When you have a job as coma inducing as mine is, finding ways to distract yourself from how bored you are while doing it becomes very important. Podcasts, audiobooks, and music are the essential axle grease that keep the reluctant wheels of my productivity engine functioning.
Music in particular has always been a part of my workday, although, and some of you may recognize this phenomenon, it can’t just be any old thing. Too loud, frantic and scream-y is out of the question. On the other hand, too slow, low, or nebulous is just as unacceptable for the opposite reason. I also find that I prefer to listen to instrumental music over music with words because, being a word person, I have a very hard time concentrating around sublime lyrics.
All of this is to say I end up spending way too much time on Spotify, curating a music collection that is rapidly getting so large and out of control it might take a year and half to organize – when I finally get around to it. The flip side is that, quite often, I randomly stumble upon some really good stuff and I thought I’d start sharing some of it.
Like most people who are aware of the vast talents of Billy Strings, it is not hard to be impressed by almost anything that he does. However, I think this 2 minute, 2 second live acappella performance tops my list.
Just because it’s Friday and this is so much fun.
Rachel Portman is the composer behind some of my favorite movie scores – Cider House Rules, Chocolate, Emma, etc. This is from her 2020 album Ask the River.
When I was about 11 or 12, my dad came home one day with a cassette tape called “Hooked on Classics”. It was an album full of slightly jazzy renditions of Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and – you get the idea. I loved it, passionately. I’m sure that little white plastic cassette birthed my savage devotion to instrumental music. Unfortunately, I think it also ruined me for life. I’m quite certain from that point on, my brain expected every piece of music it heard to be – EPIC – and it’s been chasing that high ever since. So, you can imagine my delight when I came across these next pieces. I’ve listened to them approximately 700 times in the last 4 days.
I recently discovered Sam Lewis and this is from his self titled 2012 album which is just great.
Um…if you have not heard anything by the Teskey Brothers, you are missing out. Just saying…
My maternal grandfather came from coal mining people in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and sometimes when I hear a voice like this, it feels like it’s specifically tuned to those dormant strands of my DNA. I can’t even begin to describe what it does to me.
And just in case you got the impression I only like male singers; I give you Michelle Moonshine. You may or may not know this about me – beautiful, sad songs sung by a gorgeous voice are my bread and butter, musically speaking. This entire album, Sad Spaghetti Westerns, checks all the boxes – emphatically.
These girls are so good it’s obscene. Seriously…
When I was growing up, Hooked on Classics aside, there was not a huge variety of music in our house. My dad mostly listened to Jazz (death by auditory torture) and my mother liked Mariachi music (not much better). This is why, as I get older, it’s amusing to me that I am starting to dip a toe into both genres. For instance, I’ve come to love and appreciate Herb Alpert, and Ella Fitzgerald, and the amount of Latin music in my playlists would shock and appall my 12-year-old self. This band, LaLom (The Los Angeles League of Musicians) is a fun mix of Cumbia and 60’s surfer instrumentals.
And last but not least…this. It makes me feel homesick…in the best possible way.
BONUS BOOK REVIEW
If anyone is a Loretta Lynn fan, or a Patsy Cline fan, or a Country Music fan, or has been fortunate enough to experience a true and deep friendship, or fought and pushed through to the better side of a difficult marriage, or suffered a sudden and tragic loss that upended your entire life, or even if you’re just a human trying to do the best you can in a hard world…this is a book for you.
You can thank me later.
