“Aganju (Latin Project Remix Edit)”
Bebel Gilberto
Six Feet Under [soundtrack], vol. 2: Everything Ends
One of the best television series on record. Unfortunately this soundtrack doesn’t include any of composer Thomas Newman’s contributions to the show, who “won a 2002 Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music and two Grammy Awards in 2003 for Best Instrumental Composition and Best Instrumental Arrangement.” (wikipedia)
“Hard to Make a Stand”
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow
While this song came out in the mid 90s, I don’t think I’ve ever paid any attention to the lyrics before today (I know, that’s really sad and probably says something about me as a person), but there are a couple lines that caught my attention today and perhaps warrant further contemplation. The first is: “We got loud guitars and big suspicions, / Great big guns and small ambitions, / And we still argue over who is God. . .” There’s a lot here, perhaps something telling and condemning about national policy or maybe just about our individual approach to life. And then the sad, but seemingly eternal inability to recognize the creator in the world around us, in ourselves, and in our neighbors. When will we learn that God is much bigger than we can box up or regulate? A recurring theme in the song is first expressed this way:
“If I’m not here, then you’re not here”
And he says, “Call me Miscreation,
I’m a walking celebration.”
How often do we view others and ourselves as “miscreation” instead of “celebration.” What does the creator think/feel when we make that judgment? What does it mean for us to dismiss? What celebrations do we miss out on or worse, destroy in this way?
“Angeline”
James McMurtry
Too Long in the Wasteland
I love the haunting tune and vocals of this song and it’s been wafting through my mind all morning. This song reminds me of the fuzziness of life, the co-mingling of the bright and dark spots, and in many ways, their inseparability.
I remember the day I discovered McMurtry and this album (at Sound Warehouse in Waco, TX) in the late 1980s…yes, i’ve been in this town for that long!). Speaking of that, I noticed a line in the song “Angeline” that was fitting and made me smile: “…Outside of a small town where I didn’t mean to settle down…” While I never intended to settle down in this small town when I arrived twenty five years ago, more than half my life has now been spent here and I like it. Sure, it has it’s faults, but so do the bigger, more exciting, more this more that “towns.” I always joke that this town is, for me at least, like the line from the Eagles’ song “Hotel California”: “…you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” But to let you in on a little secret, I really like it here.
“I’m So Lonesome”
Cowboy Junkies
The Trinity Sessions
Discovered this recording on CASSETTE! thanks to my good friend Dale Connally while traveling to (or from? can’t recall) an amazing experience where we spent a week backpacking through the Grand Canyon, more than twenty years ago.
