On the Radar -- My Fall Playlist

I'm writing this blog post really as a procrastination tactic -- which is odd, since I usually procrastinate about writing the blog.  I need to be making sock monkeys right now, as I have an art fair this weekend.  But being slightly burnt out in the monkey department, I thought I would be productive in another way, albeit a way that doesn't really accomplish my goals for what needs to get done today.

Anyhoo, I thought I would share my favorite ten songs of the moment -- an important clarification because this list is constantly changing.  I live my life by mix CDs.  But right now, this week, as the first leaves start to change and the air gets a little colder, a little crisper here in central North Carolina, these songs make me feel warmer and just a little more alive.  The other Blackbird will tell you that I'm a softie, and it's true, I am.  And there's just something about fall, my favorite season, that makes me crave love songs, soft songs, and songs that just make you feel...more.   I've scattered some evocative finds from Etsy throughout, as well, just because, well, you need something pretty to look at while you listen to all this great music!

Photographic Print by bomobob on Etsy, here.

1.  David Ramirez, Fires

I found David Ramirez on NoiseTrade, a site that has tons of free music and books from new artists that you can download for free.  Luckily, the version of Fires from that site was the acoustic one.  The original track, from his album American Soil is good, but it doesn't have the intensity of the one below.  Lyrics to die for:  "I could start fires with what I feel for you."  Swoon.

2.  Sam Airey, Stars

His voice is distinctive, and I get so caught up in the sound and words.  From his Station Approach EP, it's amazing to me to hear that he did this version in one take.  Haunting and beautiful.



3.  Damien Rice, I Don't Want to Change You

I'm obsessed with this song and video.  I love Damien Rice, and this song is off his upcoming album, My Favourite Faded Fantasy.  I've been waiting YEARS for a new album (eight, to be exact), so I'm pretty excited about a new one.  He is so amazing at bringing out raw emotion, and the lyrics just stick in your mind.  My fave lyrics: "I've never been with anyone in the way I've been with you".

Photogray by Shashamane Dream Photo on Etsy, here.

4.  Ryan Adams, Elizabeth, You Were Born to Play That Part

From his 2005 album, 29, this song is pretty depressing.  But so very, very beautiful.  Written for a friend who lost a child, this song has a long instrumental part at the end that uplifts the whole thing.  The song is so heartfelt, and it means so much more because of the magic that Ryan Adams can put into any song he creates.  It's all beautiful, but my favorite lines are: "For you I'd do anything / tear myself in two / just to hear you breathe."

5.  A Fine Frenzy, Pinesong

A Fine Frenzy, a.k.a. Alison Sudol, has long been one of my favorite artists.  Her album Pines really works best if you listen to the whole thing together -- she said, "the entire record is a story, and each song is a chapter that leads into the next."  And it's all about nature.  My favorite part: "Rolling hills are / Roaming through my veins / And open arms / And all is full of / Hope."

From Boho Quilts on Etsy, here.

6.   Laura Marling, Breathe

I didn't discover her until last fall, after one of my students mentioned her.  It was love at first listen.  She quickly moved into my top 5 artists ever, which is a very select group.  Her entire Once I Was an Eagle album is ah-ma-zing, but Breathe really stands out to me.  Such great storytelling -- for example: "When you wake you'll know I'm gone / And where I'm going there's no one / So don't follow me."  Watch the whole short film, When Brave Bird Saved, if you have 18 minutes to spare, but if not, just enjoy this -->

7. Dave Matthews, Come Away Death

Here's another from my top 5 artists ever -- Dave can do no wrong.  He released this musical video last year, and I am dying -- dying -- to have a downloadable copy of this song.  The words are Shakespeare's, from Twelfth Night, set to music.  It's just Dave, a piano, and lovely words.  Who needs more?  (I do -- a mp3 of this song!!)

Photography from Raceytay on Etsy, here.

8.  Sarah Jarosz, Gone Too Soon

I was lucky enough to get to see her perform at the Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw, NC a few years ago, and she is the real deal.  She is so very talented, taking bluegrass and making is more accessible, I think, for larger audiences.  Gone Too Soon is another song that tells a story, drawing the listener into her web.  My favorite part: "When you sing / It’s like silver / When you touch me I’m on fire."

9. Bearfoot, Doors and Windows

This song is a major standout to me, and always seems to make its way onto my playlists.  Again, I love a song with a story, and this one is so fairy tale-ish and deep that you can't get it out of your brain for days.  So beautiful just to listen to it -- musically and lyrically. I mean, the first line is: "Both you and I know that this monster is no longer sleeping."  And it just gets better from there...

Photography from Fizz Studio on Etsy, here.

10.  Emily Jane White, Dark Undercoat

From her 2007 album of the same name, this song is another sad story.  (I promise I'm not sad all the time.)  I want to listen to this song, with headphones, in a warm coat on a blustery, gray, fall day, with dry leaves skipping around my feet.  It, as do the others, has lyrics that pull me in.  For example: "Oh, but if I was a deep bathtub would you sink down, / To the bottom of my love?"

Junk Love Monday: A Little Mood Music

We both come from musical families, and we have strong, sentimental connections to the music of our childhoods. We also love cool album art, so it makes sense that we have a pretty large record collection. This is a fairly organic collection of our merged tastes. We don't seek out certain ones. We don't even look at the vinyl selection at most of the thrift stores that we find. It just has to strike us in the moment, and then we're down in the floor, getting our knees filthy, sorting through the hundreds of Herb Alpert and Sing Along With Mitch albums to find the music that we love.

Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti

Anyone sorting through our record collection would think that a  lunatic lives in our house. We have Pink Floyd filed alongside Julie Andrews and Gladys Knight & the Pips. Bing Crosby lives among a random selection of Led Zeppelin, Broadway musical soundtracks, and guilty pleasures from the 80s. We have an extensive collection of the Beatles (hers) and Elvis (mine), and I probably own twenty different Frank Sinatra albums. I'm probably the only person in the country who compulsively buys Henry Mancini records. There is even a Gordon MacRae-covers-the-Beatles album that is so, so bad. (I can never take the song "Michelle" seriously ever again.) We also cannot resist cute cover art, so we have a very random selection of albums that we never listen to, but can never part with. And this doesn't begin to cover the ridiculously large collection of 45s, for that jukebox that we're going to find someday.

Men at Work

 I grew up in the era of cassettes, so I cannot resist the urge to purchase vinyl versions of my favorite hair bands. I also blame Ted Nugent. As a skillful plunderer, I long ago discovered my parents' secret stash of records. We had no record player for the majority of my childhood, but I used to pull them out and flip through them when nobody was around, and I was fascinated by the cover art. The one that was always on top of the stack was Ted Nugent's Cat Scratch Fever. He looked crazy, and if you flipped the album, there was a woman scratching his chest hard enough to draw blood. She had bright red fingernails. I will never know why, but that album haunted me. Why is she scratching him? Why is he bleeding? Why does he look so crazy? I finally got someone to tell me what "cat scratch fever" meant, and that is where I'm going to close this chapter of the conversation. I'll just say that I decided not to ask questions for a while after that.... Now I'm a sucker for Mid-Century album art.

Henry Mancini

Anyway, we love our records. We decorate the Christmas tree to the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack and Louis Armstrong ('Zat You, Santa Claus?). If I'm home alone on a rainy afternoon, I like to make some hot tea and read while Henry Mancini softly scratches away in the background (which could mean that I'm secretly an old lady). A bad day might put me on the couch, in the dark, listening to Julie London sing "Cry Me a River" over and over again (so, apparently I'm secretly a masochistic old lady). Time to clean the living room? Then we've got to put on some Queen. Baking cookies means Broadway. And there's nothing like a Gershwin mix to make you feel like you're in a Gene Kelly movie, which is never a bad thing.