After supper tonight, I sent everyone downstairs to play after supper so I could enjoy some solitude while I cleaned up the kitchen. I use this time most evenings to listen to podcasts. I grabbed my ear buds and my phone to find one, but somehow music started playing.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear Jimmy Buffett's "They Don't Dance Like Carmen No More" so I figured I'd listen while I chose a podcast. About a minute into the song, I felt myself smiling and started to sing. Sidebar: I'm willing to forgive the double negative in the song title. I do also pray that Jimmy will one day return to the Church, as he is a fallen away Catholic. He was given a gift in his musical and business talents and I would daresay I'm a Parrothead, albeit not as enthusiastic as I was in my teens and twenties.
Music is one of the great joys of my life; listening to good music makes me feel alive. Letting my iPod shuffle almost always leaves me smiling.
"Carmen" brought to mind so many fond memories. I discovered Jimmy Buffett through some friends in high school, and his music was the soundtrack to several delightful and carefree summers in the late '90s and early 2000s. I immediately remembered many late nights out on the water at Lake Upsilon with Haley, Molli, Callie, Josh, Ben and a host of other wonderful people with whom I spent that terrific time of my life.
The next song was another Jimmy Buffett one ("Coastal Confessions"), so I figured I'd somehow set Jimmy to shuffle. But then a Pat Green song popped up and I was hooked. I danced around the kitchen singing and smiling and cleaning and remembering.
I have all these profound thoughts spinning around in my head about the power of music and how music can transport me to beautiful and painful and terrific times in my life and how thankful I am for the gift of music. But I can't organize them fast enough or coherently enough to discuss here right now. So I thought I'd walk through what played and what it made me think of:
Finder's Keepers (Pat Green and Sara Evans) - My college roommate and I loved sharing music and spent many hours together listening to all sorts of different music. Pat Green played for a big chunk of those hours!
I Won't Back Down (Johnny Cash with Tom Petty) - Yes. Just, yes. It really doesn't get better than this. Cash's American Recordings came out while I was in college and I spent so much time with those gems.
You're the One (The Oak Ridge Boys) - ORB is the music of my childhood and transports me back to hauling supper out the field during harvest with my mom every fall.
Home is Where the Heart Is (Lady Antebellum) - The lyrics of this one speak right to the heart of this small-town girl.
Home to Stay (Josh Groban) - I skipped this one because, although I love a good 4 minutes of his beautiful voice, I wasn't in the mood for something so slow!
Hometown Blues (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
Hope (Jack Johnson) - I skipped this one too, because it reminded me of putting the kids to bed and I wanted to avoid thinking of that!
Horsehead (Chris & Rich Robinson) - I don't love most versions I've heard of this song, but the whole Brothers of a Feather album by these two is superb. I can't put into words the way I feel listening to them.
Hotel Illness (The Black Crowes) - Thank you, iPod for playing back-to-back Robinsons (since Chris and Rich are the core of the Black Crowes). I can't believe I lived without the Crowes for so long. Ben and his roommate introduced me to them in college and I love love love them.
That House That Built Me (Miranda Lambert) - My parents lived in a ranch-style house on 6th Street for something like 34 years; it was the only place I'd really called home when they sold it to build a lake home in 2011. When they moved out, I made a video (as much for me as for my parents) of pictures of memories from the old house set to this song. I could listen to it a million times over and never get sick of it or the memories it brings to mind.
Suddenly it was time to get the kids ready for bed, so I ended my stroll down memory lane reluctantly.
I'm guessing this will be the first of many music posts, because I'm so thankful for the huge role music has played in my life.
For what are you grateful today?
I was pleasantly surprised to hear Jimmy Buffett's "They Don't Dance Like Carmen No More" so I figured I'd listen while I chose a podcast. About a minute into the song, I felt myself smiling and started to sing. Sidebar: I'm willing to forgive the double negative in the song title. I do also pray that Jimmy will one day return to the Church, as he is a fallen away Catholic. He was given a gift in his musical and business talents and I would daresay I'm a Parrothead, albeit not as enthusiastic as I was in my teens and twenties.
Music is one of the great joys of my life; listening to good music makes me feel alive. Letting my iPod shuffle almost always leaves me smiling.
"Carmen" brought to mind so many fond memories. I discovered Jimmy Buffett through some friends in high school, and his music was the soundtrack to several delightful and carefree summers in the late '90s and early 2000s. I immediately remembered many late nights out on the water at Lake Upsilon with Haley, Molli, Callie, Josh, Ben and a host of other wonderful people with whom I spent that terrific time of my life.
The next song was another Jimmy Buffett one ("Coastal Confessions"), so I figured I'd somehow set Jimmy to shuffle. But then a Pat Green song popped up and I was hooked. I danced around the kitchen singing and smiling and cleaning and remembering.
I have all these profound thoughts spinning around in my head about the power of music and how music can transport me to beautiful and painful and terrific times in my life and how thankful I am for the gift of music. But I can't organize them fast enough or coherently enough to discuss here right now. So I thought I'd walk through what played and what it made me think of:
Finder's Keepers (Pat Green and Sara Evans) - My college roommate and I loved sharing music and spent many hours together listening to all sorts of different music. Pat Green played for a big chunk of those hours!
I Won't Back Down (Johnny Cash with Tom Petty) - Yes. Just, yes. It really doesn't get better than this. Cash's American Recordings came out while I was in college and I spent so much time with those gems.
You're the One (The Oak Ridge Boys) - ORB is the music of my childhood and transports me back to hauling supper out the field during harvest with my mom every fall.
Home is Where the Heart Is (Lady Antebellum) - The lyrics of this one speak right to the heart of this small-town girl.
Home to Stay (Josh Groban) - I skipped this one because, although I love a good 4 minutes of his beautiful voice, I wasn't in the mood for something so slow!
Hometown Blues (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
Hope (Jack Johnson) - I skipped this one too, because it reminded me of putting the kids to bed and I wanted to avoid thinking of that!
Horsehead (Chris & Rich Robinson) - I don't love most versions I've heard of this song, but the whole Brothers of a Feather album by these two is superb. I can't put into words the way I feel listening to them.
Hotel Illness (The Black Crowes) - Thank you, iPod for playing back-to-back Robinsons (since Chris and Rich are the core of the Black Crowes). I can't believe I lived without the Crowes for so long. Ben and his roommate introduced me to them in college and I love love love them.
That House That Built Me (Miranda Lambert) - My parents lived in a ranch-style house on 6th Street for something like 34 years; it was the only place I'd really called home when they sold it to build a lake home in 2011. When they moved out, I made a video (as much for me as for my parents) of pictures of memories from the old house set to this song. I could listen to it a million times over and never get sick of it or the memories it brings to mind.
Suddenly it was time to get the kids ready for bed, so I ended my stroll down memory lane reluctantly.
I'm guessing this will be the first of many music posts, because I'm so thankful for the huge role music has played in my life.
For what are you grateful today?
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