I’m delighted to report that after eleven years of marriage, I still feel like saying “Happy anniversary to me!”
My husband Bill and I were married on a rainy Saturday at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. The date was November 16th, 2002. It was Bill’s second trip down the aisle and my first. It’s hard to believe all that has transpired since that fateful day eleven years ago. For the most part, time has really flown. I love Bill more today than I ever have. Every day, I find new reasons to be glad we found each other. In the spirit of my celebratory mood, I have decided to write a post about the music that has meant a lot to me in my relationship with Bill.
The Ceremony
I will never forget planning our nuptials. It was a stressful time, mainly because for half the time leading up to our wedding, I was finishing graduate school. We were also really broke. Nevertheless, I determined that I would choose music for the wedding that meant a lot to us. Bill and I are both of Celtic descent. I have more Scottish ancestry, while he is very Irish. I wanted our wedding to be kind of Celtic, while it was also military. No one wore a kilt, with the exception of the guy who played the bagpipes during my walk down the aisle. I chose to eschew the usual “Bridal Chorus” in lieu of a beautiful piece called “Highland Cathedral”. “Highland Cathedral” was composed by two Germans in 1985, yet it sounds like it could be an ancient Scottish piece. The first time I heard it, it was 2001 and I was at a kirk’in of the tartans in Columbia, South Carolina. I was moved to tears and determined that I would use that piece in my wedding if I ever got married. Sure enough, I used it to great success.
This is a video I made after Bill and I visited Scotland for our 10th anniversary. I used Phil Coulter’s version of “Highland Cathedral” followed by Amy Grant’s very different version of “Highland Cathedral”.
At my wedding, we had an organist and bagpiper play “Highland Cathedral” together and it sounded something like this…
Other music used in our ceremony were basic hymns. I also had people sing hymns for us, since I am always singing for them!
Love songs
There are quite a few love songs that make me think of my relationship with Bill. Our first dance was to “Someone To Watch Over Me”, a classic Gershwin tune.
Amy Winehouse singing “our song”.
But there are plenty of other mushy songs that make me go weak in the knees when I hear them. For instance, I gave serious thought to us dancing to this song by Lyle Lovett…
It captures my sense of humor, but doesn’t really reflect the truth…
A better song might have been this one by Beth Nielsen Chapman.
“All I Have” is a gorgeous wedding song, but harder to dance to.
My version of Beth Nielsen Chapman’s pretty love song.
Other songs that come to mind are Judy Collins’ version of “In My Life” and Don Henley’s “Taking You Home”, both of which I recorded recently.
Judy Collins singing in 1966.
I covered Judy Collins’ cover of the Beatles’ “In My Life”.
There have been other, less lovey songs that have inspired Bill and me. While we are in love with each other, our marriage is really more like a great friendship. And we do a lot of things that great friends do together, like drink a lot of beer.
This video includes “King of Beers” by Too Much Joy and “Beer Run” by Todd Snider, as well as photos of Bill enjoying our favorite pastime.
In any case, I feel pretty sure tomorrow we’ll have a great time. We usually take trips for our anniversary, but this year’s move and my recent dental woes precluded that. I have high hopes for next year, though! Have a great weekend, y’all!
This week, I’ve found out how SingSnap brings people together
Next week, I will be in the midst of a move. The packers are coming to gather up our belongings on Tuesday, and by Friday, all our stuff will be on its way to Texas. Consequently, it’s unlikely that I’ll be writing nearly as much next week. But this week, I have enjoyed some creative pursuits, including much time spent on SingSnap.com. On Tuesday this week, I was unusually prolific on SingSnap and a man from Norway ran across my recording of Don McLean’s “Vincent”. I had done it in a lower key and it turned out pretty nice. He left me a comment and then listened to a few of my other recordings, on which he also left comments.
I was curious about my new Norwegian follower, so I went to his SingSnap page. Turns out he has a very nice voice himself and even writes songs. He didn’t have many recordings up; in fact, over the past week, he’s more than doubled what was on his page the first time I visited. But I noticed that he had an “open duet” available, Don Williams’ and Emmylou Harris’ cover of the Townes Van Zandt song, “If I Needed You”. I actually had only heard Lyle Lovett’s take on that song.
Emmylou Harris and Don Williams sing “If I Needed You”.
Lyle Lovett’s version of “If I Needed You”.
And I will admit that I pretty much guessed how Emmylou Harris would sing her part in the duet. I didn’t listen to her version of the song before I recorded my part. Consequently, my version is probably more like Lyle’s done in Emmylou’s key.
Anyway, I joined “brumm101” on that song and it turned out nicely. I posted it on Facebook and much to my surprise, several friends listened and enjoyed it. In fact, a former English professor of mine, now retired from many years of teaching at Longwood University listened to our recording and wanted to know how we did it. I explained how on SingSnap, you can sing your part, post it, and others can join you if you give them that option.
Another online friend, who lives in Texas and sings, vows that there WILL be karaoke when we finally meet. I “met” him and his wife on Epinions.com roughly eight or nine years ago. I actually met his wife in person at an Epinions Meet & Greet in Washington, DC. I understand he’s quite the singer and, in fact, used to write excellent music reviews on Epinions. We’ve kept in touch over the years, despite my many moves. He offered his take on my duet with the Norwegian, too. And so did another “friend” I’ve never met in person, but who is a musician and mutual friends with a chef I used to work with years ago. He offered some suggestions and checked out some other stuff I did. It was a nice bonding moment.
Yesterday, SingSnap had a duet challenge asking members to sing duets with people from other countries. Since I am American and brumm101 is Norwegian, it worked out well for us. We sang Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe”. I think I might have found a new friend!
“brumm101” and I sing an old hit by Sonny and Cher.
Making and sharing music is exciting to me, even if I’m only doing it on an online karaoke site. If I manage to make new friends and find good duet partners in the process, that’s a good thing.
I hope everyone has a good weekend. I’ll try to post next week before my computer gets packed up for the move. If I don’t manage to, I’ll be back when I’m no longer in transit to Texas.
The right music can be life-altering. Here are six artists whose music changed my life in some way…
Pat Benatar Crimes of Passion (1980)
Picture it. It’s 1981. I’m nine years old and there is still one older sister out of three living at home with me. My older sister is seventeen and has a stereo that plays vinyl. Every night, I hear her playing songs by Hall & Oates, Rose Royce, The Eagles and Pat Benatar. I am especially attracted to Pat Benatar’s voice. It’s huge, clear, and powerful. The album my sister plays is Crimes of Passion. I remember seeing the cover of it; tiny Pat is wearing a sparkly black leotard and is backed up to a barre. Her brown hair is permed and curly and she’s wearing a lot of makeup. Even though the big hit on that album is “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”, I’m attracted to deeper cuts– “Prisoner of Love” and a song called “Out-A-Touch”. I also love what Pat’s done with Kate Bush’s song, “Wuthering Heights”. At that time in my life, I had not yet been exposed to Kate Bush. I didn’t realize that the original was a lot better than Pat’s remake. I wanted my own copy of that album.
Remember, it was 1981. That was before people were so concerned about kidnappers or other dangers. My parents were very underprotective by today’s standards. I was allowed to walk to the store by myself. This was permitted even though getting to the store involved walking along a busy major highway and crossing four lanes of traffic to get to the shopping center. The shopping center had a Murphy’s Mart, which was a discount store kind of akin to K-Mart. I remember scrimping and saving up about eight dollars so I could buy my own vinyl copy of Crimes of Passion. I remember the pride I felt in that accomplishment. It was my very first music purchase.
Pat Benatar sings “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”.
Years later, I still own a copy of that album, though now it’s in a digital format. I still really admire Pat Benatar’s talent. I love a lot of her early rock performances, though I was even more impressed when in 1991, she released True Love, an album that showcases her jazz and blues chops. I wish she’d do another album like that one.
Kate Bush The Dreaming (1982)
A couple of years after I purchased my own copy of Crimes of Passion, I was hanging out with another sister; this one is eleven years my senior. This sister is also a music lover, but her tastes are definitely more artistic and rock oriented than the other sister’s. We share a room in my parents’ house, because this sister is only home on breaks and frankly she and the other sister would be at each other’s throats if they had to share a room. This sister also has a stack of vinyl records and a stereo. And one day, she’s playing music that, to me, was both foreign and wonderful.
I asked her who the singer was. My sister explained that it was Kate Bush, a British singer who had just come out with a new album called, The Dreaming. My sister had seen Kate Bush perform on Top Of The Pops when we lived in England a few years prior. She was impressed, so when she saw Kate Bush had a new album out, she took a chance and bought it. I remember being completely enchanted by songs from that album, particularly “Night Of The Swallow”, which stuck in my head for years until I finally purchased my own copy of The Dreaming on cassette.
“Night of the Swallow”
After I bought that album in 1989, I became a full-fledged Kate Bush fanatic…
James Taylor Flag (1979)
I could write an ode to just about all of James Taylor’s albums. They have all meant a lot to me. It was 1979’s Flag, though, that really got me hooked on his music. The same sister who was into Kate Bush had a copy of Flag on vinyl and I remember hearing her play “Up On The Roof”, Taylor’s gorgeous cover of a song written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. I remember being affected by the warmth of James Taylor’s vocals. There was something about his voice that was so comforting and moving to me. I also loved the arrangement, which made use of strings and piano.
James Taylor sings “Up On The Roof”.
I bought my own copy of Flag in 1990 and remember listening to it a lot in college, especially during my freshman year. It consoled me through a lot of tough days.
Alison Krauss and Union Station New Favorite (2001)
Alison Krauss is one of those artists I used to hear a lot about when I was growing up, but I never bothered to sit down and listen to her music. Until the last fifteen years or so, she was primarily known in bluegrass circles for playing fiddle and having a beautiful, pure voice. Of course, now she’s a huge star who’s even recorded with Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin’s legendary front man. I think I’d heard her sing with Lyle Lovett on his 1998 double album, Step Inside This House and was impressed. So in 2002, when I still had a membership to Columbia House and had some free CDs coming, I purchased her solo album Forget About It and her 2001 album with her band, Union Station, New Favorite. I loved both of the CDs and quickly started adding to my Alison Krauss collection. I think I have just about all of her stuff, now. But it was New Favorite that got me there.
Alison Krauss and Union Station sing “The Lucky One”.
Lyle Lovett Joshua Judges Ruth (1992)
I remember the very first time I heard Lyle Lovett sing. It was in 1996 and I was in Yerevan, Armenia at a gathering of fellow Peace Corps Volunteers. The married couple who was hosting the get-together had turned on some music. I wasn’t paying too much attention to it, until my ears caught the chorus of Lyle Lovett’s song, “Since The Last Time”. The song starts off kind of slow, then builds into an upbeat number with bluesy harmonies and lyrics about losing touch with loved ones… until the last time somebody died. When I got back to the United States in 1997, I started buying Lyle Lovett’s music so I could find that song. As I recall, I had bought most of his available albums when I finally stumbled across Joshua Judges Ruth. Since then, I’ve found plenty of songs by Lyle Lovett that I love… but this one was the very first.
Lyle Lovett and “Since The Last Time”.
Stevie Wonder Songs In The Key of Life (1976)
Anybody who was around in the 70s and 80s knows Stevie Wonder. He was everywhere during that time period. I discovered his album, Songs In The Key of Life in the late 1990s. It was my oldest sister who introduced it to me when I heard his beautiful song, “As” playing on the radio. I had heard the song many times, but that was the first time I’d ever really listened to the lyrics closely. I started buying all his early albums until I finally found Songs In The Key of Life, a magnificent two volume set with songs that had healing lyrics. I can honestly say that Stevie Wonder’s music helped save me from clinical depression. If that’s not life changing, I don’t know what is.
Stevie Wonder sings “As”.
Of course, I can think of plenty of other songs and artists who have changed my life in some way. The six artists profiled in this article are the ones who have been pivotal to me… at least today as I sit here thinking about it. These are the artists who actually inspired an obsession… I was compelled to buy their music and I still love what they do years later. Can you think of any artists or albums that changed your life? Leave a comment.
