joy

Yesterday I drove out to Villanova under fast moving tarnished silver clouds and as the rain began to pelt, Patty Griffin began to sing and I thought, "Yes. Sometimes life really is sublime."

hurricane party music

One of my friends came over for dinner last night and my roommate has been really excited about the prospect of "surviving" Hurricane Hanna. I'm from FL so I've been reminding here that by the time it hit us it was barely even a Tropical Storm. But I also explained the concept of a hurricane party (not that difficult, if the power goes out you have a party with the whole neighborhood and eat all the food in your fridge, plus drink the cold beer before it gets warm!).

When I was home last weekend my dad was listening to "No Shoes Radio" on XM which is apparently a monthly series they have which highlights one artist (in this case Kenny Chesney) and plays only that artist, plus artists who have influenced them, and artists they've influenced. This sounds like a great idea to me, but I doubt they ever highlight anyone I'm interested in. The cool thing about it is that you can't help but dig down to deeper cuts of an artist if you're playing them all the time. The fact that I really like "She thinks my tractor's sexy" aside, I had the chorus to Kenny's "Key Lime Pie" song in my head for several days and our attempt at a Hurricane Party definitely included me grabbing a pie myself. I would have made one but apparently key limes and/or their juice are hard to come by in Philly?



Other not-to-be missed Hurricane Party classics...

Cowboy Mouth- Hurricane Party



Jimmy Buffett- Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season

oh yeah, and something I'm REALLY excited about

So anyone familiar with this blog will know that Don Chaffer is my favorite songwriter but I've never seen him live. After Miles and Ruby were born he and Lori took a break from touring so I have missed the goodness of Waterdeep live. BUT NO LONGER.

Derek Webb.

Sandra McCracken.

Alli Rogers.

WATERDEEP.

Eddie's Attic in Georgia. A venue I've always wanted to go to (the Indigo Girls play there fairly often).

Morgan and I are committed to going.


I'm also definitely going to the Art, Music, Justice tour with Sara Groves, Derek, and Sandra that's coming near me in PA. I've never seen Sara Groves though I love her songwriting and, come to think of it, that will be my first opportunity to hear Sandra live too which is totally exciting for me. So yay for concerts!

John Mayer

JM is just the artist I hate to love. He won me over in May of 2002 when my friend Kristin made me listen to a bootleg of him singing "Love Song for No One."

Now Morgan and I both discuss how we refuse to go see John Mayer in the venues he plays now- way too expensive to see a show with way too many people. We've agreed that we wouldn't pay more than $15 to see him with 10,000 people but would be willing to pay a lot more to see the John Mayer Trio in an intimate venue. (This is in a fictional alternate reality where I have money.) So that alone should tell you I much prefer his acoustic and Trio sets.

Anyway, I previously claimed that somehow JM managed to OWN a Tom Petty song, but here's the evidence. My favorite bit is 1:56ish, that guy on the right is my favorite, his harmony just adds a total dimension of awesomeness.



This is the other song I love- I immediately loved it for the harmonics he plays in the beginning and then just the whole song- ugh! It makes me want to do nothing but lie in bed staring at the ceiling with the fan on and drink iced tea and listen to this song on repeat. I could happily do just that for HOURS. It's that sublime and I HATE that I would use that word to describe John Mayer, but just listen and you'll know what I mean.

the promised summary

As usual in my musical wanderings I was prepared for an onslaught at what should have been the most anticipated theatrical release of the summer: the Remedy Club Tour, of course!

So Morgan and I went to get tickets, then we had dinner and became excited about Crowder. We had a great time with the, uh, 40 other people in the theater?! A few people clapped and randomly sang along quietly but overall we all just watched and had a low buzzing joy reverberating over our collective heads. :)

The dvd is great. I am definitely going to buy it at some point and make my friends watch it with me. The cinematography is good, the editing is pretty mindblowing (on one song the footage switches back and forth between ATL and NYC seamlessly, it's beautiful!), and of course the music is great!

The one sidenote is that I have never considered any of the members of the Crowder band particularly good-looking; talented, thoughtful, brilliant (bwack and his wizadry), artistic, etc but not so much attractive. THE CAMERA LOVES JACK. I had already thought about ten times, "geez, I never noticed how attractive Jack is!" when my sister leaned over and was like, "Who is that guitar player, again?!" and then we both started laughing hysterically. Anyway, way to go Jack, you definitely stole the good camera angles! Not to mention played a mean banjo.

So, yeah, you should give it a look-see.

the bright sadness

Today is my first day of (grad) school, I have no internet at my house.

But I have been listening, listening, listening. :)

Morgan bought John Mayer's "Where the Light Is" which includes a KILLER cover of "Free Fallin'" (I mean JM owns that song) and a newbie, "In Your Atmosphere" which I can't see ever becoming a radio hit but the harmonics and harmonies are so beautiful!

But what we've REALLy loved is Charlie Hall's new album, "The Bright Sadness." It's so good and so Charlie, worth the wait and well done through and through.

I thought this review from Christianity Today did a good overview.

Jars of Clay: Ship Wreck

Another "discovery" from Emily, this is a song from Jars' "Roots and Wings" EP. What a gorgeous and thoughtfully poignant song. I love it.

Ship Wreck
Jars of Clay

One two, one two

He put it in the bottle and he threw it out to sea
But the tide would not surrender and it floated to the beach
So the message of apology his love would never see
He walked around that island all shipwrecked and heavy

The scars of early childhood still showing on the skin
Necessary enemy so healing could begin
From the message of apology his heart might soon break free
For now he walks that island all shipwrecked and ready

Low beyond horizon lines, across the salty sea
A boat without a captain makes its way to some city
He prays that it would sail its course to lover or to kin
And fan a thirst for searching and finding him again
Finding him again, finding him again