Thursday, June 19, 2008

My Next 10 Tunes

I am a lurker. I subscribe to a couple of my colleagues' blogs and read up on their lives. I'm not sure if they know I lurk behind the scenes and read what they are up to. Nor do I know if they know I have my own blog.

But their latest blog postings served as a catalyst for me to post. They both participated in the "Next 10 Tunes" exercise. Basically, this means that you put your iPod on shuffle, and list out the first 10 tunes you see, with commentary.

So here's mine:

10) Breath of God - Shane Barnard
Ironically, this happens to be one of my top 10 favorite tunes of all time. It's a prayer that God would breathe the breath of life (the Holy Spirit) into us all.

9) Breathe - Amy Lee (with David Hodges)
Weird. Two songs in a row about breathing. All I can think of when I hear this tune is the angelic voice of Heather Noble leading worship at Wells Fargo Arena at Easter. Again, this is another prayer about asking God to let His holy presence to live in us.

8) Passion - Kutless
Off their "Sea Of Faces" album, admittedly I don't know a ton about Kutless. I like their alt rock sound and crunchy Nickelback vocals, but I haven't spent a ton of time listening to this band as others.

7) Eggplant - Train
Off Train's self-titled album, this catchy tune (well, most of the songs on this album are catchy honestly) has a sweet groove and builds into an awesome tag. And let's be honest here, there aren't enough songs in the world about eggplants.

6) Swing On This - Alice In Chains
I miss Layne. Why did heroin have to take his life? I even bought a pair of wrap-around sunglasses back in the 90s when I was obsessed with the grunge movement. You gotta hand it to Layne, he had one of the most distinct voices in the business. And their harmonies were extremely tight and unique. What do I love about "Swing On This"? It mixes grunge with blues. Try putting those two combinations into a blender and drinking it.

5) Sixteen, Maybe Less - Calexico / Iron & Wine
Could this group any more polar than Alice In Chains? It's a beautiful, sweet-like-honey folk tune layered with gorgeous and breathy harmonies. It almost has a country sound, especially with the slide guitar.

4) Fallin' To Pieces - Rob Thomas
Miss Matchbox 20? Me too. But Rob's solo stuff is just as good. Fallin' To Pieces has a great guitar lick that drives this tune. It almost has a gospel feel to it especially with the multi-part harmony woven into this tunes. Definitely has a great groove that has me tapping my feet. And did I hear a banjo in this tune? And a violin? Yes, I believe I did.

3) A Long December - Counting Crows
Adam Duritz rules. I love his voice, his style, his songwriting skills. This is a beautiful tune that pulls on your heart strings. You could be in an amazing relationship and be completely steamrolled by the emotion of this song about relationships. Lyrically this song is genius...well, most of Counting Crows songs fall into that category. Love the end of this tune when they back everything down and just have Adam singing with the piano. And you'll have "Nah, nah, nah, nah..." stuck in your head the rest of the day.

2) Meet Virginia - Train
Hmm. I sense a conspiracy here with two Train songs from the same album on my 10 Tunes list. I LOVE this song so it's a definite welcome to my list. The chorus is raw and emotional. And if I were in a rock band, I would want to cover this tune.

1) Waterfalls - Dry Bones Dancing
Betcha you've NEVER heard of Dry Bones Dancing. My good friend from Minneapolis, David James Stewart, started this band with some of his friends from Bethel College. Stew and I were obsessed with Shane and Shane at the time and met over our mutual adoration of the group. And our friendship took off from there. I had agreed to serve as a band manager and booking agent for this band when we decided to move to Des Moines. I miss these guys terribly. Anway, Waterfalls is one of Stew's songs and it was always one of my favorite songs on their album "Not Afraid." I love the structure of the song, especially the melodic verses and harmonies.

No comments: