Music For Hipster Wallflowers

Sometimes it’s best to not say too much about a song. It is better to just let it be. “Moon River,” was written by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics. And this has to be one of my all time favorite songs—ever.

So listening to Josh Ritter play it is just amazing.

This song, “The Letting Go,” from Mount Moriah, really doesn’t have anything topically to do with this post. This tune just blows my mind with how beautiful it is. And I’m just loving this band. And if the song sounds a bit familiar it’s because it is in a Subaru commercial. Well only the music intro. Not sure how a song about divorce is supposed to sell cars, especially since the theme of the ad is completely different from the song’s meaning. But what a song.

What I really wanted to write about is an article my father sent me from the New York Times. The author discusses the idea of having it all as a parent, such as balancing a successful career with family. And that maybe, perhaps, it’s difficult to have both. That one may have to make sacrifices. But as the author points out, really, sacrifice might be the wrong word—because it is part about values, part about choices. But it’s all about love.

I totally relate to this article, although my situation is different because I’m a single parent and my kids live with me every other week. Therefor, since my kids are with their mom this week, I was working most of today. I did make it my son’s soccer game, though. I don’t like to miss those.
Like the author, I have made choices in the work world that allow me flexibility and time to be with my kids. To pick them up from school once a week, so they don’t have to go to the after school program. I work part time at the local university. And this job is great, in my field, and provides the all important benefit of having health insurance that is affordable for my kids and I. The rest of my work world is freelance writing and marketing.

Where I think this articles misses things a bit is that it is focused on two parent families. And lets face it, there are a hell of a lot of us single parents out there. So it would have been nice to see some mention of this. Because even if, as in my case, you have a great relationship with your ex—you’re on your own a lot. This being alone is not just in the practical realm of parenting. It’s also emotional as we don’t have a partner to share the great, good, and difficult stuff with. For me, one of the great things that has happened is becoming good friends with a single mom I met through my son’s soccer team. And the boys are mega buddies, too. So we can all hang out and have fun. And she and I can also be a supportive part of each others’ lives. And for me this has been such an important friendship.

Back to this notion of sacrifice. Am I getting rich? certainly not. But that’s just rich in terms of finances. In terms of quality of life and time with my kids, it’s wealth of the highest order. (Though working late nights and weekends can be a drag.) Last Thursday out this all in perspective for me. I was a little early for picking the kids up at school. As I walked towards the from door, I could see my daughter’s kindergarten class walking back from its swimming lesson. So I waited and got to walk with her to her classroom holding hands (after signing in at the office, of course.) Being able to wait for her class stroll up from swimming and walk over and hold hands with her all the way to her classroom. The holding hands. The smile and surprise and joy on her face when she saw me. Well that’s pretty much priceless. That’s pretty much what it’s all about.

To say Josh Ritter is a gifted, poetic songwriter is an understatement. Anyone who can write a beautiful love song about a mummy, “The Curse,” has got a serious gift. And songs like “The Curse” or “The Temptation of Adam” have shown a side of Josh Ritter’s writing that wasn’t directly personal.

The recent release of “The Beast in its Tracks” has changed this. This album is very simply Ritter’s break up record. In fact, it’s his divorce record. And it’s one of those albums that as simply stabbed me in the heart, taken my breath away, and reflected my life back at me.

That’s because, like Josh Ritter, I know about divorce first hand. So “The Beast in its Tracks” does the near impossible: it expresses what this loss is like, in all it’s intimate complexities. In all it’s pain. And, also, in all it’s optimism. And, in so many ways, it feels as though it was written for me.

For me, no one has described the end of marriage with any more beauty or truthfulness than Josh Ritter does in his tune, “Hopeful.”

“It is supposedly it was a wise wise man
who said it’s better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all, never to have loved.
How many times does the truth that you take to be true
Is just truth falling apart at the same speed as you
Until it all comes away in a million degrees
And you’re just a few pieces of fallin’ debris.”

Durham, NC based Mount Moriah is currently on my list of bands I’m listening to lots. It’s in part out of excitement about the Band’s upcoming release, “Miracle Temple,” later this month.

But more than that, it’s how great Mount Moriah’s songs are. Take “Reckoning.” It’s written as a coming out song.

“Mama, dry your eyes.
Forget about the fire.
Look how my face smiles and shines.
Can you learn to know your child?”

What really strikes me about this tune, is its universality—which is really love’s universality.

Cover Songs—Part Of An Occasional Series

Who doesn’t like a great cover song, right? The way a really good re-interpretation can bring new meaning to a song. One of the most interesting ways is when the sex of the singer is changed. Here are some of my favorite examples.

  1. The Be Good Tanyas covering When The Doves Cry by Prince
  2. Natalie Maines covering “Mother” by Pink Floyd
  3. Adele covering “Love Song” by The Cure
  4. Camera Obscura covering “Tougher Than The Rest” by Bruce Springsteen
  5. White Stripes covering “Jolene” by Dolly Parton
  6. Gaslight Anthem covering “I Do Not Hook Up” by Kelly Clarkson
  7. Radiohead covering “Unravel” by Bjork

This week a friend of mine reminded me of how profound it is to lose a loved one. She and I had lost touch. And I feel badly that I wasn’t around for her during this difficult time. Because I understood, and maybe could have helped—at least a little.

“Handwritten” by Gaslight Anthem speaks to this kind of loss. The kind you feel you can never get over. The loss of a person that you think about every single day. This is the loss of the type of person who helped make you who you are.

“And to ease the loss of of youth
And the many, many years I’ve missed you”

As I’ve written before, my grandmother was that type of person for me. And in the end, we are blessed to have these people in our lives.

Interview With Jazz Musician Anat Cohen

Here’s an interview from a couple years ago. She’s coming back to JazzSpacesIthaca in May.

Cornell Concert Series offers a musical treat on Friday as Anat Cohen, an Israeli jazz musician who explores a broad array of musical styles, plays Bailey Hall at 8 p.m. with her quartet. Cohen’s influences range from classical to world music styles. She moved to New York City in 1999 and plays in many musical contexts from small groups to big bands. During a recent conversation she discussed her music from her home in New York City.
  

Tompkins Weekly: You grew up in Israel. What’s the jazz scene like there?

Anat Cohen: I think like anywhere in the world, the percentage of the jazz scene inside the music scene is pretty small. But I think there are a few dedicated musicians that pass their passion to some students. There are some very dedicated jazz fans, like any other place in the world. They love the music and they follow and support it. It’s been really growing. It’s been really growing in the last fifteen years significantly. It has been producing some quite good musicians. Some incredible talent is coming out of there. I’m glad to be part of it.

TW: You come from a musical family. How did you start playing saxophone and clarinet?

AC: I went to conservatory and started playing clarinet. I was always playing with my brothers. They got involved in jazz before I did, because I was in the more classical world. But once I joined the conservatory big band I picked up the tenor saxophone, specifically to play in the big band. We’ve always been in similar bands, with my family, with my brothers. That was our social lives, our musical lives.
It was all intertwined. It’s always been a major part of our lives.

TW: Who do you count as your influences?

AC: Beside my brothers? I think it came in different periods. When I was still only playing clarinet, it was first classically oriented. As far as jazz, I think before I really listened to any saxophone player I checked out Benny Goodman on the clarinet. When I picked up the tenor saxophone, Dexter [Gordon] and Sonny [Rollins] were the first love for the tenor saxophone for the powerful sound. But I think it’s hard to say, because there are so many great saxophone players. Different sounds at different times speak to you. Beside the time when I wanted to play like Coltrane, when I got into Berklee [College of Music] … besides that period, at every given time there was someone who was hanging around in musical spirit.

TW: There still seems to be a shortage of female jazz instrumentalists. Why do you think that is?

AC: There’s less and less of a shortage. I go out and it’s becoming more of a norm to see a woman playing in a band beside a bunch of guys—not featured as some pretty girl who is just dancing on the side or singing background vocals. There are cats out there playing, younger musicians, who have been less a part of the history of the business that has basically been male dominated. It’s not an easy lifestyle. It’s pretty hard to be an expressive musician, and to play jazz you have to show all spectrum of emotions. And not every person is comfortable doing it. You’ve got to show your feminine side and your masculine side, when the music asks for it. It’s challenging.

And being on the road, being a travelling musician. The role of a woman in a family. If a woman wants to have a family? It’s not that men can’t stay home and take care of the kids. But it really is can a woman tear herself apart from her kids? It takes a very specific personality to do those things, and it’s not for everybody. I would think all those reasons, and regardless of what I said, there are more and more women that are out there playing their butts off and sounding great and giving a good reputation instrumentally, regardless of gender.

TW: Can you tell us about the quartet you’ll be playing with at
Cornell?

AC: I have a fantastic guitar player, Gilad Hekselman, from Israel. I’ve been playing with him for the last few years. I also have the great bassist Chico Martin. He’s originally from Iowa, but based in New York. Adam Cruz is on drums, which is fantastic. I haven’t played with Adam a lot, but I’ve heard him a lot. I really look forward to playing with these guys.

Pink Eye Strikes Again


So just before Christmas, the day before the long waited for pajama party, my kindergarten-aged daughter got pink eye. A week later her mother, and then her brother got it. Hmm, so far I’m OK, but every tiny little sensation in my eye sends me into pink eye panic.

So here’s a little song to go with pink eye. It’s Actually “Bigmouth Strikes Again,” by The Smiths. But if you change bigmouth to pink eye, it’s perfect.

Pink Eye, oh … pink eye, la …
pink eye strikes again