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 |  A blog about music from my unique perspective (also a spot for some poetry I’ve written) |
A blog, generally about music, usually for projects hosted by Jeff  . I may also write about the 48-Hour Media Prompt Challenge if I don't feel like writing a story or poem inspired by the given song. Other bits of poetry or different topics of discussion might end up here as well.![Merit Badge in WDC Media Prompt
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| A few days ago, I mentioned For King and Country recently released a Christmas collaboration single with country music singer Gabby Barrett. I said in passing I don't think much of her as an artist. Yesterday I noticed her 2020 single The Good Ones in an exclusively soft pop public playlist, which means the song, and the artist, has officially crossed over into the pop genre. Seeing this, I thought I'd put together a few words on why exactly I'm not interested in her work. The Good Ones is probably the first song I noticed from her. It describes the narrator's relationship with the man of her dreams and declares he's "one of the good ones." At first, a few years ago, I thought it was naive and silly, like "you'll be singing a different tune when you find out the truth about him..." But after a while it started growing on me, until I would get chills whenever I heard it. So I took note of the artist's name and gradually started connecting the dots of her other work. I found she sings a pathetic song about "every time I see an F-150, all the memories come and hit me..." complaining about the truck her ex drives. She also sings I Hope (She Cheats), which became a pop crossover hit early on, so much so that she did a remix featuring Charlie Puth... Which doesn't even make sense from a lyrical standpoint. My long view of Gabby Barrett is that she's another one of a wave of young female country artists who have been showing up and crossing over to pop in the past few years. I feel it's part of an attempt by the country music industry to make it more palatable to a general audience. I've noticed over the years that "hot" country music has been substituted in certain situations for "hot" pop music, which these days is becoming rapidly trashier, rappier, and less suited for a general audience. I've felt as though country music is putting itself up as the "family friendly" alternative, which to me is laughable. Country has always been a genre which glorifies alcohol, bar culture, breakups, and making out in the beds of pickup trucks with chicks you picked up drunk at the bar. No amount of cutesy songs that mention Jesus and marriage and white picket fences, written by the same handful of producers who write the trashy songs, can make me think otherwise. Which brings me to the most important point of my dislike of country music as a genre. It is ultimately a soulless and highly commercialized genre run by a few top influencers you've never heard of who turn out hundreds of formulaic songs for dozens of artists. I can name at least three off the top of my head: Thomas Rhett, Hillary Lindsey and Ashley Gorely. My point being: any given country music singer does not write their own lyrics. They are simply a mouthpiece for whatever doggerel catches their fancy out of a pool of carefully crafted demos which draw from a playbook of cultural cliches and catchphrases. Therefore, I cannot say "oh yeah, I like so-and-so, they're good..." Because even if they happen to sing one or two decent songs, even cute songs, they've all sang the stupid ones as well. They're all drinking from the same Kool-aid... Or is it Jack Daniels? No one country music artist is any more "decent" or "sincere" than any other. Rather than pouring their hearts into their own work, allowing us to build a picture of their personalities from their words, they allow themselves to be used by a handful of "culture makers" who have their own agenda. It's not their story they're telling, but a story they've been told to tell. Coming back to Gabby Barrett, I have to admit I don't know much about her, but I suspect if I ran my eye down the credits of any of her songs I would find the same producers behind them as with all the rest. This in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing, as there are also a limited number of high-level producers in pop music. It's the fictionalized, cheapened, exaggerated cultural narrative these producers peddle (pop or country, either way) which I don't like. There's no way for me to "get into" Gabby Barrett as a person because she presumably doesn't write her own songs, so from one song to the next, there's no consistency of lyrical quality or overarching narrative. Think of it like how we write our stories here. After reading a certain amount of anyone's writing, I get a feel for who they are as a person: the type of language they use, the kind of stories they like to tell, their overall level of taste, decency, or class, their unique, distinctive idiosyncrasies. In other words, their writing style comes through consistently. This is impossible in country music, because there are no artists who write freely from the heart and sing what they wrote. (If you know of any, let me know.) So... Yeah. I don't think there's anything more I can say about it than that. Sure, there's always going to be a country song here and there where I'm like "oh, this is a good one," but it can never be personally connected to a given artist in the way I would like. There is no country music artist who only sings "the good ones." And that's a deal breaker for me. Words: 924. |
My twelfth and final track for "12 Days of "Christmas""  is not a Christmas song, nor is it associated with anything relating to a December holiday. Yet I knew it would be one of my choices right from the beginning of the month when I prepped this list.OneRepublic released Ordinary Human in 2014, as part of the soundtrack for the movie The Giver, based on the book by Lois Lowry. With a low, throbbing backbeat opening, soaring choruses, and an eerie reverb throughout, this song has all the feels while providing a fascinating and transcendental theme. I remember the day I discovered it: Mom and I were spending the winter in Naples, FL, and when I found Ordinary Human I put it on repeat about a million times, bringing it in the car with me as we drove around sightseeing. I was in awe. I still am; I'm getting chills listening to it right now. One of the endearing features is how Ryan Tedder opens with a slightly gravelly note, as if he hadn't cleared his throat properly. He climaxes to his signature crystal clear melisma flawlessly, while giving the song a reassuringly relatable and accessible feeling. I enjoy singing it to myself; it has a surprisingly easy melody. An interesting aside about Ryan's voice… just a couple days ago, after writing this up, I saw a snippet 1R shared on X where he laughs about a habit he used to have, during the Counting Stars era, of modifying his voice by lighting a cigar and "intentionally inhaling, which you're not supposed to do," to make himself cough and give his voice a "rougher, warmer" sound. At first I'm like  and then I'm like "aha!" because that's the exact type of note he strikes on the opening words of Ordinary Human, which is from this era. I never realized he also sounds that way on the opening of Counting Stars.Now to explain why I associate Ordinary Human with Christmas. The bridge and finale goes "there'll be peace in the city tonight, but when I'm gone, I hope they get it right." If that isn't a picture of the Nativity and the Ascension all at once, I don't know what is. The overall theme of an "ordinary human" bringing salvation by his very nature, or alternately an ordinary human humbly acknowledging his ordinariness and learning to seek salvation by reaching upward instead of inward, are both concepts which run deep throughout Christian doctrine. I believe Ryan Tedder was aware of all this when he wrote the song, because he grew up in a Pentecostal home with a preacher grandfather, and he has drawn upon the basic worldview assumptions of Christianity frequently in his lyrics over the years. A big shout-out to Jeff for getting this up and running at the last minute while juggling all manner of other projects. I had a wonderful time sharing some of my favorite seasonal music with you, and I hope you liked it as much as I did.This is a perfect song to end my holiday soundtrack series with. Enjoy the goosebumps  Words: 532. Bonus excerpt (under two minutes) where Ryan Tedder shares how Counting Stars was made and mentions "the cigar technique:" Full video (14 minutes) from Vanity magazine where Ryan Tedder discusses the art of music production for Counting Stars as well as another song: |
| My eleventh track for "12 Days of "Christmas"" is a classic which has been covered and rearranged hundreds of times over the centuries. I chose For King and Country because I like their calm, clear, unexaggerated voices and I feel they approach it with proper reverence and respect. I do enjoy almost every other rendition of Joy to the World I've ever heard in public; it's the kind of timeless spiritual carol which is a relief to the ears in between Santa Baby and Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. I always marvel at the tenuous balance between spirituality and secularism, which dual spectacularly with each other during the holiday season. Now, I'll have to admit this Joy to the World does bear the "softly bombastic" stylistic fingerprint of 4K+C specifically and contemporary Christian music generally, but perhaps that's a good thing. I generally prefer songs with styles and voices I recognize to material from "out of the blue." Knowing the artist gave me something to go on so I knew I would be less likely to waste my limited music time listening to versions I might not like. As I said, I'm fussy. The audio boundary is a line I take great care to draw, because my default environment is usually quiet. At any rate, enjoy Words: 221. |
| My tenth track for "12 Days of "Christmas"" is from Australian brothers For King and Country and their holiday album A Drummer Boy Christmas.. I like the way Joel and Luke Smallbone bring in their wives to sing with them on some of their work. It's something not many pop artists do. When I went to pull up the YouTube video for this entry, I found 4K+C released a new version of it this year... Featuring country singer Gabby Barrett  I'm impressed with her song The Good Ones, but I don't think much of her as an artist for the same reasons I don't like country music generally (a long story...) I'll stick with the original version.One of the reasons I like 4K+C is their calm, harmonious voices. This quiet harmony is exemplified on both Go Tell It On the Mountain and my next track choice, their Joy to the World. This carol generally is one I wasn't familiar with growing up, but as I encountered it more recently I was drawn to the melody. Being fussy, I'm pretty sure this is the only rendition of it I like, however. 4K+C have emphasized what makes it special without letting it become repetitive or monotonous. Which for some reason reminds me, I never did find a version I like of "do you hear what I hear." I tend to lump these two songs together because I never heard of either of them until a few years ago. I like the lyrics to "do you hear what I hear," with the talking animals visiting the king, and the melody is good, but I haven't had time to look into finding a good one. Maybe next year when we do this, I'll have found one for us. In the meantime, enjoy Go Tell It On the Mountain .Words: 304. |
| My ninth track for "12 Days of "Christmas"" is the Simply Three instrumental version of O Little Town of Bethlehem. This is from their 2013 Xmas album (which featured a lady on violin) which is more traditional than Lux, but this track nonetheless displays a fascinating ingenuity. The violin, cello and bass interact in complex layers, with dual backing lines and the violin overlaid, tracing the lyrical melody. I'm parsing through it repeatedly as I write… I wish I had adequate musical vocabulary to describe it more technically. It's quite engaging, especially for me as I strive to remember the actual lyrics and thread them through the competing melodies without losing track of everything. I wonder what the production sound chart would look like as it runs across a screen. (See, I don't even know what that's called  )At any rate, this is the kind of track I could play a zillion times and lose myself in, almost forgetting the Christmas carol it's supposed to be. As far as I know, Simply Three's arrangement is unique. Words: 180. |
| My eighth track for "12 Days of "Christmas"" is another piece from the Christmas album by Andrew Dale and David Chafe. I'm beginning with the vocal version (my next track will be an instrumental of the same) because I have always loved the words of this carol. I had them memorized as a kid from my old booklet of Christmas sheet music, but I never knew how it was supposed to sound. When I discovered the Midnight Clear album and saw O Little Town of Bethlehem on it, I knew this would be the perfect rendition for me. With his calm, clear voice and the piano following gently along, these artists together pay homage to the reverent spirit of the carol. I don't know how many times I've prayed the final prayer in my own heart over the years. It's a song I'm very close to, though I'm still familiarizing myself with the true melody after years of not knowing. I'll be discussing both a vocal and an instrumental of O Little Town of Bethlehem, so we can all appreciate it in the deepest possible way. Enjoy Words: 190. |
| My seventh track for "12 Days of "Christmas"" is an Irish instrumental rendition of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, by artist Alisa Jones. Super long and peculiar story behind this one… years ago on an old-fashioned Christian radio station, Mom and I heard a really cool version of God Rest Ye Merry, with a lady singing. It sounded Russian. I've never been able to track down that exact version. I even contacted the radio station, and they said they had no idea what I was referring to. They sent me an audio file of a mashup from some down-home rustic family band, which wasn't it at all. So last year I went on a quest to collect, if not a vocal of God Rest Ye Merry, since none of them compared favorably to that one amazing unknown, at least a high-quality instrumental version, since the melody has such good bones. I ended up with several versions, some of which got tossed out, until I had two remaining: an instrumental by Simply Three (you might guess they're one of my favorite instrumental artists) and this one. I enjoy the way this rendition builds upon the same repetitive instrumental "verse," opening with the flute and gradually adding a drum, a violin, and whatever else (bagpipes?), in a way which seems as though it should go on for longer than two and a half minutes. That would probably get boring, though. As it is, it's just right, with that ever-so-slightly danceable vibe which I remember from the mysterious vocal version. Words: 255. |
| My sixth track for "12 Days of "Christmas"" is an instrumental rendition of the Christmas piece Little Drummer Boy by Simply Three. Ouch. That opening bass beat is almost too much. As I said in the last post, I haven't had a chance to hear my Xmas collection in high quality audio until now. This is another track from S3's Lux album, which means the edginess is played up… which basically means they cranked up the bass notes. Despite the whopper drums, which after all is a basic element of a song called "Little Drummer Boy," I still like it. In large part I like it because it has no vocals. Last year I tried listening to For King and Country singing Little Drummer Boy, and I found it so annoying I couldn't bear to finish it. Which is a shame, because apparently they're quite proud of their rendition of it and use it as their Christmas album title. Lyrically speaking, when I first discovered the song years ago, I was puzzled by the anachronistic nature of the story and the fact that it's spiritual yet retro, from the same era as such tacky songs as "Let It Snow" or "Baby It's Cold Outside." I wondered why it's admired by Christians on the same level as the "genuine" Christmas carols of centuries past. Finding the S3 instrumental version taught me to appreciate it for the melody, and this year as I've encountered it in public I can't help appreciating the spirit of the story it tells. (Though I wonder if a newborn baby would really smile at the sound of an army drum…) In fact, I thought the version performed by The Jackson Five was actually pretty good, "rum-pa-pum-pum's" and all. Perhaps I'll add that to my playlist before the year is out so I can finally sit down and listen to the lyrics. Words: 316. |
| My fifth track for "12 Days of "Christmas"" is an amusing one. I first discovered Snoopy's Christmas by The Royal Guardsmen way back in 2017 during my first year of taking music especially seriously. We were staying in South Carolina over the holidays, and one particular radio station played it frequently, and it captured my fancy immediately. I thought it was the cutest thing all around: the "moment of mercy" storyline, the idea of singing about Snoopy—one of my favorite characters!—and the hook of the bells ringing through the land. When I mentioned it to Mom, she'd never heard of it. She played me The Royal Guardsmen's "original" Snoopy song, which dismayed me because of the exaggerated bloodshed and the merely superficial similarity to the comic strip. I couldn't imagine what Mom thought was so interesting about it. Obviously, I'd much rather hear the Christmas edition. I'm sitting down on Christmas Eve, playing these songs as I write about them. This is the first time I've listened to Snoopy's Christmas with my "high quality" Bluetooth earbuds I bought for $5 at Dollar Tree this summer. I'm delighted by the binaural sound effects and the clarity of everything, bombs and all  Audio device quality definitely makes a difference. It doesn't cost much to get it surprisingly good these days.The concept here is a classic trope, and one I may use someday in my writing. And with that, I present you a wartime treat. Words: 248. |
| My fourth track is a Christmas favorite from a rare gem of an album, Midnight Clear by Andrew Dale and David Chafe. I'm choosing the title track to introduce them to you, as it was the first one I found from them. I believe it was on BBN, Bible Broadcasting Network, where Mom and I heard this version one evening a couple years ago. We don't usually listen to that radio station, because they play a lot of cringy baritones and exaggerated pipe organs from a century ago. This time, though, Mom liked the singer's voice and the simple, muted production, even though she doesn't usually care for pianos. I Shazamed it, tracked down the album, and added the whole thing to my YouTube account to save it because I keep forgetting their names (in my offline playlist, I have them down simply as "Andrew and David"...) The duo is Canadian; they came together in 2007 solely for this special holiday album and are not affiliated with a band, being more of the classical type of artists. Andrew does the vocals and David plays the piano throughout, and that is all Midnight Clear has in the way of production. This simplicity allows the depth and sincerity of Andrew's voice to shine through. I'm happy to have this on my playlist at last, because it's a song you don't hear often in public. As a kid the lyrics appealed so much to me, I memorized them straight off of that booklet of sheet music I mentioned in the previous post. Which means it's special for me to hear it now as it's supposed to sound rather than how I always had the words laid out in my head. The third verse is somber, different from what I knew as a kid; you can see all the verses on Wikipedia here. And now, enjoy a true Christmas classic Words: 317. |
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