because it's Tuesday - week of January 30

This song, my whole life, this song has made me cry.

I absolutely love this version of "In my Life," sung so beautifully by the late, wonderful, amazing, Johnny Cash.

Give it a good listen with some kleenex close at hand... and enjoy xo

Guilty Pleasure Friday - There For You

so, if you have read this blog for more than 10 minutes you will know that I am old.

Officially 50. A centennial baby. Ancient.

I'm a fan of music but I have no clue what the "kids" are listening to these days. Do they even still listen to the radio?

Whatever songs are on the top 40 on commercial radio are a mystery to me (admittedly, they have been since the late 1980's but I'm absolutely okay with that!!)

Typically, I watch Saturday Night Live on Sunday mornings.  On a recent Sunday morning, a young performer names Troye Sivan was the musical guest.  I had no clue who he was but pretty much expected to fast forward through his performance.  As it happened, I was folding laundry with a sleeping dog on my foot and the remote was not handy when he took the stage.  I was very pleasantly surprised. I liked his voice, the song he was singing didn't bug my ass too much.  I actually watched his second performance as well.  He was a spritely little delight.

So today, I share with you, a new/recent guilty pleasure.  I have no clue who Martin Garrix is (I actually do now know who Troye Sivan is) but here are Martin and Troye, "There For You."

Give it a chance kittens, you never know, you just might like it! xo

because it's Tuesday - week of January 23

Disco.

It was everywhere when we were kids.  On the radio, on the television.

Disco sucks was heard a lot too.  Some folks just didn't get it.  To this day, I don't get what the kerfuffle was about.  It was dance music.  Dancing can be a lot of fun.

Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way" was a soulful scorcher! Unbelievably catchy and incredibly dance-able. It's sort of hard to believe that it was released over 40 years ago!!

Equally hard to imagine, is that the Communards kick-ass cover is over 30 years old.  It's not surprising that they covered it, considering Ms Houston's version was an anthem for the AIDS movement and AIDS was at a crisis point in the mid-80's.  In my first apartment, I had a huge Communards poster in my bathroom.  I remember listening to their records with my girlfriends as we got ready to head out dancing. Gah, it was so long ago... not sure how it can be that long ago when we're all still young and fabulous!

Betcha can't listen to this and not want to dance around the living room.

enjoy xo

Guilty Pleasure Friday - Hold On

Ahhh... it feels very liberating to be so honest about these guilty pleasure tunes.

So, Wilson Phillips.

Yeah, the movie Bridesmaids made it okay to admit that you knew the words to "hold on."

Sing it loud, sing it proud!!

because it's Tuesday - week of January 16

My head is full of cold.  I was home today sick.  I slept most of the day and at the moment, only have one eye open.  Please be kind and forgiving if this post is full of typos.

So, here is your cover for this week..."I shot Andy Warhol" is a good movie. The soundtrack from the movie is excellent.  If you love covers, this is a great soundtrack to check out.  It's chock full of amazing covers including this one...

Luna does a fantastic job on Donovan's "Season of the Witch"

Remember, you've got to pick up EVERY stitch!

Enjoy my lovelies xo

Guilty Pleasure Friday - How Will I Know

Not embarrassed to admit here that back in the day when Mark I used to watch the early auditions for American Idol (and Canadian Idol), he was always surprised that I'd be singing along to the butchered covers of Whitney Houston songs.

When I was in high school I had a copy of her debut album on cassette (yikes) and always, secretly, enjoyed her music.  While her life ended up being tragic tabloid fodder, she had an incredible voice and her late 80's cheesey dance tunes were a lot of fun.

Enjoy this one, I know I will!!

because it's Tuesday - week of January 9

I think that when we were kids, growing up in the 70's, the radio was a bigger deal than it is now.  You didn't really have a lot of options to listen to music if you didn't listen to the radio.  I remember almost always having the radio on and as a result, can recall the lyrics to just too many songs to count.

The local AM stations played a bigger variety of genres back then I think, maybe they didn't.  Perhaps I'm remembering it that way... in any event, today's cover is of a song I recall singing along to whenever I heard it on the radio as a child, Roberta Flack's "killing me softly with his song"

Now, don't get all superior on me and tell me that Roberta covered it after Lori Lieberman's original recording.  Roberta Flack's was the one that we all heard on the radio... the Fugees did a fantastic cover of it and I'm sharing that today.

Enjoy kids! xo

Guilty Pleasure Friday - You Get What You Give

Some folks would say, "hey, no guilty, just pleasure" but I like the idea of a guilty pleasure when it comes to certain songs or artists.  "New Radicals" definitely fall into that camp.  I remember when this song came out, it was incredibly catchy and had a fun-ish video.  Rewatching it this week I was amused and delighted by the puppies (I'd forgotten about the puppies!!) in the video.  I also always liked the line, "We're flat broke, but hey we do it in style" (story of my life!!)

Anyway, let's see if I can share a Guilty Pleasure with you every Friday for 2018.  Seems like a reasonable "resolution" huh??  enjoy kids.

because it's Tuesday - week of January 2

So, next month, I'm going to see the wonderful Rosanne Cash and John Leventhal perform, right here in Kingston.  I have a front row ticket for the show and I am very excited.

I have been a fan of Ms Cash for probably 30 years now but have never had an opportunity to see her perform until now.  In particular, I really enjoy her album, "The List."  Apparently, her dad, Johnny Cash, gave her a list of 100 "essential country songs" to help her expand her understanding of country music.  Sea of Heartbreak is one of the songs on the list.  I remember hearing it a lot on the radio when I was a kid.  This particular version of it is incredibly beautiful.  Her voice is amazing and she and John sound terrific together.  Enjoy kids xo

Watch out 2018

Happy New Year to you.

Happy New Year from Gracie and me

Did you enjoy the holidays? Was 2017 a good year for you?  Due to the deep freeze we've been in this week, I spent a good chunk of the holidays at home and that gave me time to reflect upon the year.  I had some really awesome things happen during 2017 and some completely devastating things happen too.

Losing Sam was definitely the toughest thing I had to deal with.  The full impact of it still hasn't hit me yet I don't think.  I've been a bit of a crying machine the entire time I've been off for the holidays the past week and a bit and I know it's because I miss him so much.  A lot of stuff I thought I'd dealt with around Mark's death came back in full force that week I was saying goodbye to my Sammy.  I love that quote that is often attributed to Queen Elizabeth about how grief is the price we pay for love.  It's true.

The good things in 2017 were plenty.  Lots of good music, live and recorded came into my life this year.  I made some wonderful new friends and enjoyed spending a lot of time with them.  I also saw a lot more of my old friends.  I intentionally sought folks out and was so happy I did.  I reconnected with some amazing people.  I am so lucky to have so many wonderful, smart, funny people in my life.  The year had a lot of laughter in it. 

I worked pretty hard this year too, both at my job and at things in my personal life.  I feel like, despite my bereavement, I'm staring 2018 from a position of strength.  I'm not a person who is big on resolutions but I have made some plans which I've put into motion and coincidentally that is happening at the beginning of the year. 

Things feel like they are off to a good start.  Fingers crossed, they'll keep on going that way.  xo