Category: Music

It’s a Beautiful Day – The Kiffness x Rushawn

I ran across this musician because I saw a cat mashup video that he did. The video was hilarious because the musician sampled a cat’s plaintive meow with music. After clicking around to listen to his other work, I found this gem.

Rushawn, the little boy singing was so sincere and sweet that I was touched by just his singing. It would be difficult to have a bad day after listening to this (I could probably do it though). However, in this moment and the moments that preceded this moment when I’ve listened, it just makes me have a beautiful day.

To make this even more beautiful, the pinned comment on the video reveals that both The Kiffness (musician) and the song’s writer (Jermaine Edwards) worked together to make sure that Rushawn receives royalties for their use of his singing the song! Sometimes, life (and others) conspires to create beautiful moments. This story is one of them.

Enjoy!

Melody Gardot: My One and Only Thrill

I forgot about another artist/song that I heard from my Thanksgiving roadtrip.  I heard a cover of “Ain’t No Sunshine” that totally captured my attention in a manner similar to Hozier’s “Take Me to Church.”  Hozier was easy to remember because he (and his music) are everywhere.  However, Melody Gardot was a more difficult artist to keep in mind.  Amazingly, I was reminded of the artist whose song I heard on that road trip and decided to backtrack through my memories and find her name and music.  I’m glad that I did.  Her voice is phenomenal in a way that I would love to be able to do.  For now, this is a different song (not the one I heard during the road trip) that I am in love with.

Enjoy!

 

Musically Inclined for Valentine’s – Who Will Take My Dreams Away

Sometime during the summer, a friend of mine invited me over to watch “La Fille Sur Le Pont.”  A tremendous understatement is that I was less than enthused to watch the film because my francophilia usually ends during the opening scene of a French film.  However, my friend assured me that this would not be the case and I grudgingly agreed to watch.  I’m glad that I did.  I LOVED the film.  I especially loved the song below that gives an ethereal and haunting quality to the scene which, itself, is phenomenal.  I won’t wax poetic (or in this case prosaic) about the film, although I highly recommend watching it.  Without further ado, Marianne Faithfull’s “Who Will Take My Dreams Away” from the film “La Fille Sur Le Pont.”  Enjoy!!

 

New Favorite Song from the Road

I don’t listen to the radio. Not at home. Not to and from work. I usually move through life in silence – unless I go somewhere where music is playing OR I am on a road trip and need the music to help me to go the next mile of a long trip. Thanksgiving provided the motivation for my last road trip that had me taking the Southern route. The entire trip was over 1500 miles. I listened to a lot of radio. One of the best discoveries (it was a discovery because I had never heard of this song nor the artist), was a song titled “Take Me to Church” by Hozier. Each time I heard it, I was in an automatic good mood to have heard something that I LIKED.

Below are two videos, one is the original video and the other is video of his live performance on Saturday Night Live.

From Disappointment to Hope

After having been introduced to Ennio Morricone through Yo-Yo Ma’s translation of soundtrack hits using stringed instruments, I went beyond the Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone album to fully explore Morricone’s music.  I rented movies from Netflix whose soundtracks he scored.  I rented a VHS tape from the school library and watched it with my then-boyfriend (who still had a VCR).  I even watched a movie online (illegally) because I could only find it at a download site.  Listening to Yo-Yo Ma’s amazing renditions were one thing (he successfully translated Ecstasy of Gold to strings after all).  However, experiencing the original music en scene provided more depth to what was, previously, an auditory experience only.  I was hooked…


Although Morricone was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy Awards, he does not perform often in the United States.  There have been times when I’ve been out of the country and found that he was performing (or worse, had performed) somewhere nearby.  However, timing and money always conspired against me.  I recently made an online purchase that has me the recipient of “hey, check out our LATEST great deal” emails seemingly everyday.  Typically, I ignore them.  For some reason, Wednesday I decided to actually open one of the emails to peruse its contents before deleting and what did I discover?  A package deal for Morricone’s concert in New York!  The email came a little before two weeks in advance, the concert is in New York no less and basically impossible to do.  I was elated AND deflated within seconds.  A coworker asked me about any upcoming trips around the time I was at my deflated lowest.  I told her about how much I would have wanted to see Ennio Morricone in concert but missed the opportunity because I had just found out a few weeks in advance.  We talked about other vacation/trip related minutiae and we both then proceeded with the rest of our workday.


For some reason, I went back to look again today and what did I discover?  The concerts have been postponed because of a back problem that Morricone’s doctors did not think would heal properly with long-distance travel.  Now, instead of less than two weeks away, I have three months to see if I can make it to one of his concerts!!  I do not believe in attempting to profit from the misfortune of others but I do find that the postponement has now made a far-off dream a far closer possibility.

Ahhhh, the difference a day makes…

The song that, when I first heard it, stirred that “something” in me (album purchased based on this one song):

 

The original version from the film, Una Pura Formalita, with Gerard Depardieu on vocals:

One of Morricone’s more recognized hits, en scene:

Yo-Yo Ma’s stringed interpretation:

And, a remix: