07.04.07

Not the fireworks and fanfare you’d expect

Posted in random - July 4th, 2007 at 1:05 am by Mimi

Because it’s the 4th of July, we thought we’d do a totally cheesy patriotic post. Not what you expected? Well, that’s because you only know us on the internet.

We’re not going to talk about Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith (god, the first Gulf War was pretty wretched with that Lee Greenwood song, wuddinit? Jeez. When they busted that one back out after 9/11, I thought about moving to…oh right, I had already moved to Canada).

So, what we have for you instead is the recommended playlist of a real life American solider in Iraq. How do we know these people, you ask? In this case, he contacted us to pat us on the back about HCT and then I imposed on him and asked him to do my job for me.

Cpt. Matt’s playlist (with his original commentary!):

Ana Egge, “Straight to My Head” – great song…. Kinda lusty… Makes you look forward to that next great date, when you’ve had a little to drink, you’re laughing, you’re content, and everything seems right with the world… so very rare, those moments
Chris Bathgate, “Buffalo Girl” – mellow, with some great lyrics
Eric Hanke, “Lonely Road” – this song is like the perfect piece of pie… not too little or too much… delicious from beginning to end with no downers
Joe Purdy, “Blue in the Sky” — an excellent recommendation discovered on your blog
Robbie Fulks, “Cold Statesville Ground” – this is a twisted song, but damn its good
Old Crow Medicine Show, “Wagon Wheel” – helps sum up those important things in life
Yonder Mountain String Band – entire Mountain Tracks Volume 2 CD… these guys know how to have a good time
Ghost Buffalo, “Your World”
San Saba County, “Medicine” - This song packs a serious punch.
Vandaveer, “How Ever Many Takes it Takes”
Keith Whitley, “I’m Over You”
Bill Staines, “When I Hear the Music Play” – strong lyrics
Willie Nelson, “Are There Any More Real Cowboys”
Jay Farrar, “Damn Shame”

Sadly, we couldn’t find the San Saba County song, which annoyed. iTunes really has a grudge against me, though, so I’m not all that shocked. It’s taken to causing my computer to give me a blue screen of death if I try to keep it open for too long. We downloaded all the rest of the tracks and gave them a listen.

My top picks out of the bunch:

Chris Bathgate “Buffalo Girl” – this track is very good. I think I’ll give the rest of the album a go. The harmonica was a little…startling, but otherwise, this is a great song. [Here I'm mostly about the lyrics. I think this song needs a few more listenings for me.—Cricket]

“Blue in the Sky” and “Cold Statesville Ground” were already tracks I loved. “Blue in the Sky” I embarrassed myself over previously on the site; “CSG” is my favorite Robbie Fulks song. Cpt Matt knows how to pick ‘em. The Joe Purdy is one of his strongest tracks from his new work, all melodic with lyrics that tell a story through poetry. The Robbie Fulks is a murder ballad. [Word. Especially on the Robbie Fulks song.—Cricket]

“Are There Any More Real Cowboys” is a Willie duet with Neil Young. HORROR! Otherwise, it’s Willie singing about cowboys, how can you go wrong (add Neil Young, that’s how, holy moly!). [I kind of dig the Neil on this, the song is great, but it would be an awesome just Willie song.—Cric]

The Keith Whitley track surprised me. It’s sort of late 20th century radio-friendly country, but the best sort of that. I really like it. It’s going on my iPod. [Yeah, music from when mainstream country didn't mean bad. I'll be getting more of this. Love the lyrics here.—Cric]

(You like how this is totally out of order, right? Surprisingly, I’m sober. True story.)

“Straight to My Head” and “Your World” are both songs sung by chicks that didn’t make me fast forward. I suspect Cricket liked “Your World” quite a bit. [The Ana Egge song, "Straight to my Head" is going into heavy, heavy rotation on my iPod, man, that song hits me where I live. The Ghost Buffalo song definitely deserves a chance. It reminds me of summer road trips, those long stretches where you're still excited, but driving and heat have slowed you down to weird contentment that's filled with mild anxiety of about all the things you've left behind.—Cric]

The Vandeveer song is good enough to make me download more of their stuff to see if it all sounds like this. Sort of a catchy, throw-back early-Dylan folk tune combined with Belle and Sebastian. [I really like this, certainly very catchy and reminiscent of my childhood, which is just a more self-involved way of saying it does have Dylan-esque folkiness to it.—Cric]

[A few more: Jay Farrar – I can't hear this song without thinking of elephants. Presumably because I saw Mr. Farrar play a Zoo concert once in Seattle. I'm not sure if elephants are a recommendation or not, but I love me some Jay. I'm all over the Yonder Mountain String Band, it's good, stuff. I have vols. 2 & 3 of the Mountain Tracks and I think the very name of the band tells you whether it's something you should bother with or not. But if you like the more old-timey stuff, or bands like Trampled By Turtles, you should totally pick this up. The Bill Staines' song makes me think of sitting with my grandpa in his shop and listening to the radio while he worked – melancholy, but very good. And "Lonely Road" is just exactly perfect like Cpt. Matt says, I can barely stop listening to it to review the rest of these songs.—Cricket]

Cpt. Matt isn’t just serving our country, he also has good taste.

Happy Fourth of July, America. We love you even if we don’t love the erosion of civil liberties and human rights in the name of safety. To all the service people who may read this, thank you for serving, and we hope you all come home safe and sound to good jobs, loving arms, and long lives. [You probably wouldn't know it from only knowing me on the internet, but I can't even comment on this because even reading shit like this makes me weepy. I spent part of my morning at the WWII Memorial here in Nashville today and was sort of choked up for the rest of the day.—Cricket]

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