Abarax - Journey's End

I'm partial to whales (who would have thunk ~ considering the avatar :o) so getting the album "Crying of the Whales" by Abrax (or here) was a no-brainer. It was a good decision: the longer I listen the more I want to hear. "Journey's End" is the track that most reminds me of a memorable and fascinating encounter I had with those gentle giants of the sea ...

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life - Monty Python's Life of Brian

Some weeks want to end on a low note and they seem to put all energy and effort in to get their way. Little do such weeks know that they stand a snowballs chance in hell to succeed as long as there's the right musical antidote at hand. Take "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" from Monty Python's "Life of Brian" for example ~

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

Monty Python's Life of Brian

Ladysmith Black Mambazo/Mint Juleps - The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Ladysmith Black Mambazo is among the groups that I can listen to for hours and doing so always leaves me feeling better. Then, there's the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." Some nights my mother would sing it to get her brood to sleep ~ leaving me with dreams of foreign countries just waiting to be explored. I'm awestruck to learn that the roots of this song go as far back as the 1920s ...

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Leo Kottke - Gewerbegebiet

I think that every season has its own melody, every mood has its own rhythm or rhyme, and that some artists create music which fits some days or moods, whereas others create music for every mood and season. To me, Leo Kottke is a musician for any time, any season ~

Syntax - Pride

Reinvention – what a thought! To be able to shed one’s public persona like a snake sheds its skin, and to be able to don a sparkling new, custom-made persona. Ample room for rambling thoughts … and then – of course – there’s Syntax with Pride ~

Pride
by Syntax

It's made up of lonely moments
There was always a moment there when I knew

Starsailor - Some of Us

A friend of mine wrote "Strings" - a summary of an ordinary day in the life of ... There are days when I feel like that puppet, however fast I'm going I'm always half a step behind and unable to get caught up.

Strings

The hands of the clock clench to fists as it rings
Which urgently jerk on invisible strings
Affixed to a puppet and haul on its limbs
The puppet may fight, yet the clock always wins

Anna Nalick - Breathe (2am)

It's wondrous how moments and music can get so intimately entwined that a few bars of a song are enough to carry you back to the moment that song was playing. "Breathe (2 AM)" by Anna Nalick is one such song for me. I was doing 36 hour days and the nights alone at work were the worse. I kept the radio playing so as to not get swallowed by the darkness and silence. At one time, long into the night, "Breath" came on and 'breath, just breath' became my mantra, the refrain my credo:

'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
and life's like an hourglass glued to the table,
No one can find the rewind button girl
So just cradle your head in your hands. ...

It got me through more than one night. The 36 hour shifts are long behind me but still, the reminder to 'breath, just breath' remains helpful when the tracks pass through rough terrain ~

Breathe (2 AM)
By Anna Nalick

Elle King - Ex's & Oh's

Can't help it, but to me this song is totally tongue in cheek ~ Hugs and Kisses (XO), indeed ... It does have a catchy rhythm and melody, though, and once it plays on the little mental stage it just "won't let go, Ex's & Oh's" (Elle King)

I had me a boy, turned him into a man
I showed him all the things that he didn't understand
Whoa, and then I let him go

Carlos Santana / Chad Kroeger - Into The Night

What more can one ask for? The inspired guitar wielded by Carlos Santana, the unique voice of Chad Kroeger that has just enough rasp to raise goose bumps while slipping under your skin, a driving rhythm and an invitation to dance ~ all rolled up into one in "Into the Night." Perfect! IMHO just the right song for the carnival season ...

Like a gift from the heavens, it was easy to tell
It was love from above, like it saved me from hell

Faun - Das Tor

If a certain rodent in a little town in Pennsylvania is to be trusted, winter will make an early exit and will give way to spring without much of a fight. And just to give the rodent's prediction a boost, there's carnival festivities spread across the globe ~ ok, not really spread, more like sprinkled ~ to chase winter away. Well, we've not had more than 3 days of winder here, but I'm ready to follow Faun and step through the gate (das Tor) onto the meadow with flowers abloom ...

Joshua Kadison - Waiting In Green Velvet

"Waiting in Green Velvet" is another song that made it onto my mind's stage by playing on the radio alarm in the morning ~ it's also the song that brought Joshua Kadison to my attention. He's such a gifted story-teller, painting pictures in your mind while drawing you in with the piano or rhythm. It was sad to discover that his facebook page does not have an entry since 2013 ...

Waiting in green velvet with a suitcase in her hand
Standing down, away from the bus stop sign

Nils Frahm - Says

If you would, take 10 minutes to sit back and relax and let Nils Frahm's "Says" wrap around you. Sometimes music says it all. This piece certainly doesn't need words ~ simply beautiful ...