Tonight we had a good old fashioned jam session at the Kaes house.  It was an all request night by which I mean anyone could pick a song (I didn’t really pick a song, but I did try out a new guitar/melody/song piece accompanied by hand percussion and it was quite cool).  It was in honor of a friend, Eliska, who is from the Czech Republic, but was visiting for a number of weeks over the summer but has to fly home Tuesday.  She plays quite a few instruments so it was good fun.  We also had “Funkle Doug” on the piano (for some of the time), who is a great jazz pianist.  Eventually we worked our way to the song La Bamba.

I’m not sure how it came about that we played La Bamba, but we did.  There was dancing.  Young and old were either playing or dancing.  It was good.  There was life, there was fun, there was family, friends, and fellowship.  There was love.  All from a silly 3 chord song with a catchy hook.  I hope your weekend had a La Bamba  in it.

Today I was listening to a pop artist because I had heard her name enough times that I had to find out why people were listening to her. For those of you keeping score: it’s not Britney Spears. YouTube had a number of her videos online so I listened to them on the y’ube and got a feel for the style of her album(s). I did not watch more than about 10 seconds of her video but I’m pretty sure I’m prejudice. The reason I say that is that with computers and software being what they are even I can sound relatively decent so I want a genuine artist writing from their heart about things that matter to them. I need something deeper than dulcimer tones.

Am I prejudiced against the pretty faced girl who sings like an ‘angel’ (pardon me while I puke in my mouth after writing that)? I think so. What if the unnamed country-pop star is really a great, talented gal who writes real songs from her heart? I’m scared if she does because she’s got to have a large chunk of bubble-gum lodged in there and its coated with banjos [this makes her songs authentic country, I believe]. Definitely enough to have a need for heart surgery. If she likes country music and enjoys singing about love, broken heartedness and incestuous relationships like traditional country musicians that’s great, but it just doesn’t show up in the lyrics and the videos are more about her hot young body than they are about her personality.  Or, as my sister, who likes country, likes to say: her qualities [a reference to the Bachelor TV show].

Help me find a really, really good country artist who writes quality songs, has depth in lyrics, music stylings, and isn’t just a celebrity for appearance sake.

Tonight, to relieve some stress and to do something I haven’t done in far too long I began working on a song. A kids song. An alphabet oriented kids song. I wanted to post what I’ve recorded so far and wanted to get some feedback.

Lyrics:
W I Need U
I had to ask O Y
R U coming back
I think I’m gonna die

Xs are the hardest N
This life which is OK
You flew away
Like some distant blue J

W I need U
I had to ask O Y
R U coming back
I think I’m gonna die

MP3

I have been a big fan of Poor Old Lu since the mid 90′s when two brothers who were in a (sphhhblunk rock) rock band with me encouraged me to give them another listen. When I had listened to the demo tape at the Christian bookstore I had heard a slower song and shut the tape player off. Yeah, I was really a good music listener back then. However, after borrowing their copy of ‘Sin’ I became hooked. Fast forward to 2005. Poor Old Lu is gone (for now), but Aaron Sprinkle, their guitarist has a lower priority solo career. Aaron’s touring band turns into his band Fair. Fair isn’t Poor Old Lu 2.0. Fair is more like Aaron Sprinkle 4.0. Its got a good solid sound, great harmonies, and a nice driving feel at places and careful respect for the delicate intricacies of dynamics in other places.

Genre: Rock
Released: 2006
Rating: 4.5 ear canals out of a total 5 ear canals
Theological Content: Could Play on Secular Radio without anyone knowing the band was Christian unless you knew they were Christian, in which case you can pick up underdones & themes.

If you’ve not heard Fair I’d check them out on iTunes or Amazon.com.

Recommended Tracks:

• The Attic
• Carelessness
• Cut Down Sideways
• Confidently Dreaming
• The Dumbfound Game
• Unglued

There is nothing like country music and line dancing to make you wish you married your sister.  Or if you don’t have a sister, maybe you wish you lost a dog or something.

Squaredancing on the other hand makes you wish that you had coordination enough to dance more sophisticated dances like you see people doing in theater productions.  Don’t get me wrong, squaredancing is fun because its easy, but after evaluating my ability to play simon says where every call is something simon said, I’m ready to take on dancing with the average Joe.  Its like reality TV only its reality.  I have relatives who went to school for dance, I have even more relatives who ballroom dance, but its just not in me.  When I have danced ‘improvised dance’ I think that some people present were ready to call 911 to make sure that the ambulance was hurrying because the convulsions were getting worse.

This last Saturday our church had a dance – but it was a square dance.  Various members of the congregation stayed home because they had some sense, but we wanted our girls to be able to have fun.  And fun they did have [<- that sentence was so Yoda, I don't know where it came from].  And we as adults had fun.  It was the first time I’d danced with my wife in public since we got married.  8.5 years of not knowing that the easiest way for me to dance with Jessica was to take up square dancing.

I think next year I need to wear suspenders.