MJ Monday-Music: Connie Dover

Many years ago, my husband and I were wandering around the village of Cooperstown, NY. We’d already visited the Baseball Hall of Fame. I wanted to shop. I didn’t want baseball related stuff. I didn’t want the usual tourist town trinkets.

I walked into an alley leading off Main Street, seduced by the music being played there. The alley was cool with greenery, welcome on that hot summer afternoon. I followed the path to a store that no longer exists: Moon Dreams. To this day it remains my favorite store in Cooperstown.

I ended up purchasing a pair of earrings that remain favorites . . .

(lapis and crystal set in sterling–my new phone’s camera leaves much to be desired)

and my first Connie Dover CD.

My first love in musical genres is folk music. It’s what I (mostly) grew up on. I love the stories told by the lyrics, legends set to music.

Connie Dover  lured me into the alley that day (“Mally Leigh” from her If Ever I Return CD). She sings old Celtic, French and cowboy folk songs in addition to composing her own pieces.  Her voice is sweet and pure. While I don’t usually care for too “smooth” a sound, Dover is the exception that proves the rule. The harmonies are amazing.

While I haven’t purchased a new CD in a while, I still love listening to the ones I do own.

 

MJ Monday-Music: SIRIUS

I recently purchased a new vehicle. A really new vehicle, that come with three months free Sirius radio. How cool is that?

Except I rarely listen to music in the car. My commute is short (less than 2 miles one way). And between the dreadful radio my husband has to listen to in the morning–he works in radio sales and has to monitor competing stations–and the radio and other noise at Day Job, I relish those few moments of silence I have alone in my vehicle.

The *idea* of Sirius radio is cool. And I’ve played around with a couple of stations. But I’ve spent more time moving the continuous stream of related emails into a folder than I have listening.  That’s right. The emails DO. NOT. STOP,

That ought to say something.

MJ Monday-Music: Protest Music

I came of age in a time of civil unrest: Women’s Rights, Civil Rights, an anti-war movement. The music from that era formed the soundtrack of my life. Haunting melodies, biting lyrics–they were songs that stuck.

For the past several years, I’ve been waiting for a new batch of music. The current generation needs fresh songs from fresh voices. Music is a common chronicle of the era, which means the time is right for a new batch of protest music.

I’m still waiting.

While we wait, here are a few examples of what I mean:

We need new anthems for the new world.

 

MJ Monday-Music: Needing Silence

Sometimes, a person needs silence. That need, in today’s society, is treated as an aberration. I love music. I have eclectic taste. But sometimes the music has to stop.

My day job is working in an office. A cube farm. Phones ring and telephone conversations are constant. The climate control system roars most of the day. And yet if there is even a nook of silence in all that, someone will call out, “Hey! Turn on the music!”

I have often said there was no music in the 80’s. I was only slightly wrong, and I can prove it. The only radio station we can get (the office location is in a low spot) plays music of the 80’s, 90’s, and forward. It is owned by a huge, national company, and the playlist is set. The same songs play every day. Every. Single. Day.  Apparently only 30 or so songs survived from the 80’s and 90’s. I rest my case.

Years ago, when I worked in retail, the store playlist would drive the employees crazy because of the repetition. This radio station playing in my current workplace does the same thing. At least to me. The only difference is the play list is mixed up. “Shallow” isn’t always followed by “Drops of Jupiter” or “Heaven is a Place on Earth.”

Heaven is really a place where a woman can hear herself think.

MJ Monday-Music: Instrumental Jazz

Jazz triggers theta waves – inducing states of artistic and spiritual insight – which can assist dealing with complex issues.

I own several instrumental jazz CDs because lyrics can be distracting and jazz is very . . . fluid. The music is moody. Best of all, it’s depends on improvisation. The music demands the musician be swept into playing what is in her soul. Creative reservoirs are tapped and set free.  Just like when an author is in the flow of writing.