SHOWS THIS WEEKEND:
Thursday 2/15 Hops & Barley’s in Mechanicsburg, PA 6:30-9:30pm
Friday 2/16 Republican Club in Hanover, PA 7-10pm
Saturday 2/17 Buddy Boy Winery in Duncannon, PA 6-9pm
THURSDAY THOUGHTS…..
Music is so important. Could you imagine never slow dancing with a person you love, ever? Or never banging your head and throwing horns at a metal concert, or having a completely silent workout at the gym? It’s incredible the amount of places music is found when you pay attention. It reaches across cultures, continents, and connects people through a bond of rhythmic vibrations. Sometimes it just helps you pass a couple minutes at the gas pump. I find it really fascinating that people can have such wildly different tastes in music, except that everyone hates country….. Just kidding. The fact that there are so many different genres of music really goes to show that there isn’t just a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to things you connect with.
Some people love deep and meaningful lyrics, others may just want to dance or jam out to a funky bass line. Sometimes it’s more about the way you “feel” when you hear a song then the actual words being said. As for me, I try to listen and expose myself to every genre I can find. I like some more than others, but I’ve come to learn they all seem to serve different purposes for me. When I write the outlines for my blog posts or podcasts, I listen to bands like Khruangbin or Skinshape. They have groovy bass, flowing melodies, haunting vocals and tons of reverb. It’s perfect for putting me in the zone for writing. The songs seem to make the words in my head flow straight down into my fingers.
Rock music makes me bang my bald head back and forth, whipping my imaginary hair to and fro while shouting out lyrics at the top of my lungs. It’s high energy and aggressive tendencies are perfect for my days at the gym, or the drive home from some of the gigs I play. It makes me want to break shit and then break it again. Prior to Covid, I used to go see my friend Andy’s band, Adrian Blitzer, play shows here in Central PA. They’d do Deftones, Staind, House of Pain, and a bunch of other cool stuff. They had tons of energy and we were all completely exhausted by the end of their shows. It was a great release of pent up frustrations with the everyday world. I really miss those days.
Country music is what I grew up on, especially the 90s country that holds a special spot in so many of my memories. Those songs transport me back to the back of pickup trucks, or the hot front porch of a friends house. They take me to summer camps and sleepovers. The country of today doesn’t hold the same place in my memory box, so I don’t really connect with it as much. Music is all about feeling for me, and I just can’t feel shallow lyrics and boxed beats. Unfortunately, that’s what I find most commercial country to be now. Every once in a while I’ll hear a Zach Bryan song that I can listen to, but I definitely lean towards artists like Tyler Childers or Johnny Cash for my country fix when I need to hear some good old fashioned truth singing. Country music for me goes well with a cold beer, in a kayak, on a lake.
In my teenage years, I listened to hip hop and rap because I really identified with it’s message. Rap originated from oppressed people. People that were cast aside and forgotten about. My family was poor. We had enough to get by, but that was all we really ever did. The four of us lived in the same 2 bedroom second floor apartment my entire childhood, and I wore hand-me-downs from my older brother and ate government cheese. My parents didn’t get along, and I was always getting chased around by the police. I saw other people that had a much better life than we did, and I wondered why they deserved it. I felt the struggle, even in my all white, low crime suburb in Central PA. My brother and I both got into trouble as a way of standing out as something other than the poor kids at school. I stole my parents minivan when I was 13 and took it on a 105 mile round trip to go joy riding with my cousin Big T and some of my closest friends, only to blow up the transmission 15 miles from home. Want to know what was playing on the stereo? Tupac’s Don Killuminati Album. I did burnouts to Hail Mary, and put it on 2 wheels to Me and my girlfriend. Every time I hear that album it takes me back there.
Reggae showed up as I was beginning to lose interest in hip hop. I started getting tattooed on a regular basis, and my tattoo artist would always be listening to Sublime. I’ve always been into the weed culture types of things, and Sublime’s crazy lyrics and funky ass bass lines made it easier to sit in the tattoo chair for long stretches. Every time I hear a sublime song I think of the hours I spent getting inked to their music. Just about 5 years ago, I met my friend Brandon Fulk, and he introduced me to the band Stick Figure. Stick Figure is an American reggae band out of California. They play Cali-Style Reggae, along with other groups such as The Elovaters, Fortunate Youth, and Slightly Stoopid. This is my go-to kind of music for car trips in warm weather, or any weekends spent gigging at the beach. It’s a high vibe, full chill genre of music that makes up 3/4 of my playlist at any time.
The last genre I want to hit on is Americana. Artists like Jason Isbell, Donovan Woods, and The Lumineers paint beautiful pictures for you to gaze upon with just their lyrics. Their voices are smooth but weathered, and the way the instruments are played with just the right force to convey their message is an art. When I listen to “Elephant” by Jason Isbell, it makes me angry that cancer ruins lives. That it takes away the ones we love, a lot of the time before they even die. When I listen to “Good Lover” by Donovan woods, it reminds me of all the times I had settled for what I thought was love before I met my current girlfriend, Steph. I get why people say that phrase now, that they didn’t know what love was until they met ______. Americana songs express life in ways that only they can.
I could go on forever about music, but I’ll save that for another episode. I would love to hear some songs that you love and what memories you associate them with. What songs take you back? What is an artists I should know about? What does music do for you?
Thanks for listening or reading, and if you’re coming to the shows this weekend, I’ll see you there!