The other day I was listening to the radio and "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking" came on. I sang along, not giving it much thought. Then it came on again, and I scratched my head. Waaait a minute, who is singing this? This isn't Joe Nichols, it's Blake Shelton!
Compare and contrast. I'm putting both versions of "Who Are You When I'm Not Looking" up here. Please listen with eyes closed, so you aren't swayed by Blake Shelton's professional video, or by the unprofessional but well intended fan tribute video for Joe Nichols. Side by side, which version do you like better? Please let me know.
Joe Nichols
Blake Shelton
Wow. They are really similar. Joe Nichols has a deeper and sleepier voice. Blake Shelton's version is slightly livelier, but even he sounds like just woke up from a nap.
At the bottom of the page, I will collect links to local stories about Home Owners Associations making people unhappy.
Friends of mine are being harassed by their Home Owners Association and are very upset about it. In response, I did something I haven't done in a while. I made a mixCD for them.
I think Home Owners Associations are overstepping when they do anything more than maintain common areas, host neighborhood events, and help organize to care for a neighbor in need. This is America, and for all of our talk about freedom we should stay out of our neighbors' business when they are neither breaking the law nor harming man or beast. If a neighbor wants to paint his house pink, create a cactus and rock garden, and fly the flags of their ancestral roots from the rooftop, they should be allowed to do that. If you don't like it, build a privacy fence or plant some conifers to block the view.
Here's the playlist I created. I had help coming up with appropriate songs from folks on Twitter. If you feel like your neighbors are picking on you, I hope these songs help raise your spirits.
2. I asked the singer Uncle Kracker, who appeared to be in the mood to tweet, if he had any suggestions. He came up with Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It"
3. The next suggestion came from Jenn of Lovin' Lyrics Music Promotions. "This Land is Your Land." I chose the Woody Guthrie version of the song, of course.
4. If your neighbors are giving you a hard time, change the ringtone for the HOA president to Jaron and the Long Road to Love's "Pray for You." You've got to pray for your enemies, too.
5. Lucas Hare, a British actor, suggested Ronnie and the Delinquent's, "Bad Neighborhood". I can't find a video or audio clip, but it goes "Well there ain't no good, in a Bad Neighborhood". I had never heard this song before an thought it was a great suggestion.
6. Next up is Lonestar's "From my Front Porch Looking In". Ignore the crazy neighbors and take stock of what's really important.
7. To add a little humor I added the story of every HOA's nightmare, Confederate Railroad's "White Trash with Money". This is not the original Confederate Railroad version that I put on the CD. This is a new version. The singer in this video, Cody McCarver, is a newer member of Confederate Railroad but this version of the song is something he's recorded as a solo artist. (click for more Wikipedia insight.)
8. A great song about fighting for one's freedom is The Red Hot Chili Peppers "Fight Like a Brave". Fight like a brave. Don't be a slave. No one can tell you, you've got to be afraid!
9. Baron Lane, writer of the excellent blog, Twang Nation, suggested Merle Haggard's "The Fighting Side of Me". Petty neighborhood regulations are a threat to the American way of life, dangit!
10. Along the same theme, but to a different tune, is Metallica's "Don't Tread on Me". You don't have to be a Tea Party member to fly that flag. I try to avoid putting fan-made tribute videos up on this blog, but this one is an admirable attempt and there doesn't appear to a better choice out there.
11. American Vesper is a song on my highschool friend Charles Danek's new CD, Coin. It's a much more relaxing song about standing one's ground.
12. And last but not least, The Soggy Bottom Boys "I am a Man of Constant Sorrow." If your dispute with your HOA seems endless perhaps this song is what you really need. "For six long years I've been in trouble/No pleasures here on earth I found/For in this world I'm bound to ramble/I have no friends to help me now." This song was recommended by Charlie Ervin, a Civil Engineer and Bluegrass musician.
"Baby this bed's too big/ We don't need all this room/ I like you nice and close/ cause heaven knows/ morning comes too soon." ~Joe Nichols, Written by Victoria Shaw and Gary Burr
We don't celebrate Valentines Day in our house. I've always disliked the Hallmark holiday and being happily married hasn't changed that.
If we did celebrate Valentines Day, rented a log cabin in the woods for the occasion, ate dinner by candlelight and then made love in front of a fire on a sheepskin rug, I'd want Joe Nichol's "This Bed's Too Big" to be playing in the background.
Unfortunately, "This Bed's Too Big" is such an underrated song, I can't find a full online version of it to share with you. Joe Nichols doesn't even make it possible to listen to it on his website. The best I can do is put the Pandora link to the song on here.
Heather, Joe Nichol's wife, found this song for him. Read the back story below, from a site called Dave's Diary.
"But Joe Nichols thanks his wife Heather for sourcing "This Bed's Too Big".
"My wife found that song." Nichols said. "She said 'You don't have any sexy songs. I can't think of any sexy songs you do.' She went out and did her own legwork and approached Victoria Shaw who is a friend of ours. She asked her for her best sexy song and she got it. She gave it to me and I thought it was a big old hit."
Mr. Nichols, if you think it's a "big old hit" you should let people hear it.
"She wears Macy's I wear Loehmans. She wears Filenes, I wear Filene's Basement. Can't you see-ee-ee, she's just a J.-A.-P. (not Japanese)"
Gwyneth Paltrow, the newest member of the country music world, was a guest on SNL a few weeks ago. She participated in a skit about over-the-top Bar Mitzvah party entertainment, a phenomenon worthy of satire. In this case, a family member who is big macher in the music industry hired a number of stars to do Bar Mitzvah themed versions of their songs. Paltrow did an impression of Taylor Swift singing "You Belong to Me", but rather than a cheerleader, the other girl is a J.A.P.
I am neither offended by Paltrow poking fun of Taylor, as are some of her fans who take everything Taylor very seriously, nor of SNL using the term J.A.P. Of the songs in the skit, Paltrow's is the only one I find even remotely funny and quite frankly, I was left wanting another verse. There are so many other J.A.P. typical qualities they could have used. Straightened hair immediately comes to mind. That would have been a slam dunk. Fear of the outdoors and whining about the heat are two more.
If you're thinking of leaving a horrified comment, please do, but give this some thought first. If a woman is truly a J.A.P. she's ignoring me completely.
My other comment is about SNL devoting such a long skit to the Bar Mitzvah party. Only 2% of the U.S. population is Jewish, and although our Bar Mitzvah party guest lists usually include non-Jewish friends and family, I'd be surprised if more than 5-10% of the U.S. population has ever been to a Bar Mitzvah. Who is getting all of the rather weak inside jokes in this skit?
As a side note, if you've watched the whole video, I agree with the boy. A modest luncheon is a very haimish way to celebrate a Bar Mitzvah.
Ronnie Dunn's first single of his new solo career is out!
"We live this life, from breath to breath, we're all the same, we all bleed red." Well sung Ronnie.
The lyrics to "Bleed Red" are timely and express an important truth. When we let our differences in opinion divide us, we lose sight of how similar we all really are and behave in ways that are destructive. "Turn the anger to water, let it slip through our hands. We all bleed red." "Because my scars, they are your scars, and your world is mine." I can't wait for the first Ronnie Dunn concert I attend to see thousands of people holding hands, swaying back and forth, singing country's new version of Kumbaya. I'm not being sarcastic. Call me a sap, but I think it will be beautiful.
http://www.theboot.com/ had a nice paragraph in their article where Dunn talks about what he was thinking when he chose and recorded this song.
"The type of song was not one Ronnie was intent on releasing as his first solo single following the musical split of Brooks & Dunn. "One day, I get this e-mail from a friend, and it's a song called 'Bleed Red.' So I listened to it, just to be nice, and it knocked me out," he reiterates. "It wasn't necessarily the suit that I was planning on wearing to the dance, so to speak, but it was a big song, and I said, 'I'm gonna have to beat Bono to the punch.' [laughs] It sounded like U2, and I'm going, 'Okay, so what if Conway Twitty were to come in and put a vocal on this anyway and cut the song?' So that's what we did."
"Bleed Red" does sound like a U2 song. I'm not a U2 fan, so it has taken me a a day to get past the similarity. Yesterday, I wrote a scathing review but didn't publish it. This morning I listened to the song again and realized that I love it.
You can hear "Bleed Red" on his website now, http://www.ronniedunn.com/ as you admire the photograph of a Ronnie Dunn porcelain doll. (Holy airbrush, Batman!)
As soon as this song is available for download, I'm buying it.
The other day I was thinking that I had lost my way in this blog. The fact that I am a Jewish country music fan had lost its importance and I had assimilated into the mass of mostly secular country music conversation.
Then, Sunday night I see that Jaron Lowenstein, the Jewish pop singer gone country, has posted the following on his Facebook page
Just imagine Jaron having 100 bibles thrown at him (all but one aimed to just miss his pretty head) and then his fans lecturing and preaching to one another from their respective moral highgrounds. That's what the comment thread looks like. Some of comments are long rants, both for and against the Gervais quote and a Christian understanding of God and faith. "He totally contradicted himself and it's not even right." one frustrated and comedically impaired Jaron fan says of Gervais.
An offended Christian's post reads, "Speechless... Can you shoot your maker in the face any harder?" It doesn't surprise me that religious Christians find Gervais' statement offensive, but this comment is so removed from my frame of reference that I honestly find it bizarre. Even my most religious Jewish friends would find some humor Gervais' statement, at least in the contradiction itself.
Considering that the song "I'll Pray for You", his ticket onto country radio, is 100% sarcastic, the comment "I love when Christians use the statement "I'll pray for you" at the end of their discussions as a way to be a condescending a-hole." is rather apropo on behalf of the not-offended and tired of the preaching.
I wonder if Jaron had any clue that so many of his fans lack a sense of humor when it comes to God. Why should he? It doesn't make any sense that they like his song "I'll Pray for You" but are unable to laugh at Gervais ridiculous statement.
I said that all but one bible was aimed to miss Jaron's head. His offended fans for the most part criticized Gervais for joking about God, not Jaron for repeating it and finding it funny. Only one guy posted "Jaron....I used 2 like you."
I'm glad Jaron's not wearing some sort of hokey country camoflague in order to fit into the genre more easily. Even though he doesn't have enough twang for my taste, I'll continue following his career because he keeps me entertained. Here's his next funny song "Happy For You". If this makes it onto the radio (doubtful) I can already hear my eight year old saying "Mama, it isn't nice to say hate."
My life has a soundtrack running in the background. I often turn to music as therapy for my relatively small problems like boredom or difficulty concentrating on a mundane task. Luckily, I don't have any big problems right now but if I did, God forbid, I would turn to music to help with those as well.
Judy M. Core, the author of Good Music is Better than Sex and My Search for the Old Blue Chair is a huge Kenny Chesney fan and credits his music, specifically the song "Old Blue Chair" with saving her life from the downward spiral of alcoholism and partying. Throughout the book she refers to the songs that are her personal soundtrack. I picked up her book because I was curious to read the story of another woman who claims country music has had a large affect on her life.
Good Music is Better than Sex... is a self-published memoir. It's a conversation with an dirty-mouthed girlfriend who won't let you get a word in edgewise. It took a few pages but eventually I was pulled into the story by this description of Core's younger self.
"...I transitioned from the invisible girl with glasses and braces in high school to the Larger than Life Blonde Creature. You've probably seen her. You can't miss her...pissed off, big hair, loud mouth, short skirts and big boobs, life of the party. She might be telling someone to fuck off, she might be dancing sandwiched between two guys, she might be making out with some stray at the bar...trust me, you've seen her."(p. 9)
Core inserts humanity into the "Blonde Creature". Her "Blonde Creature" transcends the eye-roll inducing, scantily clad stranger at a bar, by having feelings and a brain. When she manages to put a halt to her life's downward spiral she does a lot of soul searching on the subject of sex and relationships. She makes some very good points about self-respect and the roles women cast themselves in. I think that her story could be very helpful to young women who are caught-up in the self-destructive lifestyle of booze, sex, and unhealthy relationships, especially if those women are music lovers.
Her story is compelling not because it is exceptional, like a rags to riches or obscurity to fame story, but rather because it is common. She takes some unusual steps in her process, like going to the Caribbean to write a book, but it's more about what happens in her head than where she decides to do her thinking. It's the story of a woman who makes mistakes she not proud of, takes full responsibility for her actions and turns into a woman who takes consequences and goals into account before she acts. It's a book that says all the things that most mothers try to tell their daughters about partying, men, and marriage. The problem is that most mothers, if they are speaking to their daughters from experience, won't admit it. Good Music is Better than Sex is written in the voice of a woman who is not embarrassed to tell the world how she behaved, and how it damaged her. The wounds are fresh.
While reading this book I was aware that it was written and published in the mid-2000s. I wonder if Judy Core was writing this today, she would have chosen an online format with an interactive advice element and links to video. It could easily be moved into that format and reach a wider audience.
