On Our Way To Crazy

In honor of the three month and nineteen day anniversary of my 30th birthday (yes, I am still talking about it, and, no, I have not done anything new from my list, so don’t ask), I present this installment of Friday Mixtape.

One of my favorite people gave me a mix CD (well, technically, a mix flash drive) that I literally have not stopped listening to since I got it. I am not exaggerating when I say I listen to at least part of this thing every single day. These are my current favorites.

“Dark Hotel” by KS Rhoades

This song knocked me flat over the first time I heard it. I love everything about it: his voice, the strings and percussion, the way it turns into a whole different song about three-fourths of the way through. And they lyrics are beautiful. I was so mad when I realized he’s a local Nashville guy who I could have been stalking for years.

“Pink Champagne” by Lovedrug

I love the chorus of this one. Sorry this video is so boring. I couldn’t find a live one that had good sound and didn’t feel like you were watching Blair Witch.

“Holding Us Back” by Katie Herzig

I know that I’m late to the Katie Herzig party. It’s one of those things that I can’t believe I missed, seeing as how her music is so perfect for me and my tastes. This song is simple, stripped down, and absolutely gorgeous. I will not be apologizing for this video… I learned from youtube today that this song was in the Grey’s Anatomy finale and all the videos I could find were interspersed with clips of Derek and Meredith. You should be thanking me for sparing you that.

In honor of the super awesome Brooks & Dunn concert we went to last night, today’s Friday Mixtape has a theme very close to my heart – late 80s/early 90s country music.

When I was growing up, every Sunday morning we ate a big breakfast while we listened to America’s Country Countdown on the stereo. My mom would play air piano, my dad would eat his eggs around the guitar he had in his lap as he worked on picking out the solos, my sister and I would try to sing all the words to “Ain’t Goin’ Down Til the Sun Comes Up”. I learned two very important lessons at that table: that white gravy goes on scrambled eggs and pop country is NOT real country. They were true in 1993, and they are true today.

This one makes me laugh. My grandparents moved to St. Louis when I was in elementary school, and one time, either when they were visiting or right before they left, my (15) cousins and I decided to put on a show for them. One of them decided that we should sing this song to them, but change the lyrics to “I’ve got friends in HIGH places” because St. Louis is further north than Dallas. I don’t know how my 10-year-old self knew that ‘low places’ meant ‘bars’, but I knew enough to know that we didn’t need to sing that song to our grandparents.

Garth Brooks – Friends in Low Places (Live in Central Park N.Y.)

bear420 | MySpace Video

Oh, man, you guys. This is a favorite favorite favorite. My mom is a HUGE Steve Wariner fan. I’m pretty sure I’ve known the words to this song my entire life.

I know it’s almost cheating to include this song. I KNOW. Surely I can think of something a little less obvious, right? But I can’t help it. It is SO AWESOME. And the video is amazing. It has to be shared.

I am always trying to find new music. Always always always. Pandora radio is pretty much the best thing that ever happened to me, except for the part where it keeps making me want to spend money on singles. Lots and lots of money.

Maggie has a feature on her blog every Friday called Friday Mixtape. I love it – there’s always a couple of songs I already know and a ton of stuff I’ve never heard of. So I thought I would offer the same service to you. I can share what I’m listening to and keep track of what I find. AND you can tell me what you’re listening to as well. Let’s make my ‘songs to buy’ way longer.

This week’s theme, apparently, is male/female faithy duets. That was an accident. But these songs are amazing.

“All the Poor and Powerless” by Sons & Daughters
Sons & Daughters is David Leonard and Leslie Jordan. David is a friend of ours… he was the lead singer of Jackson Waters, a band Aaron worked with for a few years a while back. He is amazingly, amazingly talented, and this is his new project. It is so beautiful it hurts me, y’all. So good. You can download this song for free here, and I suggest you do that immediately.

“Mercy” by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors
Did you guys watch Parenthood this year? We totally got sucked into it. Anyway, they had really great music on that show, and we spent a lot of time googling to find out what the songs were. That’s how I found Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors. Turns out he’s a Nashville guy and they play around town all the time. We haven’t made it to a show yet, but I did buy his “A Million Miles Away” record, which is how I found this song. They also have an ep available for free on Noisetrade.

“Falling” by The Civil Wars
I know this one is old news to most of you. But it is one of my favorites AND it fits the theme. So we’re rolling with it.

TEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LAST NIGHT’S SWELL SEASON SHOW AT THE RYMAN

1. I should probably say my job, or our friends, or Aaron’s business… but the real reason I could never move away from Nashville is that I would no longer be able to go to a show at the Ryman anytime I want. I LOVE THE RYMAN. I love climbing the freakishly steep stairs to the balcony, I love the stained glass, I love the displays of country music memorabilia everywhere. I don’t think I could go back to seeing shows in regular old places.
2. We didn’t know anything about the opener, Justin Townes Earle, so we didn’t make much of an effort to get there in time to see him. We walked in halfway through his set and I was instantly upset about that decision. Justin Townes Earle is VERY COOL. He has this kind of old-time-rock-and-roll Buddy Holly rockabilly thing going on. I loved it.
3. I did not, however, totally love his bass player. I mean, I did love her, because she was a she and she totally rocked the stand-up bass. Which is awesome. But I think she may have also been violating it a little bit. She was very enthusiastic, is what I’m saying. And it was kind of awkward from our point of view on the side balcony.
4. But! Our seats! They were fabulous! I am pretty sold on the idea that far stage left balcony is the best place to sit at the Ryman. You are in the balcony, so you can see everything and the sound is great and you don’t have some giant hipstery fedora head blocking your view. And on the side, you’re super close to the stage. AND we were on the second row. It ruled.
5. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova came out and were completely charming, as per usual. They opened with “If You Want Me” from the Once soundtrack, Marketa in the lead, but from then on it was pretty much the Glen show. Not that I’m complaining. We heard a couple of repeat stories from the Kentucky show a couple of years ago, he was hilarious and adorable, she was sweet and gorgeous, it was all awesome.
6. Then he compared himself to Ray Boltz. Yes, you read that correctly. Instead of actually telling you the story, I will tell you this: it included the line “Jesus doesn’t hate me anymore” and was used to introduce a song called “Backbroke”. You can’t make this stuff up, people.
7. About halfway through the show I had to go to the bathroom. I hate leaving during shows – there is always the fear they will play that ONE SONG that you will just DIE if you miss it – but it could not be helped. They started a song I didn’t know and I made a run for it. (Not literally. At least, not yet.) While in the restroom (that has awesome tiled flowers on the floor, by the way), I heard it. IT. Into the Mystic. They were doing their cover of Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” and I WAS IN THE BATHROOM. Are you kidding me. I hightailed it out of there (that’s where the running came in) and made it back into the room for the first chorus. Augh.
8. They spent a lot of time talking about Ireland and the music they grew up with. At one point the whole band left the stage except for the violin player, who pulled a bit of an Andrew Bird and built a song with pedals and loops and magic and rainbows and then proceeded to play one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard. I wish I had written down the name. It hurt me, it was so good.
9. Can we talk about encores for a minute? I have discussed in the past how much I dislike the way they are handled. I will spare you that rant. (Spoiler alert – I have a new rant.) Here’s the question: how long is an encore? Where should it fall in the show? Because last night, and at several shows we’ve seen lately, it’s been pretty much right in the middle. As in, the encore is as long as the set. What is that? After the fakeout, Glen came out alone and played “Say It To Me Now” acoustic and unplugged on the side of the stage. It was incredible. He then transitioned into a cover of Hank Williams’ “Lost Highway”. Killer. Beautiful. Amazing. The perfect end to a show in Nashville. And then the band came back and they played a whole nother set. I do not understand.
10. I love this band. Love love love them. They’d kind of fallen off my radaar, but I am so glad we went to this show. It was wonderful and sweet and charming and awesome. Good night and joy be with you all.

There are a lot of four-minute time frames in our lives. The four minutes it takes to check out at the convenience store. The four minutes it takes to microwave some soup. The four minutes you spend waiting for the light you missed because the person in front of you didn’t pull out into the intersection on green. The four minutes it takes for your stupid DVR that has never been the same since it got hooked up to the new TV two years ago to warm up and respond to the remote.

All of those four minutes are worth it, though. Because, sometimes, you get to spend four minutes sitting in the balcony of the Ryman listening to David Gray sing “Shine” with just his voice and an acoustic guitar.

I don’t know what else I can say about David Gray. We love him. Love love love him. His music has been the soundtrack of our entire relationship. We’ve probably seen him play ten times. This show was great, as usual. He played a good mix of old and new, and he played a ton of our favorites. But instead of giving you the play by play, I am going to give you lyrics. Because it’s National Poetry Month, and Kari reminded me that lyrics count as poetry, and he writes beautiful ones.

(via @haleybragg)

From “The Other Side”:

I know it would be outrageous
To come on all courageous
And offer you my hand
To pull you up on to dry land
When all I got is sinking sand
That trick ain’t worth the time it buys
I’m sick of hearing my own lies
And love’s a raven when it flies

From “Silver Lining”, which is totally gorgeous AND was covered by Bonnie Raitt, hello perfect Brandi song:

We were born with our eyes wide open
So alive with wild hope
Now can you tell me why
Time after time
They drag you down
Down in the darkness deep
Fools in their madness all around
Know that the light don’t sleep

(via @blusanders)

He writes a lot of dark songs, for sure, but it’s his love songs that really get me. I try, as a general rule, to not be cheesy. But he kills me.

From “Be Mine”:

And maybe when your heart and soul are burning
You might see
That everytime I’m talking with you
It’s always over too soon
That everyday feels so incomplete
Till you walk into the room
Say the word now girl I’ll jump that moon

From “Please Forgive Me”:

Please forgive me
If I act a little strange
For I know not what I do.
Feels like lightning running through my veins
Every time I look at you
Every time I look at you

Help me out here
All my words are falling short
And there’s so much I want to say
Want to tell you just how good it feels
When you look at me that way
When you look at me that way

And the all-time favorite, “Shine”. You guys. This song makes me cry every. single. time.

For all that we struggle, for all we pretend
It don’t come down to nothing
Except love in the end
And ours is a road that is strewn with goodbyes
But as it unfolds
As it all unwinds
Remember your soul is the one thing
You just can’t compromise
Take my hand
We’re gonna go where we can shine

(via @jonnydicus)

There are a lot of imperfect moments in life. But every now and then, sitting in a dark historic auditorium with a bunch of strangers, watching an Irish guy in a fancy suit stand alone on a stage in the dark singing his heart out, you get a perfect one.

I read a lot when I was a kid. Babysitter’s Club, Sleepover Friends, Sweet Valley High, the Wayside School books. But somehow I missed the Anne of Green Gables series. I don’t know how, but I did. And I am kind of mad at everyone I knew in the 80′s for not giving it to me.

I’ve had a copy on my shelf for a while that I picked up at the library sale, an I finally read it a couple of weeks ago. Then I immediately ordered a box set of the first three books on Amazon. I finished those in about five seconds and ordered the rest of them. They are so wonderful. I wish so much that I had known Anne as a child.

I got to spend a few days last week at a youth pastor workshop in Georgia. It was totally free and totally last minute, and it was awesome. Three days at a beautiful retreat center with my own huge room, fancy bathroom, and hours in the evenings with no technology but lots of books. I sat with 40 other people (all guys, of course) who do the same thing I do every day and we talked programming, lesson writing, parent struggles and long-term planning. We ate delicious food and did not judge each other for taking seconds on the apple pie. It was a great, much much needed break and I am so thankful I got to go.

A couple of weeks ago I found myself on a ‘thank you’ kick. I sent notes to people who have gone out of their way for me or the kids recently, I emailed authors of books that touched me, I wrote to a guy who has been really helpful to Aaron lately. Responses have started to trickle in, and it totally makes my day every time. It’s amazing what paying a little attention will do for you.

I don’t want to go to Bonnaroo. I don’t. I know I would be miserable. But it’s hard to see that when I’m looking at a lineup that includes: The Avett Brothers, The Dead Weather, Conan (!), Weezer, Phoenix, LCD Soundsystem, Aziz Ansari, Brandi Carlile, The Punch Brothers, Miranda Lambert, OK Go and Kings of Leon. Seriously, y’all. SERIOUSLY.

Yesterday we took our kids to work on a neighborhood revitalization project near where a lot of them live. It was a really run down part of town that most of them didn’t even know existed. They got to meet the people who live there and do some construction work on a house for a family who is crammed into a one-bedroom apartment right now. They painted, scrubbed, sawed, crawled under the basement, sheetrocked and caulked. I was so impressed by them, as usual.

The other day I was talking to a group of people and I mentioned that, when I eat M&Ms or Skittles, I pour the whole bag out and separate them into colors. THEY FREAKED OUT. Is that really so weird? The separating part? I hadn’t even gotten to the part where I count them and make sure I have the same amount of each color, then eat the extras, then arrange them into some kind of aesthetically-pleasing pattern. I decided to spare them those details for fear they would never speak to me again.

I totally forgot to blog about this! Last month we got to go see Jennifer Knapp open for Todd Snider. JENNIFER KNAPP. TODD SNIDER. Are you familiar with Todd Snider? I had forgotten how awesome he is. It was a great show… he played for a couple of hours and I could have easily listened for a couple more. It was awesome.

My love for Waterdeep is well-documented on this site. I have seen them countless times, all over the country. We had their song in our wedding, my blog title came from another of their songs, etc etc, whatever and ever amen. You would think I would be out of words to say about them, right? How many more ways can I express my love for them? How many times can I write the same blog post?

At least one more, apparently. Because they played a full band show last weekend that BLEW MY MIND. Literally. It’s gone. It was that amazing.

They just keep getting cooler. A lot of the music I loved a decade ago hasn’t held up… I listen to it now and I just don’t see what I saw back then. Or, I go see those bands play their new music and just leave disappointed. Their place for me is in the past. But Waterdeep? Not only could I listen to the old records over and over, but their style and my taste have kept up with each other. I could have walked into that show or listened to the new records with no prior history and fell completely in love. (Sidenote: we brought a friend with us who knew nothing about them and she has not shut up about the awesome for four days.)

It was just a great, straight-up rock show. Loud and big, with massive guitar solos and weird percussion and tracked loops and yelling and a pink glittery guitar. It completely ruled.

They played a lot of new stuff, which I loved, but they also played a ton of old songs. It was like they looked at a list of my favorite Waterdeep tracks and just turned it into the set list. Take a look at this, music fans:

• Everyone’s Beautiful (!)
• I Know the Plans (!!)
• Both Of Us’ll Feel the Blast (Our wedding song! That I requested via twitter!)
• 18 Bullet Holes
• Almost Gone (!!!)
• Wicked Web
• Good Good End
• Sweet River Roll

And then, you guys. THEN. The band left the stage and they did one more as kind of an acoustic encore thing. They were kind of going back and forth about what to play, and I said to our table, “If they play Everybody’s Guilty I am going to have a heart attack right here in this club.” And what did they do? THEY PLAYED EVERYBODY’S GUILTY. Shut the front door.

It was an amazing, amazing show. I was beyond thrilled to be there.

And then it got even more awesome.

A guy we are friends with used to be Waterdeep’s manager a long time ago. He’s a guy Aaron knows through work, and he has been one of my favorite people ever since we met at an industry party and then sat at a table for two hours talking about them. He comes up to us after the show, takes my arm, and says, “Ready?” And drags me over to meet them. I was so excited and so afraid I would so thoroughly embarrass myself that I couldn’t show my face around town anymore.

So we walk up to Lori, he introduces us and we talk for a couple of minutes about the show and the songs they played. And then he told her about how I accidentally stalked them at an open house. She remembered me, thankfully, and even thanked me for saying something because they never get recognized and it makes her happy when people talk to them about their music. So that was good. But I was horrified.

We then met Don and talked to him for a while about the Khrusty Brothers and Remedy Drive. (He writes with them sometimes.) I tried so hard to be cool, y’all. I really did. I just don’t think I have it in me. But even without my complete and total lameness, it was a great night.

The Ballad of Love and Hate by The Avett Brothers

Love writes a letter and sends it to hate.
My vacations ending. I’m coming home late.
The weather was fine and the ocean was great
and I can’t wait to see you again.

Hate reads the letter and throws it away.
“No one here cares if you go or you stay.
I barely even noticed that you were away.
I’ll see you or I won’t, whatever.”

Love sings a song as she sails through the sky.
The water looks bluer through her pretty eyes.
And everyone knows it whenever she flies,
and also when she comes down.

Hate keeps his head up and walks through the street.
Every stranger and drifter he greets.
And shakes hands with every loner he meets
with a serious look on his face.

Love arrives safely with suitcase in tow.
Carrying with her the good things we know.
A reason to live and a reason to grow.
To trust. To hope. To care.

Hate sits alone on the hood of his car.
Without much regard to the moon or the stars.
Lazily killing the last of a jar
of the strongest stuff you can drink.

Love takes a taxi, a young man drives.
As soon as he sees her, hope fills his eyes.
But tears follow after, at the end of the ride,
cause he might never see her again.

Hate gets home lucky to still be alive.
He screams o’er the sidewalk and into the drive.
The clock in the kitchen says 2:55,
And the clock in the kitchen is slow.

Love has been waiting, patient and kind.
Just wanting a phone call or some kind of sign,
That the one that she cares for, who’s out of his mind,
Will make it back safe to her arms.

Hate stumbles forward and leans in the door.
Weary head hung, eyes to the floor.
He says “Love, I’m sorry”, and she says, “What for?
I’m your and that’s it, Whatever.
I should not have been gone for so long.
I’m your’s and that’s it, forever.”

You’re mine and that’s it, forever.

I have never been much of a Bruce Springsteen fan. He wasn’t a big player in the music of my childhood, and I don’t really connect to his working man Jersey persona. I don’t think those things are the problem, though.

I didn’t watch a lot about Sesame Street from when I was a kid. I think I was more of a Mr. Rogers kind of girl. But I do have a very clear memory of the Muppets singing a version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run”. They had changed the title to “Born to Add”, and the verses were about adding one trashcan to two to get three trashcans, then one policeman to three to get four policemen. Groundbreaking stuff.

My parents weren’t big Springsteen fans, so I don’t think I knew the song outside of it’s math-centric version. And now, anytime I hear Bruce Springsteen’s voice, I see a Muppet and hear the addition lyrics. Which is pretty awesome. But it makes it really difficult for me to take him seriously.

Remedy Drive has a song on an Olympics commercial! Aaron knew it was a possibility, but we didn’t know for sure that it was happening until last night when it aired during Saturday Night Live and his phone started blowing up.

So if you see a Budweiser-sponsored ad for the Olympics, probably airing during late night TV, pay special attention. The very first shot is four beers clinking, and the lyrics are “Hope’s not giving up.” SO AWESOME.

We live two blocks from an elementary school. It has a great playground and park area behind it that we have sadly underutilized. But yesterday, on the first nice-ish day we’ve had in ten thousand years, Aaron and I decided it was time to play basketball. OH MY GOSH. It was so much fun. We played all the games and drills we could remember from our high school days – Knockout, Horse, layup and free throw and three-pointer drills. It completely wiped me out but was awesomely fun. We will definitely be back.

Are you guys on the Avett Brothers bandwagon? I have known for a while that it was my kind of thing, but for whatever reason just never took the plunge. Then we had a week full of grey rainy days and I needed new music that was also moody and mellow-ish. Something with feeling. ENTER AVETT BROTHERS. I am now completely obsessed with them. They are just a perfect little band. I love their voices, love their lyrics, love their sound.

They were on Austin City Limits last night. After it was over I rewound it and immediately watched the show again. They are fantastic.

Let’s talk about Parks and Recreation. It is easily my favorite Thursday night show. It has been exponentially more funny than The Office and 30 Rock this season.

We love us some Tom Haverford in this house, so when we saw that Aziz Ansari was doing a comedy special, we immediately set the DVR. That is one funny kid. This clip is from Jimmy Kimmel, but it’s pretty much exactly the way he told the story on the show. It makes me hurt from laughing. Also, slightly dirty. Just FYI.

I know I say this all the time, but I really really really love my job. Church politics and staff stress and personal issues aside, it is outside the scope of my comprehension that I get to do what I do every day. This weekend I got to hang out with college girls who I’ve known since they were in junior high, and with junior highers who say awesome things like “Make peace, don’t, like, not make peace” and who bring their Harry Potter sorting hat pillowcases to class so we can split up into the appropriate teams. Amazing.

Greek starts back up tomorrow! I love my teeny-bopper TV shows.

In my post earlier this week about Jesus Girls, I mentioned briefly that we had to define a spiritual metaphor for our lives in my ordination class. I meant to wind my way back to mine in the context of that post, I really did, but it was getting super wordy and I just couldn’t get there. But I wanted to write it out here, both for you guys and for myself. It always helps to write this stuff down.

The metaphor I used in class was a song. While I have no discernible musical talent of any kind, music has always been a big part of my life. I really like the idea of our faith being a song. It works on several levels: the individual as the songs, unique unto ourselves but also part of a genre or style of music as well as music as a whole; parts of a song like parts of a body, each playing it’s individual role but adding up to something bigger and more beautiful than it can be on it’s own; there is a basic theory and structure to music but within that functionality the form can be whatever you want it to be. Clearly I am feeling the idea that faith is personal and that there’s not one way to do it and if you don’t get it right you are out.

But the concept I like the best is the idea of Jesus being a song to be in tune with. I got the idea from Rob Bell’s Nooma video called “Rhythm”. (You can watch it here.) Here are some key quotes:

“An infinite, massive, kind of invisible God, that’s hard to get our minds around. But truth, mercy, love, grace, justice, compassion – the way Jesus lived… I can see that. I can understand that. I can relate to that. I can play that song.”

“Jesus is like God in taking on flesh and blood, and so in his generosity. In his compassion, that’s what God’s like. In his telling of the truth, that’s what God’s like. In his love, and forgiveness, and sacrifice, that’s what God’s like. That’s who God is. That’s how the song goes.”

I love the idea that when we are truly following Jesus, when our lives most closely resemble his, that we are in tune with the song. It just makes sense to me. It’s the kind of faith I can get behind, the kind I am comfortable teaching my kids to have.

Sorry to be so quote happy today, but I wanted to close this post out with a quote from Sin Boldly, one of my favorite books from last year:

“I have a favorite t-shirt that reads, “Jesus is my mixtape.” When I bought it, I thought its slogan was charmingly quirky, but over time it has acquired this transcendent quality, a motto that sums up my belief that everything – everything – is spiritual. At the center of that everythingness, as a pastor friend of mine likes to describe it, is a universal rhythm, a song we all play, like a giant, motley orchestra. Sometimes in tune, sometimes off-key. We call it by different names. Still, it remains – if only we have ears to hear it – the eternal soundtrack that plays in the background of our lives.”

I like it.