Category Archives: Music

Five Favorites: Irish Folk Songs

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Five Favorites

Here’s another foray into my eclectic tastes in music!

One

“I’ll Tell Me Ma” by Van Morrison and the Chieftains. This is the song that spawned my search for Irish music on YouTube this weekend. My parents have the album on both CD and cassette tape so I grew up with it. Doing a search on just the song “I’ll Tell Me Ma” led me to several other groups.

Two

“Star of the County Down” by Orthodox Celts. A Serbian band singing Irish and Scottish ballads — I love the harmonies which remind me of Eastern Orthodox church music. This is also a favorite tune of mine.

Three

“Rocky Road to Dublin” by the High Kings. Apparently, I was under a rock 5 years ago (or living in Montana) when these boys burst onto the folk scene. They’ve got a pedigree for folk music — one is the son of one of the Clancy Brothers and two performed in Riverdance in addition to being on Broadway. Yet another has toured with other bands. I love their version of this song.

Contrast this with the version that the Rolling Stones did with the Chieftains which has some riffs of “Satisfaction” in it.

Four

“The Little Beggarman” by the High Kings. I love the puirt à beul (“mouth singing” — it’s kind of scat-singing in jazz) and the little bits of choreography in this one.

Five

“Marie’s Wedding” by the High King. More lovely puirt à beul in this one and I love that they’re doing it conversationally in the beginning. You also get to hear the individual voices which is another wonderful thing about their version.

Here’s the Chieftains version with Van Morrison.

Go love up Hallie.

7 Quick Takes: Laptop Update, Folk Music, and 49’ers Fan Schtuff

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

My friend Tim. So how many of you saw the viral video in which a pastor who was a 49’ers fan did an “abbreviated service” this past Sunday? Yeah, he is actually a former colleague of ours from our days in Montana and he is a heckuva guy. He and his wife hosted us several times when we were splitting our time between Great Falls and home when Daniel was in the NICU as well as visiting me in the hospital. He is a native northern Californian who was transplanted to Montana for ministry and is a rabid fan of all the Bay Area sports teams, especially the Giants. (I swear… I can hear him watching the game all the way from Montana when they play.) I miss him, his wife Sandy, and their son John very much.

And yes, he *did* go back and do a REAL worship service after this was filmed.

— 2 —

OMG NCIS!!!!! I got seriously verklempt at the end of NCIS this week. Why? It wasn’t because Delilah was paralyzed after her accident. It was the scene where McGee calls Gibbs down to the hospital and asks if he can sit with him. Gibbs comes down and goes and sits with Tim as a way to lend him some support. I remember the people who came to be with me in the hospital when I’ve had surgery or when Daniel has been in the NICU/PICU/peds ward. They didn’t have to say beautiful words of wisdom or advice — all I really needed was for them to sit with me and hold my hand. It is really hard to communicate just how much their presence meant to me even if they just sat there quietly with me.

— 3 —

Speaking of the 49’ers… We have a bit of a family war going on at the moment because my extended family is mostly in western Washington and of course, I’m down here in northern California. I predict amusing status updates this weekend. I feel sorry (but not all that much) for my evil twin — his wife is a Green Bay fan, his cat is a Panthers fan, and he lives in Seahawk territory. He commented that it’s impossible to watch football right now without pissing anyone off.

— 4 —

The Boxer. I think I’ve posted this before but it’s a video of Allison Krauss and Shawn Colvin doing a cover of “The Boxer” from a concert honoring Paul Simon. It’s one of my favorite Simon & Garfunkel songs and it’s nice to have a recording that I can sing along with in my specific register. (Not that I was doing this at 2 a.m. or anything…)

— 5 —

Also a fan of this one… This is “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” from a Bob Dylan tribute concert 20 years ago. There are others I like from this particular concert (Tracy Chapman singing “The Times They Are A-Changin'” for example) but this particular one fit with the Shawn Colvin theme of the last Quick Take.

Aw heck… here’s Tracy. I love her performance because she doesn’t embellish anything in the song and her bluesy voice just fits perfectly.

— 6 —

Last video, I promise. I’m listening to Simon and Garfunkel as I blog this.

— 7 —

Orphans. Do you see these darling children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and their dossier has been submitted to her country.

— Bonus —

Update on the laptop. I received the hard drive from my old laptop in the mail on Tuesday. I was WTFing until my mom pointed out that this was not a bad thing in case my backup on my external hard drive is messed up. I got ahold of my case manager at HP yesterday and he told me that the ETA for the build of my new laptop is January 24th and he’s getting it shipped to me 2nd Day Air so I’ll get it on the 26th. *sigh* It means sharing a Macbook with Jon for another week or so but I’m getting a new laptop out of it so I shouldn’t complain… too much. #stillwhining #firstworldproblems

Pray for Jon. I’m not the easiest person to live with when I’m going through laptop withdrawal symptoms.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Concert Report and Scrooge Sighting

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Kym here again, and yes, this is after Jen has returned. I’ve been meaning to write this all week, and time has not permitted until now.

First the Scrooge(s) sighting. Dean and I were downtown Sacramento, literally across the street from the capitol building for a concert last week. It was Saturday, December 28. Now I realize it was after Christmas, but only by a few days. There was not one “holiday” light, no tree, no nothing at the capitol building. Nada. While our state government might have been trying to impress all of us with how much they are saving by not lighting Christmas lights, knowing how they are, I think it is much more likely that we are surrounded by grinches and scrooges. Jerks.

Anyway, on to the concert report. We saw Straight No Chaser. It was a fabulous show. I’ve liked them for a couple of years, and Dean was willing to go with me, and we both had a good time. The first half was not Christmas music, but all kinds of other things – some medleys, some fun stuff, and silliness throughout. The second half was all Christmas, which was delightful. The audience was laughing the whole time, both at the music and at the shenanigans happening on stage.

During the intermission I was able to get a couple of CDs and a t-shirt. My very first concert t-shirt ever! They definitely know their fanbase (fat middle aged women) because they had shirts in my size (3X) and in purple. After the show, I got one of the CD jackets signed by all the guys. It was terrific. If you get a chance to see them, I highly recommend it.

I’d had my hair and makeup done, since this was a big date night for the two of us, and I’d been gifted with a hair/makeup certificate at a local salon. So I looked good. I felt good. And this turned out to be very important because we bumped into an ex of mine. I was able to have the attitude of “see what you missed out on?” It is kind of fun to be able to gloat that way. When the ex tried to invite himself to dinner with Dean and I, I told him it was a special date night for us. And it was – but while we were at dinner, we figured out that it was an extra special date. 13 years ago last Saturday night was the first time Dean and I met IRL. We’d been emailing and talking for months, but that date was the first face time we’d had.

Oh, and the concert was at The Crest Theater, one of the first movie palaces built in Sacramento. The architecture and decor were amazing. I took some pictures, but they didn’t come out well.

Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome back Jen.

7 Quick Takes: Favorite Christmas Songs

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7 Quick Takes

Why yes, I am aware that we have one more Sunday of Advent before Christmas starts. 🙂 I am usually teh Scrooge at this time of year because Christmas is a religious holiday for me, and I’m not amused at the secular celebration of it.

— 1 —

“2000 Decembers Ago” sung by Joy Williams. I first heard this on KLOVE yesterday while waiting for my prescriptions at Walgreens. (I was in my car in the drive-thru lane — Walgreens isn’t playing anything this religious in their stores.) I love the words and I love the haunting quality of the music.

— 2 —

“Go Tell It On the Mountain” sung by NEEDTOBREATHE. I love this Christmas carol enough to sing along in the car when it plays. (OK… that isn’t a stretch for me — I sing along to everything.) I love the encouragement to tell aloud the news of Christ’s birth. I also have good memories of being on a Christmas train ride 25 years ago when I first heard it.

— 3 —

“The Huron Carol” sung by the Canadian Tenors. I love how this carol combines the Christmas story with elements of Huron culture. It dates back a few hundred years and was written by a French Jesuit priest (St John de Brebeuf, SJ). It’s also one I remember from attending Midnight Mass with my grandfather.

— 4 —

“Gabriel’s Message” by the Good Shepherd Band. This is a Basque carol and I love its haunting quality. The Good Shepherd Band keeps its plainsong sound and there are beautiful harmonies. The instrumentation is fairly minimal and enhances it rather than detracting from it.

— 5 —

“For Unto Us A Child Is Born” from Handel’s Messiah. I sang the Messiah with the San Jose Symphonic Choir for their “You-Sing-It” one during high school and college though this has been one of my favorite choruses since I was a kid. It’s one that I can sing from memory (for both the soprano and alto parts) and it figured into today’s devotion from Our Daily Bread.

— 6 —

“The Rebel Jesus” sung by Jackson Browne. I first heard this song (and this album) in December 1991 (my family is hugely into the Chieftains and we’ve seen them in concert) and it’s been a favorite of mine since then. It brings to light some of the not so sweet aspect of Jesus’ life at a time of the year when his innocence and sweetness as a baby seems to be the focus. It also brings to light the hypocrisy in our giving and our materialism.

— 7 —

Need guest posters. I’m needing to take a blog break for two weeks while my laptop is off at HP being repaired and while I’ll be visiting family. I’d like to have some people guest post during that time so if you’re interested, email me — jen at grace-filled dot net.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

7 Quick Takes: Jeans, Snow, and Advent Music.

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Orphans. Do you see these precious children?

L-R: Brett and Iris
BrettIris

Brett still needs a mama. Iris finally has a family committed to her and their dossier has been submitted to her country.

— 2 —

Because, you know, speaking normal English would defeat the point. My tasoni friend sent me this. I understood and resonated with all the jargon spoken by the blogger about his autistic son and am shaking my head because my people use a whole different set.

— 3 —

Let it snow. We might actually get a trace amount of snow in Sacramento on Friday night. It’s down in the 20’s at night right now which is freaking out a lot of people and making me laugh because the 20’s are a walk in the park compared to some of the temps in Minnesota and Montana when I lived there. (It was -25F in Great Falls this morning according to some of my friends there.) The hard thing for me is that our washer/dryer are in a laundry shed so I’m going to be getting up shortly, putting on fleece, and going out there to sort through clothes and find something for my wee bairn to wear to school tomorrow.

— 4 —

Jeans. Last week, I was getting a pair of my 4 year old jeans from Lands’ End out of the dryer to wear them to the airport to pick up Jon and discovered that they had a massive hole in the rear end. (Thankfully, I discovered this BEFORE I wore them.) I went onto the Kohl’s website to order more, figuring that I wouldn’t be able to go shopping before Black Friday (when I wanted nothing to do with retail) only to find out that Jon was fine with watching Daniel so I could go after his eye appointment the next day. OK… It was too late to cancel the order on the Kohl’s website so I just kept those and went out to shop the next day. End result: 4 pairs of jeans that fit me (after taking them to my seamstress to be hemmed) for less than the cost of 2 pairs of jeans from Lands’ End. I still have one pair of 4 year old jeans from Lands’ End left so I actually have enough pants for a change.

— 5 —

Advent music. My friend Thomas of Fuller Life put together an amazing playlist for Advent.

— 6 —

More Advent music. Bonnie of A Knotted Life has a great playlist as well that she shared a few weeks ago.

— 7 —

Potty-training. I think I should be getting time off of Purgatory for the time I spend potty-training Daniel. We’re on our second shot of it and it’s a headache for me, especially as nothing we try seems to be working. I have his ABA therapists working with me on it and even they are a bit stumped because this is definitely not anything they’re used to (and these are people who have been in the business for a fairly long time). Pray for me.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Five Favorites: Random YouTube Finds

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Five Favorites

After winning NaNoWriMo last night, I was looking around YouTube and found some interesting videos that I thought I would share.

One

Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers — “Will You Go Lassie Go” (Wild Mountain Thyme) This is one of the songs I want sung at my funeral someday, probably during the burial. It feels like a reminder that we will all meet again someday.

Two

Shawn Colvin and Allison Kraus — “The Boxer” I think they do a good job covering Simon & Garfunkel’s song “The Boxer” in a bluegrass style. I’m singing along with it as we speak!

Three

The Irish Rovers — “The Unicorn Song” My parents have a record (you know, those big black CD’s) with this song on it. I remember it my early childhood 30 years ago.

Four

Tracy Chapman — “The Times They Are A Changin'” Why yes, I am a hippie. Why do you ask? 🙂 My parents have this particular CD and this is one of my favorite tracks from it so I was amused when it came up as something I might want to try on YouTube.

Five

The Byrds — “Paths of Victory” Um yeah… I kind of stole borrowed this CD from my parents and this is one of my favorite tracks. I’m under the opinion that Bob Dylan songs sound best when sung by someone other than him. (Sorry Bob, you sound like a goat in heat!)

Go love up Hallie and wish her a happy Thanksgiving.

7 Quick Takes: 7 Things About Me

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7 Quick Takes

I was at a funeral today and was gone for 12 hours straight. (Thank God I built a cushion of time into my plans because it took 4.5 hours to get from where I live to Aptos for the funeral because of traffic.) There’s been a meme going around Facebook where you like someone’s status and they give you a number. You then have to come up with that number of things about yourself that nobody supposedly knows. I’m exhausted from being on the road since 6:30 so I’ll just do 7 of these for my Quick Takes.

— 1 —

I have a serious fear of dogs. There was a dog in the neighborhood who used to try and attack everyone going by its house. Additionally, I hate the smell of dogs. Give me cats any day!

— 2 —

I love the smell of ground coffee but hate the taste. I can’t drink my coffee black. I also can’t do hot espresso like lattés because the hot milk irritates my lactose intolerance. I can do iced lattés made with whole milk and with a few pumps of vanilla syrup.

— 3 —

I took 8 years of piano lessons. I haven’t played actively since college and haven’t accompanied worship since seminary other than a couple Taizé pieces for the Maundy Thursday service at Jon’s first call in Minnesota.

— 4 —

I taught myself to read when I was 3. We had a word book and I somehow figured it all out. I used to read stuff to my preschool class.

— 5 —

I used to write “books” when I was 5 and 6 years old. My mom still has a few of them. They aren’t anything incredibly amazing — just simple little stories I could write with my spelling words.

— 6 —

I have no sense of rhythm. I’m not kidding. My piano teacher used to yell at me about it frequently. I can’t clap well to songs at all either.

— 7 —

My first vocal solo was part of “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” by Bach. Technically, it was a trio with me singing soprano. I had a fear of singing solos and my teacher just randomly asked me to do it. Once I realized I could do it, I was somewhat unstoppable.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.