Have I mentioned how much I love The Fray?  LOVE.  Some of my favourites.  Okay, all of my favourites:

Look After You

You Found Me

Never Say Never

Enough for Now

How to Save a Life

All at once

Vienna

Unsaid — I love this one because they work in the phrase “Suffice it to say…”

Over my Head

Oh man, this is totally the best.  My Mom loved this song.

Oh! And this, which I knew the original with Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, but this one also has Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson!

I love this one.  My Mom used to play this on 45 all the time, and sing the chorus.  She really liked it, maybe because her mom is Italian.  I had forgotten about it until about 6 or 7 years ago, when thanks to the internet I found it again.

It’s only as an adult that I realize how much music played a part of my childhood, particularly the music my mother listened to. It stays with you, the songs you learn as a wee one. I remember, about 2 years ago one of my nieces got an MP3 player, and had a Beach Boys song on it.

This flabbergasted my mother, who asked “why does she have THAT on there?”, to which my sister replied, “She likes that song because *I* like that song!” It brought to mind all the many songs I love today because my mom loved them and played them at home.

This is part ONE:

I find it amusing that my brother (the minister) finds himself with a surprising amount of lesbian musicians on his ipod, while I (agnostic lesbian) finds herself with a shockingly large contingent of christian bands.

The music god(s) must have a sense of humour!

This is going back a bit.

My sisters and my mother visited me back in November, and one of the nights we spent just talking about music and memories and such.

At one point my Mom started talking about her first husband’s (the father of all my siblings) favourite songs while they were dating. The fact that she remembered this one detail was astounding to me. Anyway, she went on to say it was “Hurt” by Timi Yuro. Again, I was a bit amazed but didn’t make a connection right away. That is, until my sister said “Go on limewire and see if you can download it.”

So I logged on and found it, but didn’t say anything until it was finished. Then I said “Ready?” and hit play. And for a milisecond, a brief moment in time, I could see my Mom brought back *instantly* in time. She closed her eyes and listened – none of us talked. It was obvious she hadn’t heard the song in years, and here it was instantly.

We went on to download and share a bunch of songs that meant important things to us. It was a rather magical evening.

“Hurt” just came up on iTunes. The first word of the song is so brilliant I can’t get over it.

So last Friday Kaybee and I went to Zaphod’s in an attempt to be all lesbian and shit and see the singer Melissa Ferrick. Neither one of us really knows any of her stuff, but she’s got quite the dyke following, so hey, it couldn’t hurt, right?

Well it seems she was supposed to be the opening act for one Luke Doucet. It turns out Melissa couldn’t make it at the last minute, but oh, happy accident! Luke Doucet kicks ass. He’s released three albums to date and writes a kickass blog on his website. I’m not sure which songs I heard him play, but at least a few had to do with his ex-girlfriend Emily.

He’s got this amazing Blues sound that you wouldn’t think could come from a Canadian boy. I’m a convert.

Ah lovely Friday, how I miss you when you’re gone.

I am listening to the random shit that comes up on my ipod (right now “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash) and wishing I had one of those wireless remotes so I wouldn’t have to get up and walk three steps to change the song. That, my friends, is the ultimate in laziness.

I am waiting for my friend O. to show up so we can go for beer. Oh, the exciting life I lead.