Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 June 2005 22:14:15
So it's music this time. This one was really difficult, and here's the (not at all definitive) list (subject to considerable change of course!).
Total volume of music on your computer:
Like Tractor Girl, I haven't a clue. I wouldn't have the first idea how to download an MP3 (or whatever it is the youngsters are doing these days).
The last album you purchased was:
Oi Va Voi "Laughter Through Tears". I didn't think all that much of the music at Greenbelt last year, but I did enjoy these guys, and the clarinettist was fantastic. There's not enough clarinet on the album though, and I think they're better live, but I do still like this and it's quite different from anything else in my collection.
Song playing right now:
"The Daughter of Megan" by Kate Rusby (from "Underneath the Stars"). One of my favourite singers, and unlike last year's musically disappointing Greenbelt, she was the definite musical highlight from the year before.
Seven songs you've been listening to a lot recently, from several genres:
Actually, "a lot" is probably a bit of an exaggeration, but these are some that have been played more than most over the last little while:
* Gipsy Kings "Tu Quieres Volver" (From "Volare! The Very Best of"). No idea what it's about, but it always conjures up a warm evening sipping wine somewhere in the Med, listening to the waves lapping and looking at the stars. Transports me out of Brockley every time.
* Tracy Chapman "The Promise" (from "New Beginning"). A beautiful love song, but kind of tortured as well, as only she can do. One for my more morose, sentimental or hopeful moments.
* Any song from Capercaillie "Live in Concert". To get me in the mood for heading UpNorth.
* Eden's Bridge "Morning Prayer" (from "The Best of Celtic Praise & Worship Vol 1"). I'm not that into P&W music these days, and often find the Celtic stuff a bit cloying, but this song is beautiful and it always makes me stop and listen (whereas I carry on doing whatever it is I'm doing with the rest of the songs). The words are at the end of this post.
* Joss Stone "Right to be Wrong" (From "Mind, Body and Soul"). I like the whole album, but this song in particular resonates a lot, especially with the therapy and all that.
* Monteverdi "Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610" - I came to early music very late (despite being classically trained - because I'm a clarinettist I basically never got to play anything decent earlier than Mozart and wasn't that interested in stuff I couldn't play), but find this always really calming and pointing towards something beyond myself.
* Emmylou Harris "Green Pastures" (from "Down from the Mountain" soundtrack - the live concert by the musicians on the "O Brother Where Art Thou?" soundtrack). OK, maybe token country gospel for the purposes of another genre for this list, but it's country gospel at its very best.
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Morning Prayer (by Eden's Bridge)
Lord, I give you this day.
Lord, I offer the best and the worst of my life.
And the shine of your glory is
Never so much as a moment away.
Lord, I give you this day,
For without you my load is too heavy to bear,
And each road and each footpath
Traverse the high mountain if you are not there.
This is your day.
Lord, I give you this day,
From the greatest to humblest of all that I do.
Be my friend and my shield,
My protector, my father, my comforter spirit,
My brother and guide.
Lord I give you this day,
Whether sleeping or waking I long for your love.
At the birth and the death,
At the dawning and dusk, at beginning and end,
Lord, be here in my day and my living.
This is your day.