Day 289: Today's song selection may seem like an odd one, but bear with me for a moment. On the face of it, Billy Bragg's 1986 ode "Greetings to the New Brunette," sounds like a simple love song from some poor British bloke to a sophisticated woman who seems to be a bit out of his league. But the guitar line is beautiful and the lyrics are about as clever and sweet as I could ever wish for: "I'm celebrating my love for you, with a pint of beer and a new tattoo...Here we are in our summer years, living on ice cream and chocolate kisses. Would the leaves fall from the trees If I was your old man and you were my missus?" It is just a great song. But, the last line (which is also the title of the song) has always confused me. The song implies that the relationship is going well, but in the end who is this new brunette? I honestly don't know, but I developed a theory over time. I have no idea if it is "correct" but at this point, I honestly don't care anymore. In my mind, the new brunette that Billy asks Shirley to greet at the end of the song is... their newborn daughter. That explanation works for me. And so, this new chapter in my musical journal is dedicated to the new brunette that Jen and I welcomed into this world three short years ago today. Happy Birthday Evy!!!
07/17/2015
Day 290: In making the transition from the DINK life-style to being a parent, I did have the small concern that some of the musical choices at home and in the car might change a little bit. Unfortunately, much like Xmas music, there is an awful lot of bad kids music out there. Very fortunately, there are a few alternative acts out there that seem to share my concern but have actually done something about it. The prime example here is They Might Be Giants. Over the past decade or so TMBG have put out at least 4 different albums of kids music that at times even focus on education topics such as letters, numbers, and even science. Once, Evy was born, we made sure to create an iTunes play-list stuffed full of these tracks to play in the house or car in an attempt to start the indoctrination as early as possible. Of the hard-core kids songs, one of my favorites is today's song, "Seven." It is a fun little song about visitors that have a fondness for cake ("We want cake. Where's our cake!"), and it also happens to have a pretty awesome barry sax line. It is songs like this one that made some of those 6 AM Saturday sessions a bit more fun.
07/18/2015
Day 291: Through out my life, I have often entertained myself by coming up with alternative lyrics to all sorts of songs. When I became a dad, this little hobby was able to find a new outlet. As it turns out, there are all sorts of situations that can be put to song. When it is time to put away toys (sung to the tune of The Pixies "Gouge Away"): "Toys away. Put your toys away. Play all day, if you want to." When we are tying to get dressed the Bob Marley song "Get Up, Stand Up." works pretty well, and when it is time for lights out: "Dad will, dad will ROCK YOU." For several months or even over a year, when it was time to go upstairs for bed, I would break out my alternate version of today song, the 1964 classic from Petula Clark, "Downtown." It went a little something like this, "When you are tired and the day has been long, you can always go... upstairs. When you are sleepy and you've finished you dinner, you can always go... upstairs. Listen to the music of the water in the bath tub. You can brush your teeth and read your favorite books with Daddy. You'll comb your hair. The lights are much softer there, you can forget all your troubles, forget all your care and go upstairs, where there a bath for you. Upstairs. Comfy pajamas too. Upstairs. Bedtime is waiting for you... upstairs."
07/19/2015
Day 292: As I mentioned yesterday, Jen and I certainly tried to point Evy's musical tastes in a certain direction. Similarly, I think that most parents that I know at least try to limit screen time to some extent, at least for a little while. But, at some point, the dike starts to show some cracks and all of a sudden you realize that you are sitting at your desk top computer watching internet videos with your toddler (and perhaps checking your Facebook feed on the 2nd monitor). If you have found yourself in this situation recently, I would imagine that you are fairly familiar worth today's song, "What Does The Fox Say," by the "Norwegian Comedy Duo" (Wikipedia's words, not mine) Ylvis. On some level, I certainly have to give then props for the creativity of the song. If you are not listening that carefully, it almost sounds like any other dance-pop electronica song. But, then you *do* listen a little more closely, and the reaction is typically, "wait....what?" unless you are a toddler, of course, in which case your response (in my experience) is "AGAIN!" As entertaining as the song is, the video is perhaps more entertaining. I just wish I could get some closure on what the fox *actually* says, but I suppose that it is an ancient mystery...
07/20/2015
Day 293: Once that you accept the idea that you are letting your toddler watch videos, well, a whole new world starts to open up, and the Disney Corporation is more than happy to try to monetize that action. As it turns out, Disney released a little animated film a few years ago called "Frozen," and the headlining song from that movie is today's song, "Let It Go" (or "Song from Frozen" as Evy used to call it). Perhaps you may have heard it once or 10,000 times? It does seem to have reached the ubiquitous level of media saturation, even to the point where the songwriter issued an apology to parents everywhere. But, even after all the exposure, we need to keep something in mind. "Let It Go" is a flat out awesome song, by pretty much any measure. It has a catchy tune, it is sung by one of the best Broadway singers of our generation (Indina Menzel) and it has a very powerful and positive message about accepting yourself for who you are. Maybe I will change *my* tune in a few years, but if my daughter wants to sing this song 50 times a day, I think that I am OK with that. With lines like, "It's funny how some distance makes everything look small. The fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all," well, I think we could all repeat that a few hundred times some days. You may or may not agree with me and that's OK. After all the cold never bothered me anyway.
07/21/2015
Day 294: Now, I don't want to give the impression that I don't let Evy listen to any more traditional children's music. In fact she went through a phase when one of her favorite songs is today's song "Baby Beluga" by the beloved children's entertainer Raffi. I must admit that I was not overly familiar with him from my childhood, but after just a few listens, I can see why he was once called "the most popular children's singer in the English-speaking world." If nothing else, the very 80s video clip showing an audience of children, some of which have stuffed whales with them, should be enough melt even the hardest of hearts.
07/22/2015
Day 295: The first time that Jen and I heard about the local folk-rock-world-fusion band The Ragbird was when I member of our church invited us to go to a concert. The conversation went something like this, "my neighbor's daughter is in a band and they are having a Christmas concert in Hartland in a few weeks. They are awesome! Would you like to buy tickets?" Now, under normal circumstances about a million red flags would have shot up in our heads, but we trusted our friend and went ahead and bought tickets. But, even on the walk from the parking lot to the auditorium, Jen and I discussed how there was a strong possibility that this was going to be dreadfully bad. But, as it turns out the "E-bird and Friends" Christmas show actually was awesome! (The concert was not by the Ragbirds specifically, but a group of local, very talented musicians rounded up by "E-bird" the Ragbird's lead singer Erin Zindle) Over the next few years we sought out the Ragbirds for shows at the Ark in Ann Arbor, and even took Evy to the children's themed show. It was her first concert experience and she made it about half-way through before stating, "ALL DONE!" A little while later, we happened to be playing today's song "Little Things" in the car for Evy, and she really latched onto it. For a while she would request "The song where the girl named Erin is singing." Now, who can deny your child that?
07/23/2015
Day 296: Sometime later, also while in the car with Evy, she got a hold of Jen phone and began flicking through various screens. By the time I bothered to try to get the phone back, Evy had opened the music library and somehow navigated to an album cover that I did not even recognize at first. Evy said to me, "Daddy, I wanna hear this song." I looked more closely and found that the track was today's song, "After the Disco" by Broken Bells. I vaguely remember maybe getting a Broken Bells CD from either Bonnie or Kimber and maybe a free download card from Starbucks, but we honestly had barely ever listened to them. But again, we figured "why not?" and let the track play. Evy seemed amused and then continued to request "Bwoken Bell" on every car ride. The song is a cool dance-pop number sung by Shins front-man James Mercer that certainly is a good listen, once we gave it a chance. Plus, now it seems like we have raised a hipster baby.
So, with that I would like to bring a close to this chapter on kids music. Now, I am not sure how Evy will look back on her childhood, but I know that for me, a big part of any summer was attending the Ingham County Fair in Mason. In about 10 days or so, the 2015 version of the Fair will role around again, so I would like to dedicate the next chapter in this journal to that magical one week period where I let the more country boy side of my personality loose.
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