Monday Morning Shuffle

I meant to post at least once more last week but I went out of town on short notice and had no internet connection for 4 days. Frightening at first and yet, oddly relaxing once I got used to it. On with the shuffle.

1. My Favorite Things – John Coltrane from “The Very Best of Coltrane”
This is jazz music at its finest and my absolute favorite song on the CD. I couldn’t have picked a better first song for the Monday Morning Shuffle if I had tried. Coltrane and his band riff on and solo and pretty much disect the Favorite Things song from Sound of Music for 13 minutes and 45 seconds. I’m just going to stop typing now and listen to the rest of it….

2. Streets of Laredo – Johnny Cash from “American IV: The Man Comes Around”
Not one of my favorite songs from this CD but not a bad one either. There’s a pretty big distance between the two John’s we’ve started off with this morning. And I can’t say I was in the mood for this one. According to Nole, the newest post-mortem Cash release, American V, is awesome and I should go pick it up soon. So I’ll do that. And then probably review it. Unless Nole wants to? Whaddya say Nole?

3. Everywhere – Michelle Branch from “The Spirit Room”
It was tough to stop laughing about this one but before she went all hill-billy on me, I really liked Michelle Branch. And she’s from Sedona or something, so that’s cool too. Gotta support the local stars. And honestly, Michelle was probably forced into doing pop music at the time because the labels needed a response to the Britney Spears backlash that was occurring at the time and because Avril Lavigne was already spreading her Canadian born angst (and poor spelling) across the airwaves. So when Michelle got done cutting her two pop CDs (The Spirit Room and Hotel Paper, both of which were pretty good.) she probably couldn’t wait to get into country. Still, pianos, and more importantly, girls who play pianos are incredibly sexy and she’s definitely near the top of my list. 1. Alicia Keys 2. Vanessa Carlton 3. Michelle Branch 4. Elton John

4. Hold You In My Arms – Ray LaMontagne from “Trouble”
Alright, here is my first “I knew this guy before you did” moment of the day. A few years ago my mom bought me this CD along with Robert Earl Keen (who I mentioned last week) and Griffin House. I had heard of Keen, but hadn’t heard of the other two. I loaded them onto iTunes and promptly forgot about them. But they came up in the shuffle occasionally and I liked most of what I heard from both. Now, LaMontagne has released a new CD that is gathering huge critical acclaim and since he doesn’t do a fake, trying-to-be-sexy whisper like John Mayer, he will probably pass him and that one-hit wonder James Blount as the sexy, trendy singer du jour. And just in case Griffin House doesn’t come up in the shuffle anytime soon, definitely check him out too. He’s about to get pretty large as well. Hurry and you can still beat the crowd.

5. Faithful – Common from “Be”
Common is one of those hip-hop names that gets some play (like Jurassic 5) without completely selling out (like the Black-Eyed Peas). He made some appearances on Chappelle Show and got some credit because Kanye did most of his beats and each featured the other on their last albums. But Common stays pretty true to his Chiacago hip-hop roots and avoids the “dance floor beat” disease that afflicts many MCs (including Kanye) after a taste of success (you know, when the song sucks, but the beat is good so people will dance to it and thus sell records?). He still inflects a few of today’s politics and issues into his songs and yet still has some fun. His clear voice and delivery are what I like the most about Common, because you don’t miss his messages and he’s very, very smooth with his lyrics. He apparently had a CD coming out in September, so I’ll have to check and see if that actually happened and check that out. If you don’t have “Be,” it is so choice, I highly suggest you try one out.

We’ll keep it at 5 for today. Give me your thoughts in the comments. Adios.

Oh and keep an eye out for at least one more post this week. Not sure what I’ll be talking about but it’ll probably be about Matt Costa, Doves or something old that I liked in middle school (The Offspring maybe?)