Jason Wozniak’s “Missing Piece,” Catching Up, and Letting Go
The beginning of Jason Wozniak’s “Missing Piece” is like entering a storied jazz club, under new management. You hear a smooth synth. The musicians, friends of the owner, have agreed to help set the stage for a revitalization of the establishment. You come in for a bit of conversation with a long-lost friend. There are […]
The Loose and Easy “Appaloosa Bones” by Gregory Alan Isakov
It’s a sunny afternoon here in my small town, and I’m sitting at my kitchen table, listening to Gregory Alan Isakov’s “Appaloosa Bones.” There was a big thunderstorm yesterday, some hail, and a tornado warning, but you wouldn’t know it today – all sunshine and blue skies, with a few cottony clouds. The strains of […]
The Lonely Artist in Michael Simon Armstrong’s “Waterfront”
An artist’s combination of talent, passion, and vision has often been called a gift. There are times, though, when this “gift” is experienced more as a burden, both by the artist and by their loved ones, family, and community. “Art is not only about something. Art is something.” This Susan Sontag quote encapsulates the difference […]
Rachel Newnham Gently Calls to the Weary Soul in “Nobody Loves You Like I Do”
A little house down my suburban street, when I was a kid, had peeling paint, and curled up shingles, and an overgrown yard. There was a formerly white wooden fence, about 3 feet high, with a gate that was falling off. Cats wandered in and out of the foliage. Trees, which had grown on their […]
Boyscout’s “Done” Leaves the Past Where It Is
In golf, they call it a Mulligan. Your original shot didn’t work out, and you get the consent of your golfing buddies to try again, from the same spot. A do-over, if you will. In relationships, it doesn’t feel quite the same. It’s like a rebound relationship, but with the same person. Sometimes, over and […]
Joy Oladokun’s “Taking Things for Granted”
There’s this ritual you may or may not be familiar with, called immersion baptism. It’s an evangelical Christian thing, and generally involves people in their teens or adulthood formally becoming members of a church. Stay with me – it’s my partial analogy of Joy Oladokun’s song “Taking Things For Granted.” One of the meanings attached […]
About “Orion, The Hunter,” by We Walk The Earth
So there’s this UK band I follow on Twitter, called We Walk The Earth. Okay, I follow 5,698 accounts on Twitter at the moment – fewer than I once did, but you know, things have gone on…. Anyway, I’ve interacted with these folks a bit too. And so the one night, the constellation Orion was […]
On “By Their Standards,” By Angela Sclafani
It’s a comfortable thing to hang out with people who ‘get’ you – people who think the same way, do things the same way, aren’t particularly startling in their emotional peaks and valleys. It’s also kind of boring. From her new single “By Their Standards,” I get the feeling that Angela Sclafani lives in a […]
Fuel and Fire, Love and Anxiety in “Runaway” by Kylie V
“Runaway,” by Kylie V, is a song that comes from a deeply sensitive heart, for whom – because love and a relationship is so precious, and they care so much for their first love – contemplating and preparing for all the negative possibilities of the end of that relationship also feels like an enormous burden. […]
When You’re Feeling Down, There’s Lullanas’ “Cheap Silver Lining”
There are times when it feels right to play a “feelin’ kind of low” song. It isn’t always about the lyrics fitting where you’re at. People feel low for a million different reasons, at least. If the song has that sense of melancholy that goes with it, and you’re on your own or hangin’ with […]
