At The Stars by Better Than Ezra

Better Than Ezra is one of the bands that will appear a couple times this month. They are one of my top beloved bands of all time. I've been listening to them since I was 16 so their music has been a huge part of the soundtrack to my life. I've seen them in concert several times,  met them a few times and I've played cowbell on stage with them twice!

Me (w/arms up) on stage w/BTE, photo later signed by band 2005

At The Stars is a strong song. It's a windows down on a sunny day, sing along loud song. It reminds me of the time I spent living in North Caroling in my 20's. A lot of BTE's music does, actually. This song reminds me of a particular muggy September afternoon I spent back and forth between my apartment and a guy's place because I showed up under dressed for an event and had to go home to change. I remember being hot, sweaty and embarrassed, thinking I shouldn't be wasting my time on this guy. I was right. The song is about wanting to be someplace other than where you are or where you're going. One thing I love about Kevin Griffin's (lead singer) voice is that it always sounds passionate and is expressing the exact feeling it should be.

This song happens to contain what is probably my favorite line of any song, ever:
"I've finally found that everybody loves to love you when you're far away"
I always sing that part as loud as I can! I love that line because I've experienced it in several times in my life and I appreciate having found a song lyric about it. Somehow it's easier to maintain a relationship (romantic or otherwise) with someone from a distance because your idea of that person becomes whatever you want it to be and that's often what we fall in love with more than the actual person. Once we close that distance and have to deal with the reality of each other and the relationship, it's often too much to maintain. Whenever I encounter a song that resonates with me in regard to an experience I've had, particularly one that my friends can't relate to, it's always incredibly reassuring to be able to say to myself Well if someone wrote a song about this then surely I'm not the only one it's ever happened to! 
At The Stars has done that for me many times and every time I hear it, I'm reminded of that. Hearing it always fills me with a general sense of nostalgia and pride for all I've experienced on my journey so far and the great songs I've been listening to along the way!

             

My cowbell tattoo