians influence, impress or motivate other musicians. Pretty fascinating.

Circuital

Whenever Chris and I roadtrip, we generally like to mix things up a bit because we get really tired of our music after a while. It was on such an occasion recently, that we heard an old NPR podcast featuring My Morning Jacket, whom we love, but an album that we hadn’t ever heard, Circuital. It was recorded in a Gymnasium and it has a beautiful and kind of mystical sound that hooked us both right away. Jim James’s voice is sort of echo-y in a way that only a gym could create. Enjoy!

My Morning Jacket “Circuital”

a bit dance-y

This song is sure to get you moving, even if just a little bit. It’s been a little while since I’ve had a love at first listen, but this one fits the bill. I’m just glad to have it before the summer and its long evenings end.