Here We Go…My First Blog Post

Some of my first memories as a kid involved standing on a stool in our living room and singing along to my parents’ albums. Or constantly asking my mom, “who’s singing this,” even though I usually knew.

Hell hath no fury like me if I didn’t get at least one CD (ok, ok, it was cassettes then) for every birthday or holiday. My earliest dream was to be Debbie Gibson, but I lacked the talent and/or guts to follow in her footsteps.

When most high school/college kids jump from job to job, I kept my job at the local record store until I was almost done with college. As far as I was concerned, it was the closest I’d ever get to working in the “music business.”

Even after I stopped working “in the music business,” I kept building my CD collection. Lack of funds to buy at least one new album a month was a source of major depression.

Around the time I started living on my own, I started to expand beyond the traditional radio fare and began trying to find “hidden gems.” This lead me to discover Rachael Yamagata, Sara Bareilles (long before “Love Song), and a host of other artists that may not be household names but that have helped form the soundtrack of my life.

Now with music streaming, I kind of feel like my music obsession is on steroids. The problem is, I don’t find many people who are at my level of obsession to share discoveries with.

So that’s where you come in. You are the outlet for my ramblings on music that only a select group of people can appreciate. Here you will find a weekly list of at least 5 songs a week that have struck a cord with me. Most of them will (hopefully) be ones you haven’t heard of, but once and awhile, there will be a Miranda Lambert or Adele song slipped in for good measure.

Quick disclaimer: I am not a music snob. I could be as excited about a Taylor Swfit song as the latest Lumineers. My music taste is all over the map, although most of the discoveries you’ll see here will probably fall into the folk, indie, or Americana genres. You also won’t find the finely tuned critiques you may see in Rolling Stone or other such publications. Honestly, most of the time, I don’t know WHY I love something, I just do.

Please read, enjoy, and share your own discoveries.

To get things started, here are a few of my all-time music discoveries:

Rachael Yamagata “Be Be Your Love”

Like I said, Rachael was one of the first artists I discovered. This one is a little shady because I read about her in Entertainment Weekly, so she must have already had some sort of buzz around her. All they had to say was she was like Fiona Apple, and I was sold. There are several songs of hers I could have chosen, but this is the one that stands out, if for no other reason than it’s one of the best starts to an album I’d ever heard.

Diane Birch — The whole “Bible Belt” album

I can’t pick just one. I love her so much. I discovered her last year, and her music was my summer, along with the next pick. Her song writing is perfection, harkening back to the Carole King days. It was all new to me last summer but yet felt like something I had been listening to forever.

The Wind and the Wave — “It’s a Longer Road to California”

I could recommend their whole “From the Wreckage” album, too, but I don’t want to make that a habit! This song is the one I go back to more than any, so it’s my pick. This band has a laid back sound that is perfect for summer and was in constant rotation with Diane Birch last summer.

Ray LaMontagne- “Burn”

Ray has become somewhat known as a soulful singer-songwriter, but when his first album “Trouble” came out, I feel like he was relatively unknown. I’ve lost a little interest in him since his more psychedelic “Supernova,” but this gem off his first album and is amazing. This is one of the most gut wrenching, heartbreaking songs I’ve ever heard, but it’s so good, I can’t help but love it.

Sara Bareilles — “Undertow”

Ok, sure everyone knows her now, but when I first heard and fell in love with “Love on the Rocks” at a Borders’ listening station, I was the only one I knew who had heard of her. This is a song you may not know from her, off her debut album (the one BEFORE “Little Voice”). It’s a great torch-singer kind of song that I love to sing along to.

So there you have it. If you check these songs out, let me know what you think!