A to Z Afterthoughts/Honorable Mentions

The list I worked from for this project

I fully intended to have this post up on May 1st but I didn't get it done in time and to be honest, I've enjoyed having a few days without any blogging obligations. I spent almost six months working on these posts, off and on, so it feels strange to not have to do any more! Over all, I'm pleased with how they turned out. I got a lot of feedback, mostly from people I already know, and I can tell my friends enjoyed reading about my favorite songs and learning some of the stories behind who I am. I'm disappointed I didn't get more comments from new readers, through the A to Z Challenge. I was hoping my personal stories would resonate with more people and initiate discussion.

For almost every song I wrote about, I Tweeted my blog link to the artist. I was hoping at least a couple would read their posts. My theory behind that is that if someone were moved enough by something I wrote to blog about it, I would love to know that. The only response I got was that Liz Phair favorited my post about her song, but that's pretty awesome!

If you know me well, you know how connected I feel to Dave Matthews Band so you may have noticed that only one of their songs made my list. A friend asked me if I made a conscious decision not to include many of their songs and the answer is yes. When I initially made my A to Z list, I went through the alphabet and jotted down songs that came to mind for each letter. When I was finished, some letters had one or two songs and some had five or six, but each letter had at least one song by Dave Matthews Band or Better Than Ezra! They are my two favorite bands and I feel a strong connection to them both. I decided not to include many songs by either band mostly because there is a lot of music that came before them in my life, that shaped who I am and led me to their music. Also because people who know me already know how I feel about those bands and I wanted to add some variety and share stories about me that others probably didn't know.

Because it was difficult to narrow my list to just 27 songs, I feel the need to recognize some of the ones that almost made the list. There are some songs that deserve mentioning just because they are plain awesome. The opening cords to Sweet Child O'Mine get me fired up every time. The same goes with Pour Some Sugar On Me, it will rock forever.  So What by Pink got me through a tough break up by reminding me of how awesome I am. 32 Flavors by Alana Davis is runner up for Theme Song for my life  (yes, I know it's a Ani DiFranco cover but I like it better!).  During my pre-teen years I would sing You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling into curling irons with my friend Loni, who is now a professional musician. I could go on and on...My point is there is an endless supply of amazing music in the world and I hope I was able to introduce you to some new songs and make you smile in the process!

Good by Better Than Ezra

This is quite possibly my favorite song in the whole world. The first time I ever heard it was one morning during my junior year of high school, at my friend Rachel's house. We regularly watched videos before I drove us the few blocks to school each morning. The sound caught my attention and I noticed the lead singer was wearing an FFA jacket and I was like What is this crazy wonderful thing??!! and I've been a fan ever since! Years later when I met the band, I told them about watching that video for the first time and had them sign the dust jacket from the CD I'd had since that year. They were pretty impressed at how old it was! It's an amazing feeling to be able to connect with someone who created the music that has been special to me. I've been fortunate enough to experience it several times and I'm always blown away by the gratitude I'm shown by musicians who probably hear a story similar to mine thousands of times.

Me with Better Than Ezra 2004

The older I've gotten, the more I connect with this song. I think it's about looking back on the time spent with someone after it's over. I like the repetition of the word good, I'm not sure why but I always have. It reminds me of how, sometimes when a relationship is over, it's easy to dwell on the good parts and forget that there were bad parts and a reason it ended. And sometimes you think that you'll see that person again or stay in touch with them, "Well maybe I'll call or write you a letter. Now maybe we'll see, on the 4th of July". I get where this song is coming from! It's fairly short, fast and loud and with Kevin's voice it sums up BTE's classic sound that I've come to love so much.









Good - Better Than Ezra by jezcle

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