Category: 366 for 366

This a bit of an embarrassing admission for the list. I really “discovered” Pearl Jam last year.

I’d obviously HEARD the songs before, I was like 11 when this song came out, and really did have the radio tuned to stations that played their catalog in obvious “rebellion” to my country/bluegrass/gospel upbringing.

But I didn’t…consume…Pearl Jam until last year…and this song put me on my ass. Stunned me. What a performance. What songwriting. Top-shelf.

If I had consumed this song then, do you know what kind of badass 11 year old I would be? So wizened beyond my years and so many ways. Seeing through time and space. It would’ve been amazing.

But pea-brain (essentially given how I feel like my brain just matured at 42) Jesse then didn’t have the life experiences to draw upon that I do, right? So no crazy super-powers, just an overwhelming appreciate for a song that is so purely ART.

“Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay, were laid spread out before me, as her body once did, all five horizons revolved around her soul as the Earth to the Sun, now the air I tasted and breathe has taken a turn”

“And now my bitter hands chafe beneath the clouds, of what was everything, all the pictures had all been washed in black, tattooed everything”

…and quite possibly, in my opinion, the greatest verse of song ever written (containing the most heartbreaking set of lyrics I’ve ever encountered, experienced, endured?, etc.:

“I take a walk outside, I’m surrounded by some kids at play, I can feel their laughter, so why do I sear?, mmm, and twisted thoughts that spin, ’round my head, I’m spinning, oh-oh, I’m spinning, how quick the Sun can drop away?, and now my bitter hands cradle broken glass, of what was everything, all the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything, all the love gone bad turned my world to black, tattooed all I see, all that I am, all I’ll be, yeah-yeah, oh-oh, oh-oh, ooh, I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life, I know you’ll be a star in somebody else’s sky, but why, why, why can’t it be, oh, can’t it be mine?

That’s where the bar is set people, and I don’t know if there are a set of words that can capture that feeling in such a pure way outside of what Vedder used. It is All-Time.

Enjoy this song a few times in a row. That’s how I like to do it. 😀

Be good, do good. Love.

Happy Leap Day! I wish I had a happier song to share, but, alas, I do not.

The soundscape created in this song is so…wow. The beat, the guitar, the vocals, it really felt like I was hearing something different the first time Nicolette showed it to me.

“Today I looked over my shoulder, hoping you’d be sitting there, I almost feel like I can see you, can you see me? Been trying to get life without you in it, I just can’t make no fucking sense of it, I swear a whole chunk of my body, went numb and stopped responding”

Just an amazingly poignant song about longing, right? I think MARO does a great job of making us feel what the song is about, and maybe that has to do with how the music itself is constructed. I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve used the word “authentic” to describe something (after using it a little too frequently, ha!) but there’s an authentic performance here that just drips from MARO’s delivery.

“I’m aware you had to leave someday, but I didn’t know it would be this freezing, I mean I lost all reason, and every night now, I take forever to let go, fall asleep, then I see you in my dreams, oh, they’re all the same, you come around then disappear, no”

My favorite part is probably the bridge because it feels so authentic like I mentioned but also just so succinctly summarizes the feelings that come with this kind of relationship (or ex-relationship).

“Feel anxious, feel nervous, I’m nauseous, I’m broken, I’m scared I’ll always feel this way, no, I can’t have you far away, feel empty so empty, I’m tired, I’m caving in, (I’m caving in), you took a heavy part of me, how am I supposed to live and live and live?”

When it fades back into the chorus it is such a beautifully painful transition.

It’s hard to say “please enjoy this song” when it is pretty depressing, but I bet you can see the beauty and catharsis of getting those words out of your mind and onto paper when you’re writing it. If you don’t journal, we should both start doing it. Don’t hold things in, don’t bury them. Let them out or they will fester.

I wish you well! Be good, do good. As always, thank you for taking the time out to read my ramblings. It truly means a lot and I’m having a ton of fun with this project. Looking forward to 306 more posts!

Oooooooooo, we have been so due for some guitar and some singer/songwriter vibe, haven’t we? Hit me as soon as I heard that first chord in this song. What a beautiful, beautiful song. Some of the best lyrics on the list I think!

“I sought you out, pleaded for a word, but all I hear is my heart beating, that’s all I need, all I need from you, to know that you are here with me, and I’ll sing my soul, your voice like violins, resonates within, and I’ll sing my soul, your voice like violins, pours out of my lips”

The guitar is so beautiful throughout. Definitely added this to my “want to learn” playlist. Is this the best acoustic guitar on the list so far? Who cares. Let’s enjoy it!

I don’t think we pay enough attention to our souls day to day. It seems like we tend to forget they exist or to nurture them. Everything affects this…work, relationships, weather, daily interactions, etc. My advice is to find something that speaks to you and lean into it. I’ve found a bit of that with my painting. I start off with a blank or canvas board I’ve pre-colored and just….play. Maybe that’s the secret to connecting with our souls…by doing it through play.

Don’t label yourself. “I’m not a painter”. If you paint, you’re a painter. If you sing, you’re a singer. If you dance, you’re a dancer. Hmm…I just labeled you. Maybe what I mean is don’t exclude yourself from something just because you haven’t done it before. I wasn’t a sky-diver until I jumped out of the plane, you know?

Whatever “singing your soul” looks like, I hope you can tap into it and find that which resonates with you. Maybe it starts with listening to more from the Many Rooms catalog! I hope you enjoyed this song, and the thoughts it brings, as much as I do. Just because it seems to be talking about a relationship doesn’t mean the lesson isn’t transferrable elsewhere.

Be good, do good. Love you lots.

Someone put Hip Hop over one of my favorite discovered instrumentals from last year. When I first hear Stadium Pow Wow my mind was blown. So much passion is evident from The Halluci Nation’s Stadium Pow Wow mixing big beats with traditional Indigenous music and performance. What I love about the group is that their name, The Halluci Nation, the term was coined by late artist, poet, and activist John Trudell, to describe the global community who remember at their core what it means to be human, and live life in line with Indigenous values.

Then, imagine my surprise when something pops up in a random playthrough with Yasiin Bey, aka Mos Def, rapping over it! I about lost my mind.

The result is an incredible ride through some amazing lyrics coupled with an amazingly powerful beat.

“Chu ain’t livin’ by the G code, what the fuck is fleek though, don’t ask them – what do he know?, what I forgot is better than whatever they remember, never mind, I’m off it / it’s quiet form, time to put the temper tantrums to the quiet corner, “HUSH, That’s enough,” said the ruler, no suckers allowed to break bread or asunder, the daylight lightning and the thunder, the sun moon, and stars and then hunger, abundance in bundles, blessings and troubles, towers and tunnels, view and valleys, waves, then pigs: ‘what streets you from, son? Planet Earth”

Great workout song. Great song to clean to. Great song to dance to. Great song to THINK to. I love that the group preaches humanity and respect for the environment and Earth we live on.

If you enjoyed this song, you will not be sorry for diving into to their catalog. I demand it actually! Check out NDN Kars – Remix (it’s like a Beach Boys song somehow), Native Puppy Love (super powerful and uplifting, get ready to dance!), and ALie Nation by them!

Make it a mission to be super-HUMAN today. Help someone. Leave your home like you have a job to make someone’s life better today. All it takes is one little thing. Thanks for doing your part. I’ll do mine.

Be good, do good.

We’ve all been fools at some point. Some of us more recently than others.

To me, this song is about learning that things change. People change. It’s totally natural for this to happen! Embrace it. I’ve felt myself change a ton over the last five years honestly. A TON. I still have my stuff to work on, as we all do, but, I know I’m a better person than who I was five years ago, and that’s the goal.

This song talks about what that change did to a relationship.

“I liked you better in college, I thought I knew what I wanted, back then, I was a fool, it was love and it was hate, it was real, but it was fake, we were never gonna make it out in time, we were barely getting by, now we’re caught in between, getting old and getting free, we were never gonna make it out alive, we’re still barely getting by”

The fact that lyrics with such heaviness are put to such a poppy and bubbly beat is something that is so odd that it works in this instance. Ashe’s voice is so sweet as she coos “I was right and you were smart, I was high and you were art”. That description of falling head over heels for someone being like a lightning strike is great I think. I picture a friendly debate between the two that ends with her realization that she’s viewing “art”.

The fun part of this song for me, is we don’t know where these two are going at the end. They’ve both made these realizations but are…“still fallin'”. There’s some poetry there.

“I’m still there fallin’, we’re still lost darlin’, I’m still there fallin’, we’re still lost darlin'”

Get yourself a treat today. Doesn’t have to be a sweet something to eat, but just treat yourself to something today!

Be good, do good. Love ya.

I’m so annoyed! I wrote a post for this song and it somehow didn’t save! Curse you, Technology!

I am pretty sure my original assessment was that this song was simultaneously a time-machine and an amazing ode to the power of the female spirit. It packs so much punch into such a small package of 1 minute and 44 seconds. This allows me to post the lyrics in their entirety.

“Black leaves on the Mississippi River, black leaves in the Mississippi fire, black leaves in the Mississippi choir, black leaves on the Mississippi land, and we’ve got God and cotton, we’ve got sons and daughters, we’ve got grit and glory, we’ve got mama’s stories, we’ve got strength like towers, we’ve got hope and power, God made woman with an iron hand, raised her up on heaven’s land, God made woman with an iron hand, raised her up on heaven’s land, with strength like towers, we’ve got hope and power, got me woman with an iron head, raised her up on heaven’s bed”

There’s something about the performance of this song that brings us down into that not-so-good South during the time where it was REALLY hard to be a Black person. (Still is). We can imagine what “Black leaves in the Mississippi fire” means. To me, the lyrics scream perseverance.

Now, by no means am I comparing the plight of Blacks in this country to the daily stuff or trouble that we have to persevere. We haven’t had to persevere for 400 years.

But, as we’ve talked about in these entries, we all have our shit to deal with right? Part of this song makes me just a little bit more able to deal with it all. We all have hope and power in us. Honestly, it’s some of the thread used to make us human.

Be good, do good.

It’s becoming clear to me, that if you have part of your voice that has some sort of gravelly element to it, I probably thing you’re pretty cool. Everything has it’s exceptions, but when it comes to music, I am pretty much a super-fan.

Miley’s got some high-grit sandpaper pipes and there’s quite a punch packed into this 2:16 song.

The lyrics scream “fed up”. We’ve all been there. I feel like I say that a lot but it’s something I’m really trying to get across in an effort to really talk more about the crap we all go through and hide.

“You keep coming ’round, with your muddy feet, and about to do something ’bout it, I’ma have to do something ’bout it”

We’ve all been tread on in some way shape or form. By someone we trusted, by the world, by work, by parents, by life, whatever. But we’re still here, right? Sometimes we gotta put our foot down and say “enough!”

“I don’t know, who the hell you think you’re messing with, get the fuck out of my house with that shit, get the fuck out of my life with that shit“

Sia’s voice has some bite to it too, and I really think their pairing in this song at times is hard to tell who is doing what part. I definitely had to listen closely at some parts to hear Sia’s backup vocals.

Make sure you’re putting yourself first today, and don’t let anyone’s muddy feet into your space!

This song is covered fairly often and some of the artists do it very well. But last year was the first time I ever came into contact with the O.G.

To me, though they are great and super-easy to sing a long with, the lyrics are clearly not the star of this song, or this performance.

It’s the VOICE and the MUSIC that make this such a moving, soulful performance IMO.

Lee’s voice is the equivalent of lighting a match on your stubble. It’s that rough and full of funk…just like that bass guitar line throughout.

With songs like this, I like to tune in and find a new instrument to focus on for a few listens in a row. Like listen once tuning into that bass. Then again with the trumpets. It sometimes makes the next listen for me a little richer I think. Like appreciating the parts more allows you to appreciate the whole more. There’s a life lesson in there I think. 🙂

That’s what I like about going through these discoveries from 2023 and writing about what I like and what they mean to me. We all are going through our own personal journey and we get to choose the soundtrack to it in a couple ways.

The music we listen to, and the people we populate it with. Their voices are also a part of this arrangement! If one of those instruments is out of tune, we have to choose to give it the attention it needs, or put it down for the final time.

Food for thought. Go make some sort of music in your life today. Thanks for reading!

This is the type of song I hope my track-star niece Ava warms up to. Such a celebration of female strength.

Such a powerful statement from Dessa in this song which to me is a great one to get you pumped for anything.

“Double-jointed, triple threat, I’m not some method actress, trying to see my, my descent, you’re gonna have to play the tape backwards, save that breathe for choir practice, got no time for my detractors, standing on my staircase, all you are is a fire hazard, I’ve put my time in now, I’m vetted, uncontested, see how an honest answer shuts down, motherfuckers asking trick questions, I’m out here, arms wide, I’ve done it all in broad daylight, and I left the camera running”

I love the “take no prisoners” attitude here for workouts, athletic contests, and bouts of house cleaning.

Dessa’s delivery to me is raw and visceral. She’s on the attack from the get go, pulling no punches.

“I don’t need an agenda, I just tell the truth (yup), let it off the leash and, don’t touch it, it knows what to do, and I’m running a tight ship, every deckhand here has a five year plan, and an ice pick, they can write code, they can drive stick, I got an octave on you and a high kick, don’t blink, I don’t block, I’m a bleeder, all I do is hit, I don’t win them all but I’d say I take 5 out of 6, clock’s running, better glove up, if you insist (okay), let’s see who’s really counting coup, and who’s been counterfeit”

Such an amazing verse there. I absolutely love how hard it goes. There’s something about the “I don’t block, I’m a bleeder” that just describes going completely all in on something so well.

Let’s go all in on something today and kick its ass!

Have a great day! Thanks for reading!

This song is an amazing ode to adventure. Which, considering the show it’s made for, makes it PERFECT!

If you’ve never heard the voice of AURORA before…are you in for a treat. This song in particular is a wonderful showcase for it, and it’s such an empowering spinning dance of a tune.

“I’ll draw a map of the world, of lands unknown and untold, I’ll guide my ship towards the ‘morn, through the raging waters, the stars are pointing my way, from quarter of the globe away, and yet, I feel so astray, how did I get so lost”

We’ve all been lost before. It’s terrifying no matter what kind of “lost” you’re thinking of right? But if you’re reading this…I see you H…you’re here. You’ve conquered. Keep doing it.

“I’ve always been taught to be brave and strong, to see the hope when all feels wrong, I’ve always been taught not to be afraid, and look, the price, the price I paid!, I’m barely afloat, my sails are set and I’m coming home”

This is exactly the song I’d want to show my kids if I had any, because it contains all those elements of what we dream for our children right? Curiosity, grit, zest…such great elements of character. They are called Character Strengths and you should check them out: https://www.viacharacter.org/character-strengths

Have a fantastic day. Let’s go for a walk today. Maybe we’ll randomly pick the same place! Be well!