New music

Since I have so recently been on the subject of music....

Emiko's taste in music, while broad, has taken a precocious turn as she now asks for songs to be skipped while we are in the car by saying, "A different one?". This is probably her finding that she can control a small part of her environment but when she is frustrated with a lack of our response to her pleas for a new song, she cries out "Change it!" from the back seat.

Tonight as I put her down for bed, we sang her two favorite songs before she was comfortable crawling into her crib for the night. Knights of Bostonia and Right Me Up. She then asked for her jazz CD instead of the Rhyme Time Baby CD that she has been listening to at night.

Given this behavior as of late, I decided it was time that Dad made her a CD. After hours of deliberation and culling songs from our collection, I think I finally have the play list. I wanted songs she is familiar with but I also wanted to find a way to open her repertoire up to some new artists as well.

1. Knights of Bostonia - State Radio (go figure)
2. Right Me Up - State Radio (if you didn't see that coming...)
3. Angel Standing By - Jewel (her third most favorite song though I struggle to sing this one a cappella
4. Lullaby (Goodnight, My Angel) - Billy Joel (c'mon, no lullaby collection is complete without this one and she enjoys hearing me sing this one to her on occasion)
5. Winslow's Lullaby - The Sweet Remains (YOU, loyal reader, should have seen this coming too. This is Phoebe's song for Emi)
6. Goodnight - Linda Ronstadt (I know...this should be the Beatles' version but I somehow don't own that version)
7. The Only Living Boy in New York - Simon & Garfunkel (a song Hope and I sing for our daughter when we are together to put Emi to bed)
8. Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (if you have never heard this, look it up and it will make your day)
9. Blackbird - Sarah McLachlan (such a wonderfully peaceful take on a Beatles' classic)
10. All the Wild Horses - Ray Lamontagne (about as subtle as Ray can be...)
    
11. Streets of Philadelphia - Bruce Springsteen (another video Emi enjoys)
12. La Mer - Kevin Kline
    
13. Scarborough Fair/Canticle - Simon & Garfunkel
14. She Says - Ani Difranco (it was difficult to find a song that was quiet enough and not too provocative)
15. Yesterday - The Beatles (I struggled between this version and a one solo by McCartney)
16. 12:59 Lullaby - Bedouin Soundclash
17. Sunset Road - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
18. The Scarlet Tide - Alison Krauss
19. Sweet Dreams - Dixie Chicks (the first time I heard this, Hope was singing it and I was convinced that she had written the song herself)
20. Baby Mine - Alison Krauss
21. Out of the Woods - Nickel Creek
    

A night out

It's a perfect night to be celebrating life here in Colorado. We are sharing the night with two of our closest friends at Red Rocks enjoying Ray Lamontagne.

Who'd have thought during the first time we saw him at The Fox Theater in Boulder that we would be here now? February '05...we had just bought our house and were in the process of unpacking the boxes when Dad flew in to ski with Jeff. Married with an incredible daughter? I'm not sure if it the music or the memories that are causing me to tear up. Perhaps both...

"A man needs something he can hold on to. A nine pound hammer or a woman like you."

Here I am hanging on to Hope's shoulders. Pretending to rub them but really just trying to stay upright as I have nothing left in me after my bought with the stomach flu over the past four days. May I always have my wife's shoulders to lean on.

The next show we saw Ray at was a bigger venue: the Paramount Theater in Denver, November '06. We even took my parents to this show. This was his breakout show for us. He nailed it, we were hooked. This was the first time I really had the opportunity to listen to the songs I had drawn from so heavily during the summer of the previous year. Hope had spent that summer travelling and I spent the time writing a song for her that I had no idea would become my proposal to her.

And these memories come flooding back with his music now as a man proposes to his wife during this show just a few feet away from us.

The next show was at CU Boulder in November '08. Of all the shows, this is the only one that we could say was less than stellar. And it was a great show, it just didn't have the energy that other shows had. But it was a special night for us. Molly was babysitting for us to give us our first night away from Emiko...all of two months old.

Ellie Caulkins Opera House, November '09. Ray solo. Up close and personal. And we was so personable that night. Talking, telling stories, joking...something we had never seen before. Truly a night to remember. Molly looked after Emi again; Hope and I vowed that Molly was coming to the next Ray concert.

And here we are. August '10 at Red Rocks. As Hope said, it is the cherry on the sundae.

There is an energy here at Red Rocks. A bar was set in the 80's when U2 broke out here. I've seen Neil Young meet that bar here with Cow Girl in the Rain. Petty came close. State Radio was special but they get bonus points with Chad being an old Middlebury buddy and being our daughter's favorite band.

"Are we strangers now like rock n roll and radio?"

What a poignant chorus. Music has been so dear to me but it is no longer found on the air waves. It's found on iTunes. It's word of mouth. It's Slacker radio. It's the Music Genome Project. It is not the drivel we find on the air waves, it does not move my soul.

Ray is still up at the top of that list. He finished his first set with a driving rendition of Henry Nearly Killed Me (It's a Shame). His encore was a simple medley of Neil Young's Down by the River and Pink Floyd's Breathe (Reprise). Incredible.

We'll be back again.