Blogs are so passe and pretentious. Oh well, here's my blog about music that's stuck in my head when I wake up in the mornings along with adventures of the Cash family and wacky wacky crazy wacky shenanigans.
Rufus Wainwright has sort of fell off the radar when it comes to popular music, as he has shifted his focus of enormous musical talent to the world of classical music. But more than a decade ago he released two albums, "Want One" and "Want Two" back to back (2004 & 2005) and they were just about some of the best rock/pop albums I had heard at the time.
Today's particular song comes from Want One and is the sixth track. It's called "Go, or Go Ahead" and it's effing amazing as far as songs go.
I've only seen Wainwright once in concert, in 2005, and before he played this song he explained that in the early 2000's he had become addicted to crystal meth, and during a particularly dangerous drug-induced high, he became blind and remained that way for several days.
When he came out of it, he regained his vision, got clean and never went back to the drug- the first song that emerged is this one. Wainwright's musicianship far outweighs his lyric-writing, so although the lyrics are cryptic, there's something powerful about the final composition. I hope you'll listen to it, here's "Go, or Go Ahead" by Rufus Wainwright.
This is a really rare song by an artist I really like. His name is Ben Shive. This song is so rare that I can't find it on YouTube to share with you!
So I guess you're going to have to get the album if you want to hear it. This site says you can download the album for free. Try it if you want: http://noisetrade.com/benshive/the-ill-tempered-klavier
There's a suggested tip of 6$- This man worked hard to make music, so give the guy a tip for heaven's sake.
Anyway, the song stuck in my head is the fourth track on this album, it's called "Do You Remember" If you download this album and listen to this song it will make me (and you!) very, very happy.
It's OK- I love "The Music Man" It's majorly on the brain since I was cast as the show's lead about 2 months ago. We opened on Saturday night and everything went well and I truly am loving this production and this role. Here are some pictures for those interested:
Random thoughts running through my brain...
On our opening night, two cast members had the stomach flu. My dad, who is also in the production, jumped in and covered for one guy in the opening train scene "Rock Island" He rocked it! It was great! I was proud.
My Dad had always wanted to play this role I'm currently playing. He got older and the moment passed for him. The closest he got was when he was cast as an understudy for the role some years back, but he never got a chance to perform the role. It makes me sad for him. He's a great guy and he would have rocked the role!
The above picture is me and my dad in the final dress rehearsal, me as Harold Hill, him as Ewart Dunlop.
One more thought- I just love this theater, The Hopebox in Kaysville. I feel like I'm part of a family and the fact that we are doing this production for and in behalf of Adam Larsen, a young college student who performs in the drumline, and is suffering from Leukemia, makes this all such a wonderful experience. I can't think of anything else our family could be doing. Here's one more picture, it's of me marching with two of my kids and two of my nephews during "Seventy Six Trombones"
Here's "Seventy Six Trombones" the song stuck in my head from yesterday morning:
