songs and invitations

Sometime ago I was a student in a summer program at a prestigious university in the South. It was before I graduated from high school and I went to take some college courses the summer before my senior year.

I loved it and decided that I had to go to that college. When I think about it in hindsight, I realize that I liked it because it was college and because I had a major league crush on my roommate.

One afternoon, it started to rain and a huge mud puddle formed in the courtyard of our dorm. People began to run into the building and grab one another and throw folks in the mud. Everyone seemed to be getting thrown in. I waited and waited and no one came to get me to throw me in. The level of popularity of those being thrown in had dipped below my perception of my own. And yet there I was, dry. I watched for a long time and then went out for a walk in the rain.

That story sounds is a more somber introduction than the following entry warrants. I don't usually get invited to do memes and didn't get invited to do this one. But I'm doing it anyway. I'm not waiting around to get thrown in the mud any longer. So... the meme is seven songs that you're into right now and why.

1. "They Call the Wind Maria" sung by Ed Ames (originally from the Broadway musical Paint Your Wagon, Lerner and Lowe, 1951). This one is weird, I admit. We were watching e.r. the other day and John Mahoney sang a song and it reminded me of when John Cullum sang this song on an episode back in 2000 or so. Off to itunes I went. I settled on Ames' version because it was the closest to how I remembered Cullum's. Convoluted path, but still a great song. Ames is a pop singer of a certain type from the 60s and has done some acting as well. I LOVE the cover of his "best of" album. He's wearing a fisherman's sweater.

2. "Come What May" sung by Ewan MacGregor and Nicole Kidman from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. This movie, which is as close to a carnivalesque experience as I have ever had in the theater, has a terrific soundtrack. This was the original they put on it to try to get the Oscar for Best Original Song. Unfortunately, it was disqualified for consideration because it was written for (but unused in) director/writer Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. A beautiful love song. I'm still impressed with MacGregor's voice and he and Kidman harmonize really nicely on this song.

3. "Three County Highway," "Fly Away," and "Rock and Roll Heaven's Gate" sung by the Indigo Girls from their album Despite Our Differences. Ok, this is cheating. These are my three favorite songs from the new album. I can't decide which I like best. It's a terrific album and the live EP that comes with the dulux edition is worth the extra dough. Pink's harmony on "Rock and Roll Heaven's Gate" adds a really nice complexity.

4. From the new to the old... the other album in HEAVY rotation in my car (aka the little blue truck) is Emmylou Harris' Red Dirt Girl from 2000. "My Baby Needs a Shepherd" is my song obsession du jour from that album. Sad and beautiful.
"My baby needs a pilot
She has no magic wand
To help her part the troubled waters
Of the Rubicon
But in my soul I know she'll
Have to go this one alone
After all that is only way she's ever known."

5. Always in my mind a bit is Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Jubilee." I blogged about it a while ago.

6. Evanescence "Fallen" Because I hide my head in the sand, I didn't know about this song until this summer and Rock Star . A couple of people sang it and then Storm Large sang it. That got me to download it. By the way, Storm sang the National Anthem for the finale of The Contender. She can sing ANYthing.

7. "Winter" by Joshua Radin. Honey thinks he's soporific. Whatever.

8. One more because if you don't get invited, you can make up your own rules...
"Trouble" by Bonnie McKee. The only song I've gotten as a free "discovery download" on itunes that I really like. She kicks ass on this song. Great on the ipod while cycling the dirt path Honey calls, "thorn row" because it creates so many flats.

So...
My roommate? She and I talked through college but I lost track of her. Just as well, I guess. She probably wouldn't have liked any of these songs.

As for me, I didn't get thrown into the mud. I also didn't get into that college.