My Waltz

Have I mentioned to you how excellent Eric Church's new album, Chief, is?  No?  Well, let me tell you: it's amazing.  I got it over Christmas (along with Miranda Lambert's Four the Record - not as good as Revolution, duh, but still has some strong tracks, such as "All Kinds of Kinds," "Mama's Broken Heart," "Dear Diamond," and "Nobody's Fool," though "Over You" isn't bad either), and love it.  My very, very, very, very favourite song is "Springsteen" which, I would like to point out to you, I loved way before he sent it to radio as his next cut off the album.  "Homeboy" is the song which turned me on to the album, and still is every bit as strong as it was the first time I heard it (though, the music video helped solidify my appreciation for it - the slow motion parts are done SO WELL).

Kenny Chesney seems to be on a new album kick, lately.  Earlier in the spring, he released a duet with Tim McGraw, "Feel Like a Rock Star," which did nothing for me.  Don't get me wrong, I'm usually such a sucker for syncopation - it's the musical element that can sell me a song, above any other - but in this one, it rubs me the wrong way.  It sounds almost discordant.  I'm not knocking these two superstars, but the song isn't for me.  "Come Over," though, is.  It's the second cut off the to-be-released-soon-or-maybe-already-is-released-but-I-have-no-idea-when album, and is electrifying and intimate.  I blast it when it comes on the radio (WYNK 101.5 Baton Rouge, of course), as I do with Keith Urban's new one from the film, Act of Valour (I think), "For You."

But moving on.

This song I have for you is, again, part of the "romantic period."  But it's always seemed to me kind of lame - maybe because I'm looking at it from someone else's perspective.  When I happen to view it through my own eyes, I love it (especially once it gets going).  You see, the heart is my favourite part of the human body (as evidenced before) - and, as well, it's a word I think is underused, both on its own and as a metonym.  There's something mysterious and breathless and private yet universal and familiar yet exotic, and lovely about the heart.  I tried to capture a bit of it here, but I don't know if I succeeded.  Mostly I just played with the idea of equating the heartbeat of one you love to the sweetest melody you've ever heard.

Also, I imagine this song to be in three-quarter time, as is only fitting.

My Waltz

do you hear that? you're playing my song

to which I've been humming along

right now, it's coming in loudly and clearly

because, you're here with me

CHORUS:

it's my lullaby, my waltz, my love song

it's the call that brings me home when we're apart

and I'm certain I can never go wrong

dancing to the beat of your beautiful heart

you'll take my hand and we'll walk through this life

always in step and always in style

movement this free won't need any changes

as, we turn through the ages

CHORUS:

it's my lullaby, my waltz, my love song

it's the call that brings me home when we're apart

and I'm certain I can never go wrong

dancing to the beat of your beautiful heart

BRIDGE:

like thunder in a storm, like drums in the night,

like a metronome forever keeping time...

CHORUS:

it's my lullaby, my waltz, my love song

it's the call that brings me home when we're apart

and I'm certain I can never go wrong

dancing to the beat of your beautiful heart

dancing to the beat of your beautiful heart...

My favourite is the second verse-chorus-bridge sequence.  The first verse was more difficult than usual, because it's a strange sort of concept to introduce, and I'm not even sure I did it properly.  Well, I'm sure you'll tell me.

Much love, and thank you for the musik!

Just Another Ordinary Girl

Boy, you took my breath, every time you took my hand.  Young, and scared, and happy, a little less comfortable - back when you would wake me up in the middle of the night, kiss me like your lover instead of just your wife.

p.s.  I spend most of my money on music.  Music and Starbucks - one puts a smile on my face, the other puts smiley faces on my cups because they know me down there.

p.p.s. In case you're interested, I'm currently working on "Hate You."  It's a little bit more in the angsty-angry-grrr-whywhywhy phase, but there's a very good reason behind it, I assure you.  And hey, even Picasso regressed into previous phases.  I haven't written a complete song since early early April, when I finished my triumph, "Thank You," which I think is the best song I've ever written (which is why I'm building up to it, naturally), and not to be confused in the least with a previous effort by the same name - in the vein of Thomas Hardy, for example, who, after he wrote what he figured was his magnum opus (either Tess of the D'Urbervilles or Jude the Obscure, I forget), ceased writing novels and focused on poetry exclusively.  In my case, I switched my attention to sewing and quilting; I finished a tablecloth, a quilted potholder, and two pillows in the interim.  I look forward to making a full quilt next, because my life is so boring there's nothing about which to write a song.  Today, a colleague asked me what I do for fun, and I stared at him blankly.