Archive | June, 2011

Sitting In A Tree…

29 Jun

The upcoming nuptials of my cousin and his wife-to-be inspired me to put together a comprehensive list of love songs/songs about love. I’ve been working on a playlist entitled “songs for your honey” over the past few months and it seemed like an appropriate time to get my act together and publish it to 8tracks. I decided not to limit myself to a single CD’s worth of songs and instead included tracks from a variety of genres and time periods. I came up with 64 songs that make me think about my sweetie. The initial thought was to include “When I’m Sixty Four” in the mix, but 8tracks limits you to two songs per artist and I chose two different Beatles songs. Finding so many songs about love was not a challenging task, as musicians seem to really love writing about L-O-V-E. And how wonderful to listen to all of these songs that ooze so much emotion. Some of it gushy and mushy, some sweet and tender, some simple and to the point, and some just plain raw. I’m sure that there are many, many other songs that I failed to include. I encourage you to share some of your favorite love songs. Perhaps I can publish volume 2 sometime in the future.

For now, enjoy the love…

http://8tracks.com/mixes/339593/player_v3

1. Come Into My Life – Jimmy Cliff
2. You Are The Best Thing – Ray Lamontagne
3. My Love Is – Willie John
4. I Found My Everything – Mary J Blige
5. You’re All I Need To Get By – Aretha Franklin
6. Lucky (feat. Colbie Caillat) – Jason Mraz
7. Romeo’s Tune – Steve Forbert
8. You’re My Home – Billy Joel
9. Sea Of Love – Cat Power
10. You Mean Everything To Me – Shawn Mullins
11. Lean On Me – Beth Orton
12. I’m Yours – Jason Mraz
13. Let’s Never Stop Falling in Love – Pink Martini
14. Nothing I Can Do – Ben Taylor
15. Make You Feel My Love – Adele
16. All You Need Is Love – The Beatles
17. Not Fade Away -The Rolling Stones
18. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) – James Taylor
19. We Walk The Same Line – Everything But The Girl
20. Ice Cream – Sarah McLachlan
21. I Was Brought To My Senses – Sting
22. As – Stevie Wonder
23. You Make Me Feel Like Dancing – Leo Sayer
24. Your Smiling Face – James Taylor
25. Summer In The Sandbox – Domestic Problems
26. We Are In Love – Harry Connick, Jr.
27. Here Comes The Sun – The Beatles
28. Shine On – Entrain
29. Crazy Love – Van Morrison
30. Let’s Get It On – Marvin Gaye
31. That’s How Strong My Love Is – Otis Redding
32. True Companion – Marc Cohn
33. She’s Got A Way [live] – Billy Joel
34. Since I Met You Baby – Ivory Joe Hunter
35. The Things We Do For Love – 10cc
36. Tell Me ‘Bout It – Joss Stone
37. What Am I Gonna Do With You – Barry White
38. Thank You – Bonnie Raitt
39. Beyond The Blue – Joan Armatrading
40. All Around Us – Donavon Frankenreiter
41. Be My Honeypie – The Weepies
42. Better Together – Jack Johnson
43. Can’t Help Falling In Love (Live At Daytrotter) – Ingrid Michaelson
44. Come Away With Me – Norah Jones
45. Dance Me to the End of Love (Bonus) – The Civil Wars
46. Dream A Little Dream Of Me – The Mamas & The Papas
47. Fallin’ For You – Colbie Caillat
48. Hold You In My Arms – Ray LaMontagne
49. Home – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
50. Honey – Erykah Badu
51. I Love You – Sarah McLachlan
52. If The Stars Were Mine – Melody Gardot
53. Loving You – Paolo Nutini
54. Need Your Love So Bad – Fleetwood Mac
55. Say Hey (I Love You) – Michael Franti & Spearhead
56. Sweet Pea – Amos Lee
57. Warm Ways – Fleetwood Mac
58. You and I – Ingrid Michaelson
59. Dancing in The Moonlight – Toploader
60. January Wedding – The Avett Brothers
61. The One Who Love You The Most – Brett Dennen
62. From the Clouds – Jack Johnson
63. What the World Needs Now Is Love – Jackie DeShannon
64. (Just Like) Starting Over – The Flaming Lips

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Songs for my dear mom

13 Jun

In honor and in memory of my mom, here are two songs that have a very special place in my heart and make me think of her each time I hear them.

The first, is a most beautiful cover of the Leonard Cohen song “Dance Me to the End of Love”. My mom was a huge Leonard Cohen fan and she also really, really loved Jennifer Warnes’ album entitled Famous Blue Raincoat. Let me just say that we listened to this album a lot! If you have not ever heard it before, it is worth checking out. A wonderful collection of Leonard Cohen covers. And of course, a collection that I hold dear to my heart since each song reminds me so much of my mom. Well, flash forward a number of years and I am most certain that we should have truly loved this sweet and sultry version of “Dance Me to the End of Love” performed by The Civil Wars. They are a duo comprised of California-to-Nashville transplant Joy Williams and her Alabaman partner, John Paul White. I also highly recommend checking out their album entitled Barton Hollow. You won’t be disappointed.

Here is a live version of “Dance Me to the End of Love”


Amazing, right?!! Leonard Cohen is a poetic genius and the combination of their two voices together just takes my breath away.

The second song that makes me think of my mom is a sad, but beautiful song entitled “Wish You Well” by Katie Herzig. This is a song that I first heard on WMVY awhile back and I instantly fell for Katie’s rich, melodic voice. I downloaded it from iTunes and it was not until after a couple of months of listening to it that the lyrics grabbed me with such an intensity that I can’t quite describe. The flood gates opened and the tears just started to pour out. It is both unbelievably sad and very uplifting at the same time. My mom was truly an amazing woman who really did show me how to find my way. I thank her for so many gifts that she left me and am grateful to have had such a strong and confident woman for a mom.

Here is “Wish You Well” by Katie Herzig:

Lucky Number 7

10 Jun

Wow! That is about all I can say right now. I’ve experienced it first hand and I’m pretty amazed. I recently published a playlist to 8tracks entitled “Summer Time Fun” (http://8tracks.com/mixes/319131/player_v3). This is the 7th playlist that I’ve posted and I guess that 7 is my lucky number. Apparently you just need a few re-posts to Facebook or Stumbled Upon, or even a single “tweet” and the word really gets out. And I mean really gets out. My last 6 playlists received anywhere from 10-25 plays and each of them had a handful of “likes”.

[For those of you who have not checked out 8tracks yet…it is a site that streams people’s handmade mixes. You can search by genre or artist or peruse the “new today”, “hot this week” or “popular this month” lists. As an 8tracks “DJ”, I can see how many times my mix was listened to as well as how many people “liked” it and any comments that may have been left.]

Well, that single tweet and the reposts to Facebook and Stumbled Upon have landed my “Summer Time Fun” playlist on page 3 of the “hot this week” list. I’m not sure how 8tracks orders the mixes, but certainly being on page three helps since there are many, many pages. I published the playlist about a week and half ago and already almost 800 people have listened to it and 80+ people like it. And the numbers just keep going up. Pretty cool!

This new experience with social media got me thinking about the power of the internet and each of our individual voices. It is amazing how easy it has become to spread the “word”. My graduate degree is in Mass Communications and it is truly fascinating to see how drastically things have changed with the introduction of social networking applications like Facebook, Stumbled Upon and Twitter. Once even just a few people jump on your “bandwagon” the “message” (whether it be a playlist, a video on youtube, a product on a consumer site, a political speech, etc.) can spread so quickly– aka “go viral”. Quite a powerful tool for the masses.

Although, I must admit that I am a relative dinosaur when it comes to social networking. I had never heard of Stumbled Upon, I don’t tweet, nor am I a twitter follower. Facebook and blogging are as far as I’ve gotten. I took a quick look at Stumbled Upon and I don’t quite get how to use it. Wait, should I not be admitting that? Quite honestly, I don’t think I need another time-sucking site to gobble up more of my precious moments. So I’ll skip that one for now. Although, I am a wee bit curious to hear from anyone who uses Stumbled Upon and the ways you find it useful. I guess I don’t want to be too much of a dinosaur.

Oh and another topic….thanks to all those that recently subscribed to the blog. I really appreciate your support. And perhaps someday this too will take of like my “Summer Time Fun” playlist and lots of people will be following my blog. One can dream, right?