I was a fan after hearing their hit song Home, a beautiful song about finding home with the one you love.  It’s cute, raw and beautiful.  How could you not love a song with the lyric, “Well, hot & heavy, pumpkin pie, chocolate candy, Jesus Christ.”  It’s not meant to be taken as serious as the love they talk about.

The next best song is 40 Day Dream.    Uh huh it’s the magical mystery kind of song that you find yourself singing and smiling to.  I put on my earphones and sing at the top of my lungs, my favorite lyric “Somebody better pinch me..bitch I swear go crazy…she got jumper cable lips..she got sunset on her breath now.”  If you don’t believe me it’s infectious, go listen.  I promise you will be signing and swaying.

Okay, they’re a hodge podge of earth people.  But they can play, they can write and they can sing.  They obviously love it and they renew my faith in the future of music.

I want to be wherever they are singing.  I can only hope they continue to write.

Other songs of note:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXHT8G_ZB2o&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-dT-rynTL8

Now go listen!

The air is cold

Your laughter to hear

Your hand to hold

Just wanting to know

What you’re doing the rest of the day

We could sip on lattes

And read the news

Smile across a table

Twinkle in our blues

Just wanting to know

What you’re doing the rest of the week

Drive the country

Eat pie a la mode

Cuddle in the darkness

Travel that road

Just wanting to know 

What you’re doing the rest of the year

Kisses in the morning

and every night

Intertwined fingers

Spooning tight

Just wanting to know

What you’re doing the rest of our lives.

So I’ve decided to start Music Mondays (echo echo) to recommend bands or songs I love.  No, I’m not an expert, but I am a fan and we fans have to stick together.  I’m tired of the airwaves being bombarded by mediocre pop songs (and yes, I do guilty pleasure love some of them).  Music is poetry.  It’s an acquired taste.  Not everyone gets what you like.  Nor do I like everything (yes, I’m talking to you Jazz).

So let’s begin with a band that was recommended to me by a manager at my work – The Head and The Heart.   You have to enjoy folksy alternative rock with more instruments than a string quartet.  There is no auto tuning here.  Instead, there are beautiful lyrics interwoven with songs you will hum in your sleep.  I have discovered simply the best lyric ever written, “My roots have grown but I don’t know where they are.” in the song Cats and Dogs.   This song begins with a steady drumstick staccato and turns into something magical.

Josiah, Jon and Charity all take turns singing.  It’s the genuine rasp of the male voices, with intent emotion and Charity’s unusual harmony and ethereal voice that makes every song a gem.  This is the first album in a long time I can listen to every song and love it equally.  if Cats and Dogs weren’t enough to hook me, I was a goner by the acoustic guitar chords of Lost in My Mind.   By the time you reach the chorus, there is an exaltation so pure of music and the love for it.  I am, indeed, lost in my mind.

They’ve put out one album and I am certain there will be more.  I won’t be happy until they’ve reached the pinnacle of success that lesser talents have somehow found.  Let’s hope it doesn’t change them from what they really are.  A really great band, with a really great sound and that can just be enough.

Other videos to watch:

Down in the Valley

Rivers and Roads

Now go listen to them!

My favorite picture of my daughter

Last night, my daughter and I stood in line at the grocery.  The store was crowded and of course they had only a few lanes open.  While standing there, she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek.  Then she leaned against me, her head resting on my shoulder.  I smoothed her soft hair and we laughed about the cover of The Globe magazine.  She then decided she wanted a candy bar and wandered off.  I stood there, flipping through an US magazine when I was approached by an elderly woman.

“Your daughter is beautiful.”  She said.

I smiled and thanked her.  My daughter is beautiful.  She has been fortunate to have had no issues with weight or acne and she has a tiny hourglass figure and milky white skin.  I’ve never made a big deal about her looks or her slim body.  I grew up with a mother tortured by her body and in turn she tortured her children.  Instead, I figured if I let nature do its job, then she’d end up the weight she was supposed to be.  This doesn’t mean I bring a lot of junk food in the house, but neither do I sweat it when she wants to eat a candy bar and a bag of chips before dinner.

The elderly woman reached out and patted my arm.  ”You did a great job with her if she will still hug and kiss you in public as a teenager.”

I thanked her again and looked over my shoulder where Nat was doing peekaboo with a baby in a cart in another aisle.  There are a lot of things I did wrong as a parent.  But when I see her laughing, when she walks me to the door every morning and hugs me goodbye, when she looks at complete strangers we encounter and finds one thing nice to say them, I know I did a good job.

We’ve had a rough time through the teenage years, but she’s still loving and sweet.  There are days when all we do is battle, then she’ll come in the room and tell me she wants to do better at communicating with me.  She hasn’t always understood the way the grownup world works, but she’s getting there.  She is generous and compassionate and she strives to be a good person.  In the scheme of things, maybe raising a considerate human being is all I could have hoped for.

My daughter joined me once again in the line and she smiled at the elderly lady.  ”That’s a pretty scarf.”  She said to her.  The elderly woman beamed and moved back to her cart.

Yes, my daughter is beautiful.  Inside and out.