Musical Interlude

Like everything in my life, my musical tastes are made up of obsessions. I listen to everything I can by a particular artist for months on end until I find a new artist. For months I listened to nothing but Bishop Allen. I bought song after song and listened. Then I discovered Andrew Bird. I spent weeks finding new songs and reading Andrew's amazing lyrics. That oddly lead to a Great Big Sea phase along with The Pogues. Not sure how I got from Andrew Bird to celtic except to say that my mind works in mysterious ways. For the last couple of months it's been Joe Purdy and Damien Rice. And now I'm moving on.

When Jeff and I were up in Minneapolis this last time I got started talking to a friend of ours and he mentioned that I should listen to Lisa Hannigan. I thank him for that. I'd already heard Lisa's amazing voice on Damien Rice's albums. She started her career providing vocals for him. But I've been listening to her solo works and have fallen in love. The song I Don't Know has to be one of my favorite songs right now. I listen to it nonstop. I've picked up at least six of her songs now. I'm also enjoying Lisa's videos. Knots is a great song and a very interesting video. I think I like the video for Lille more than I like the song, although anything with a pop-up book is bound to have my attention.

But Lisa is really just starting out her solo career. With only two albums under her belt I actually ran through her music faster than most. So I'm sharing this time with Ray LaMontagne. I've been listening to Ray's work on and off for several years now. Only in the last month has it become a full blown obsession. Jeff recently caught me rocking out to You Are The Best Thing and was a tad worried about me. I guess I was breathing heavy and making some interesting faces. It's hard not to breath a little faster with Ray's voice in my ears. Gone Away From Me makes me sad and happy at the same time. I've only been through a quarter of his work so far but I'm sure I'll listen to most of the songs. I'll listen to both Lisa and Ray until I know most of their songs by heart. And then of course I'll move on. And my music collections just keeps growing. Thank god for iTunes points.