"Lucky" Seven

Thanks for thinking of me, Steeljaw Scribe, but are you trying to embarrass me or something?!

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal/blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

I cringe at the thought of answering this meme because my musical life recently has been so homogenous as to be embarrassing. It all started when cowboy Bloodspite introduced me to a particular song by George Strait. I liked the song so much I decided to explore the rest of Strait's music and soon found I liked a lot of his other songs, too.

I'd always enjoyed the lyrics of country music--from Red Neck Yacht Club and I Can't See Texas from Here to patriotic songs, love songs and story songs. The problem is that most of the country-pop/country-rock music that seemed to usually accompany the great lyrics grated on my classically-trained musical nerves. But most of George Strait's stuff appeals to both my intellect and my love of traditional folk music. So I've been living on a steady diet of George Strait, branching out into Randy Travis and dipping my toe into other untested waters.

Right now I'm still methodically exploring Strait, though. So, the list's a bit one-dimensional. I could pretty much just send you to this and you'd have the list of my recent favorite songs.

1. Let's Fall to Pieces Together - How can you not be charmed by a song that starts with "Pardon me, you left your tears on the jukebox, and I'm afraid they got mixed up with mine," and then moves on to...

I don't mean to pry
It's just that I noticed you
Goin' out of your mind
It looks like we're two of a kind

Let's fall to pieces together
Why should we both fall apart
Let's fall to pieces together
Right here in each other's arms

Alone is much better together...

Sweet, witty and eye-rolling, all in one. And nice harmonies, too.

2. One Night at a Time - It's a bit of a throw-away but it's sexy. And it's got some nice instrumental solos, too.

3. Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart - Heart-breaking song about a man trying to put his marriage back together after his infidelity. I'm not crazy about the music, but the line "I feel like a stone you have picked up and thrown to the hard rock bottom of your heart" has really stuck with me.

4. You Know Me Better Than That - Funny lyrics. And the music's fun, too.

But you know me better than that.
You know the me that gets lazy and fat.
How moody I can be, all my insecurities.
You've seen me lose all my charm, you know I was raised on a farm.
Oh, she tells her friends I'm perfect and that I love her cat,
But you know me better than that.

5. I Just Want to Dance with You - This one bucks the trend of great lyrics. Some of the lines are rather facile and even a bit non-sensical, but the refrain, sung superbly by Strait and combined with the lilting, dipping melody line of the verses just appeals to me. I love the innocent sweetness of it, how the music effortlessly conjurs up images of being gently swept around the dance floor in somebody's arms.

6. Diggin' Up Bones - More great lyrics. The harmonies and backup singers touch on some vague emotional memory that I can't quite identify. Perhaps the feelings and sounds of small rural churches in southern Maryland and Indiana...

7. Forever and Ever, Amen - Randy Travis' voice may end up just being too nasal for my tastes, but I can't resist lines that take me back to my childhood in the farming country of the Delmarva peninsula like, "As long as old men sit & talk about the weather, as long as old women sit & talk about old men." And then there's this...

They say that time takes it's toll on a body
Makes the young girls brown hair turn grey
But honey, I don't care, I'm not in love with your hair
And if it all fell out, well, I'd love you anyway

They say that time can play tricks on a memory
And people forget things that they knew
But it's easy to see it's happening to me
I've already forgotten every woman but you

Yup, I'm a hopeless sap. Be kind.

********

And for tagging, I'll send you over to:

Cassandra - She has far more interesting musical tastes
AFSis - I don't have a clue what she likes
Bloodspite - He needs something light to blog about
Major Pain - Should be interesting
Barb - She's been a lazy blogger
Sgt. B - He's been lazy, too
AWTM - Probably has some kids' songs on the list

Update: Major Pain (previously known as Cpt. B) has replied. Apparently his blog is tag-proof and his answer rebounded into comments below.

Ok you got me but my site is tag proof and whatever you send me bounces off and sticks to you!! So here it is. I like all kinds of tunes so I thought I would post them here for you to get the full affect!! (in no particular order)

• Anything from Nickelback (gearing up to get some)
• Suspicious Minds (The King- anytime music, really good in the middle of Iraq)
• The Lady Is A Tramp (Frankie “Blue Eyes” Sinatra or Michael Buble, good to smoke stoags to)
• One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer (George Thorogood, "On the road" music)
• Anything from Stevie Ray Vaughn ("On the road" music)
• Crazy (Gnarls Barkley, good song for…………um you know)
• Joe Satriani (listen to it and you tell me)
• Honorable Mention: Any George Strait (I helped his roadies set up a stage one day……that’s a whole other story though)
• Honorable Mention #2: Any Toby Keith (he signed a flag for us and so we played his “Taliban Song” from a PsyOps vehicle during an attack, again a whole other story!!!)