Playlist 3: Shamless Self-Promotion

There's only ONE SONG ON THIS PLAYLIST. My band's single from our new album, At Long Last (being released March 5!), is now available for listening and for downloading (first 200 downloads are FREE) at http://rockrivergypsies.bandcamp.com/. It's called "Hey Anne," and Chris and I co-wrote it (Yes, cue the long, drawn-out "awwwww...").

It's all happening!

Ain't we cute? Photo by G. Milo Farineau.

Playlist 2: The Best Songs Ever

So, between my new job (which I'm loving so far after my first full week!) and details surrounding my band's debut album release, life has been incredibly insane. I want you to know that I have not abandoned this blog! I simply have a lot going on. As I settle in to a new routine, I'm sure I will be able to write more often.

Here is my second playlist for you. These are The Best Songs Ever. Period. No "arguably"s or "in my opinion"s or anything of that BS. These are not in ranked order; they are just the best songs ever in the order that I thought of them. And I'd like to make the distinction that these are the best versions of the best songs ever as well... I mean seriously, you can't compare Bob Dylan with Peter, Paul, and Mary (cough cough), right? And, I didn't want to use the same artist more than once. Also a note: These are all in the pop/rock/R&B/folk realm. If I took jazz into consideration, this list would be 50 songs long!

-"Midnight Train to Georgia," by Gladys Knight and the Pips
-"Don't Let Me Down," by The Beatles
-"The Weight," by The Band with The Staple Singers (The Last Waltz version)
-"Tupelo Honey," by Van ("The Man") Morrison
-"Diamonds and Rust," by Joan Baez
-"I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," by Aretha Franklin
-"A Change is Gonna Come," by Sam Cooke
-"Try a Little Tenderness," by Otis Redding
-"Cactus Tree," by Joni Mitchell (The live Miles of Aisles version from 1974)
-"Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys
-"Jolene," by Dolly Parton
-"Let's Get it On," by Marvin Gaye
-"Helpless," by Neil Young (The Last Waltz version with The Band and Joni Mitchell singing backups)
-"My Little Town," by Simon and Garfunkel (I could only find a live version of this online, but I mean the studio version!)
-"Tutti Frutti," by Little Richard
-"Amie," by Pure Prairie League
-"Superstition," by Stevie Wonder
-"Whipping Post," by The Allman Brothers (The live 23-minute version from Live at the Fillmore East version... the recording I linked to says it is 1/3 of the song!)
-"The Rainbow Connection," by Kermit the Frog

You're welcome. There are many more amazing, awesome songs, obviously. But, this is MY Best Songs Ever list, so I get to decide what goes on it.

I think my dad would be proud of how much of the music-appreciation he imparted on me (Hi Dad!) stuck. I'm more than a little happy about it too. He and I both do this thing when we're excited about a song (or even a small part of a song): We make the people around us listen to it, even though we know they'll never quite love it as much as we do or the same way we do. But, we just want so badly for that person to feel what we feel when that song is playing, so, we try anyways. Many of the songs above came into my life because of my dad (and many of them move me to tears simply because they're so good), and I'd just like to give him a shout-out. Plus, he plays a MEAN air guitar.

Also, I'd like to officially announce my band's CD Release Party at The Southern in Charlottesville, VA on Saturday, March 5! Tickets are $10 and include a copy of the album. If you're in the area, it would be lovely to see you there! Here's a link to the venue's website: http://www.thesoutherncville.com/. If you scroll down to March 5th, you'll see the listing for our show, and you can buy tickets right off the site. Exciting! Maybe someday someone else will put one of our songs on their Best Songs Ever list...

Playlist 1: Christmas Ain't Over Yet

Whoa, so the wind was blowing here in Lon-Gisland at like 50 knots all last night (I have no clue what a "knot" means, but let's just say there are 7-foot waves on The Sound, which ain't supposed to have waves at all!). I actually couldn't sleep at all, because the wind was so loud. And, the gutter blew off the house. And I was convinced that the windows were going to blow in.

Anyways, Chris has this great idea for my blog. The idea is that I make playlists every-so-often (or virtual mixed tapes). This is one of my favorite past-times, the love for which I inherited from my dad. My dad is seriously the king of making mixes.

So, here is my Christmas playlist. I tend to despise Christmas music, so here is my very picky hand-picked list for your listening pleasure:

1. "Linus and Lucy," Vince Guaraldi
2. "Pretty Paper," Willie Nelson
3. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," Brenda Lee
4. "St. Stephen's Day Murders," The Chieftains
5. "Jingle Bells," Shroeder
6. "Blue Christmas," Elvis Presley
7. "All I Want for Christmas is You," Mariah Carey
8. "Christmas Island," Bob Dylan
9. "The Twelve Days of Christmas," John Denver with The Muppets
10. "Happy Christmas/War is Over," John Lennon


So, my thinking is that I will try to do a different playlist every couple weeks. All of them will have the tag "playlist," so if you wanted to pull up all of them, you could simply search for that.

I hope you all had/are having wonderul and relaxing holiday!