Most of the kinds of music I like– blues, gospel, country, rock n’ roll– are better heard live. I don’t know if this is true of all genres of music. I’ve heard my jazz-loving and classical-loving friends speak of some of their favorite albums as if the recording were absolutely perfect, as if no “live”…
Read MoreMy favorite band, The Rolling Stones, has probably appeared more often than any other band or artist in my 30 Day Song Challenge picks over the last several years. Their music sits right in the center of my sweet spot. It’s great “pop,”of course, but it’s messy, sloppy, lazy even. All rock n’ roll is formulaic, but…
Read MoreEvery person should have a song that makes them involuntarily raise up out of their chair and shout to the entire world “This. Is. My. Sooonnnggg!” whenever somebody punches its magic numbers into a jukebox. There’s nothing quite like that feeling of your body beginning to move on its own– foot tapping, hips swaying, head bobbing,…
Read MoreI don’t really consider it a particular accomplishment to know all the words to a song. In fact, I’d happily give up some of the space currently being used in my brain as song-lyric storage if I could consistently remember how to spell avocado or where I left my keys. The truth is that I…
Read MoreI have a terrible habit of taking songs that I love and putting them in regular rotation on my iPod, or using them as the ringtone (or worse, the wake-up alarm tone) on my phone, and it never fails that, over time, I grow very very sick of them. This is a worse offense than tiring…
Read MoreInstead of choosing a song that reminds me of Memphis, I’ve decided instead to pick a song that reminds me of my family home. In particular, this song reminds me of waking up on Sunday mornings and getting ready for church in my childhood and young-adult years. Mine has always been a church-going family. In…
Read MoreBefore I reveal my pick for a “song that reminds me of someone,” let me say a little bit about the someone in advance. My “someone” is not just one of the best best friends in the whole wild world, not just any grossly-underappreciated poet and philosopher, not just any garden variety wunderkind, not just any…
Read MoreAs I’ve said many times before on this blog, the four essential ingredients of a great song (in my estimation) are three chords and a sad story. I think I’ve always had a particular affection for sad songs, one that has only grown over the years, and my guess is that if I made a…
Read MoreFor today’s pick, I’m returning home to Soulsville, to draw from one of our deepest cultural and musical wells: Stax. The Stax “sound” is the sound that I most closely identify with Memphis, my home, and even the saddest of songs from the Stax vault has always possessed the power to cheer me up. Those…
Read MoreEarlier this week, I finished reading the recent Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation from Pope Francis entitled Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”). Subsequently, on various news outlets and social media, I have seen a number of so-called “summaries” of Amoria Laetitia that can at best be described as grossly inadequate and ungenerous readings of it and, at worst, as…
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