Melissa Stark is on my television. Suddenly, being awake before 7 AM on a Sunday doesn’t suck.
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| Gaze at the wonder that is a hot dork. |
One of my ten favorite things about 2015 has been the music.
From the time five year old Rudy was able to put a needle onto vinyl and commit the lyrics to Fame to memory, I have been a music nut. Music made me feel things I couldn’t articulate. Alive. Bigger than my body. Acutely aware that I am every bit as big as the world I inhabit.
Somewhere along the way, five year old Rudy woke up and was 42. Being the ultimate answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is all fine and good but, I wasn’t quite as passionate as I once was about music. It wasn’t music, it was me.
Then I got on a boat.
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| And fell in love with a violin player. |
For three days I was surrounded by music. Music I already knew and fell more deeply in love with and, music I had never heard but, suddenly couldn’t get enough of.
There was the tiny girl who bragged about her brother’s band. There was the shy girl who now sends me a new song every week. There were artists huge and small. There was music on a beach.
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| If you ever wonder what sheer, unbridled joy looks like just come back to this picture. |
I got off the boat and haven’t been able to consume enough music in the time since.
My favorite musical discovery was Ben Marwood Emily Barker Skinny Lister Jeffrey Lewis …
It’s been that kind of awesomeness this year.
I got off the boat and devoured everything on Ben’s website. That lead me to this amazing Ben Marwood video:
Which made me fall in love with Ben Marwood. Which lead me to devour everything I could find of his. He… I… just so fucking good.
Meanwhile, the same photographer did a book for a girl named Emily so we bought her record and my ear holes have never been the same. Emily Barker is the single greatest voice I have ever heard. My favorite voice. Ever. There might be better songwriters, singers, performers, whatever. But that fucking voice is untouchable.
