Happy Halloween!

I’ll be upfront about my position on this topic: I am not a huge Halloween person. It is a great relief that my kids are old enough to be in charge of their own costumes. I appreciate the efforts of others and admire the houses decorated with spooky webs and giant spiders, but none adorn my house. We do have a jack-o-lantern on our front porch, but one of my daughters and her friends bought and carved it with absolutely no parental involvement. I put in my time when the kids were younger: I had a couple Halloween parties at our house and planned several class parties for the “holiday”, so maybe I simply used up my energy years back.

Last weekend, I asked in what I thought was a very enthusiastic voice whether any of my kids were interested in putting our Halloween decorations out (which really just consist of a few candles). I might have overdone the enthusiasm because all I got was some confused stares until one finally responded slowly, “Nooo?” as if she was uncertain of her answer because it was a trick question. Suffice it to say the decorations are still not out.

To be fair, this apathy extends to other holidays also, and while I would like to blame it on something genetic, I’ve concluded that the root cause is good old fashioned laziness- it all just seems like too much work. When one of my sisters gave birth to my niece a few days before Halloween almost nine years ago, I remember wondering with sympathy if she would be obligated to have Halloween themed birthday parties forever after.

A couple weeks ago, I was looking online at pictures my cousin had posted of the birthday party for her 3-year old son at which everyone was dressed as superheroes, even the adults (horrified emphasis on this last point). Honestly, I found it stressful just looking at the pictures. Whereas an appropriate response might have been, “Wow, that looks like a lot of fun for the toddler,” mine was more along the lines of, “Thank goodness that party was in Colorado and I didn’t have to come up with a superhero costume.”

It is with this background that you will understand why I was less than thrilled when my other sister suggested that I create a Halloween playlist. I tried to explain that I thought a playlist with only two songs would be fairly boring. I have to say, she got a little defensive about my reaction to the Halloween playlist idea, which surprised me and made me feel a bit guilty that I was so dismissive, especially when she reported regretfully that she is only “allowed” to play Monster Mash on the air (she’s a DJ) once a year, although that seems like plenty to me.

However, my guilt pang prompted me to conduct a tiny bit of research (meaning that I Googled “Halloween songs”), and when I realized that I didn’t have to come up with literal Halloween songs but could focus more on the devil and other themes commonly found in rock and pop music, I warmed up to the idea. I came up with the following songs in my iTunes library that could possibly be interpreted as having a loose association to something vaguely related to Halloween. There you go- me celebrating the “holiday” after all!

• “Devil’s in the Jukebox” – Ray LaMontagne & The Pariah Dogs
• “If You’re Goin’ Through Hell” – Rodney Atkins
• “Spooky” – Joan Osborne
• “Halloween” – Dave Matthews Band
• “See You in My Nightmares” – Kanye West, feat. Lil Wayne
• “Voodoo” – The Neville Brothers
• “Electric Child of Witchcraft Rising” – New Pornographers
• “Candy Everybody Wants” – 10,000 Maniacs
• “The Long Black Veil” – Johnny Cash
• “Psycho Killer” – Talking Heads
• “Lady Dada’s Nightmare” – MGMT

By the way, the picture is courtesy of my more spirited sister, Maggie.  If you enjoy this blog, join me on Facebook.

Mavis Staples: You Are Not Alone

A couple weeks ago when I wrote about spiritually inspired music, one of my sisters pointed out that Mavis Staples had a new album out (“You Are Not Alone”) that was produced by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. I had read something about that in passing but didn’t make much of it at the time. However, my sister’s email got me thinking and I decided to buy the album as I love both Wilco and R&B. Concurrently (prophetically?), Starbucks had one of those free song cards for one of the songs on the album. Finally, in case I needed a tenth sign that I should be listening to this album, my dad sent a couple of us an email with reference to a short clip in the New Yorker about some “Soul Sisters” he thought we might find historically interesting, noting that it was “very popular music in the olden days”. Little House on the Prairie goes to church? Anyway, I was already doing my research on this album and was thrilled to have another tidbit to add. I was even more thrilled that my dad had referred an article to me that was related to music rather than the financial industry; although it’s my field of work it’s frankly much more boring than music.


If you’re not familiar with Mavis Staples, and I have to admit that I wasn’t all that familiar with her, she was part of a family gospel group called the Staple Singers many, many decades ago. Although her list of accomplishments is long (she’s in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award) and her age is on the older side (71), she has had somewhat of a resurrection in the past decade, even playing at Lollapalooza this past summer.

One of my favorite parts about reviewing albums is not just being exposed to new music that wouldn’t likely be heard on the radio, but also in learning how the albums were inspired. Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staples are both Chicagoans (Mavis being a lifelong South Sider), and Tweedy heard her perform a couple years ago, having been a fan for quite some time. He approached her about doing an album, and the time was right for her as she was uncertain what direction to take her music.

Tweedy ended up choosing 11 songs from the past, many of which Mavis performed with the Staple Singers and/or were written by her father, and writing two new songs for her. There is also a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover (“Wrote a Song for Everyone”) and one from Randy Newman (“Losing You”). They recorded the songs in Wilco’s studio in Chicago, and in the bio they provided for Amazon, Staples says that she loved going to the studio each day and having the Wilco band members stop by with their babies. I love that image!

The result of it all is that we get her beautiful rich voice combined with some arrangements that are a bit more contemporary. In the New Yorker interview, she expressed how pleased she is that “Mr. Tweedy” (adorable!) has helped her attract some younger listeners. The two of them have been doing the talk show circuit, performing on The Colbert Report and Letterman. She truly has a beautiful voice, although when I sing along I am confident I sound just as good- she’s that talented that she can trick us into believing that about ourselves!

Many of the songs are heavily gospel, but don’t be dissuaded if you’re not really into that- I’m normally not either. There is not a bad song on the album, but the ones I particularly love are the title track (“You Are Not Alone”), which is one of the two songs on the album that Tweedy wrote, “In Christ There is No East or West”, and “Don’t Knock”. That being said, I have found myself singing just about all of the songs to myself at some point this past week. I also had the album on in the kitchen the other night while my 16-year old daughter and I were both cooking, and she didn’t complain. There you go: an album for all ages.

Below is an acoustic version of "We Are Not Alone" performed by Staples and Tweedy.  Enjoy!

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Songs for the Fall Season

10/10/10 was Marathon Sunday in Chicago. I had been anticipating the day with anxiety for more than a month, not because I was running the marathon but because I wasn’t. I ran the marathon in 2009 and the feeling of accomplishment when I finished was intoxicating. To work so hard to achieve something so big was unbelievable. I have told countless people that I could never get as lucky with the weather as I was last year- 30s at the start and 40s at the finish. Although it wasn’t much fun for the spectators (sorry about your frostbite, Dad), it was glorious for the runners.


While I was apparently in some state of intoxication (running or otherwise), I decided to sign up to run the marathon again in 2010. I was a veteran, so I knew I could do it, but this year I wanted to do it better than I did the first time. Last year the training essentially took over my life; this year, not so much, which may have been part of the problem. Last year I obsessed about my runs; this year I missed one here and there, was a mile or so short of my targets on long runs and wasn’t diligent about my day of cross training each week. When I started to have pain in my left leg that got worse with each run, I rested but panicked about the training I was missing. When I tried to jump back in, the pain would get worse again until I finally saw a doctor. The prescription: rest. That was it for me; I simply could not miss that much training and have a chance of successfully getting back in. While I was disappointed, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t also a little relieved to regain some free time. But I was still dreading Marathon Sunday and the fact that I wouldn’t be participating.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 7 a.m., turned on the t.v. to start watching the coverage, and set up my computer to track my friends and coworkers who were running. No runner was happy about the predicted high temperatures. As the morning wore on and the checkpoint times popped up, I could tell that this would not have been a successful day for me, which brought me a bit of peace.

I think the only people who weren’t celebrating the weather this weekend were probably runners. For everyone else, Chicago experienced the most amazing fall weather. With the colors starting to pop out and the warm weather putting everyone in a good mood, I was inspired to compile some songs about the season.

The most challenging part of this post has not been collecting the songs but getting the darn picture, which I thought would be easy. Sunday afternoon, I walked out into the front yard, assuming I could easily snap a picture of a yellow or red tree, but I wasn’t quite satisfied with my results. I decided to head to the park on my bike and was joined by my 14-year old son. The park also didn’t do it for me, so I suggested a path that I knew would feel like riding through what I hoped would be a colorful tree tunnel. I forgot that 14-year old boys are like little ninjas on their bikes, and they also do not have a fully developed sense of fear, so the “shortcut” we took probably could have ended up getting me arrested for trespassing. A mother should know better than to be led around closed gates to get somewhere- twice. We also roamed the grounds surrounding the nearby convent, which my son refers to as the Nunnery. He is dying to catch a glimpse of a nun and is fascinated by the basketball court and swimming pool- I guess he’s hoping to spot a game of nun pick-up ball or a nun pool party. No such luck, nor with the trees, and he finally ditched me, declaring me “too picky”. I headed for the Prairie Path, snapping a couple more pictures. What did I end up using? The tree in my front yard. Oh well, without running the marathon it was basically my only exercise of the day.

Here is my list of songs for the season, inspired by sun, color, months and the season itself (admittedly, some are a bit of a stretch- there aren't that many songs about fall, turns out). Enjoy!

• “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day” – Bruce Springsteen
• “Fall in Boston” – Chris Bentliff
• “Yellow” – Coldplay
• “Autumn Leaves” – Eric Clapton
• “Pale September” – Fiona Apple
• “Colors” – Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
• “Wake Me Up When September Ends” – Green Day
• “Waiting for the Sun” – The Jayhawks
• “Yellow Sun” – Raconteurs
• “In the Sun” – She & Him

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Mumford and Sons: Sigh No More

A couple months ago, I bought the song “Little Lion Man” by Mumford & Sons. You may have heard it on the radio; it’s a really catchy, quick song that will likely inspire you to get out of your seat and do a little jig, if only you knew how. The lyrics in the refrain feature prominently a certain “F” word commonly used on Jersey Shore, though the radio excludes the whole word (“And it was not your fault but mine, and it was your heart on the line, I really f%*&ed it up this time, didn’t I, my dear?”). Due to the heavy English accent of the band members, the word at issue sounds almost elegant in the unedited version. Anyway, I like the song so much that when I was idly looking through the top albums on iTunes earlier in the week and noticed “Sigh No More” by Mumford & Sons in the top 10, I decided to give it a go.


Wikipedia characterizes Mumford & Sons as a folk band and iTunes classifies their songs as “alternative.” Based solely on “Little Lion Man”, I would call the genre “Lively English Pub”. After listening to the entire album for a few days, however, I am changing that to “Gloomy English Pub.” “Little Lion Man” brings to mind an image of a pub full of happy, drunk, knee slapping Brits getting caught up in the energy of the music. Most of the rest of the songs bring to mind a rainy English day with those same drunk patrons sadly drowning their misery in endless pints of stout. Taken individually, the songs are quirky and some start slowly and pick up the pace midway through, but many are slow and depressing throughout- and that’s before you listen to the lyrics.

This is the debut album from Mumford & Sons, and it was actually released last year. “Little Lion Man” saw a lot of success overseas much earlier than we Americans picked up on it. It was voted the number one song on an Australian music poll in 2009 (by a large margin, supposedly), and they also performed the song on David Letterman earlier this year. A couple songs have been on Grey’s Anatomy, I’m guessing either during death or breakup scenes.

If you do not already have “Little Lion Man” on your iPod, fork over the $0.99 to buy it (really, it’s like a couple sips of a Starbucks latte). I can attest that it is the perfect song to belt out in the car to pick up your mood a little, especially if you bravely use the entire “F” word (Not with the kids in the car, of course. My 14-year old son actually uses the word “bleep” instead, which is almost more annoying than if he actually sang the swear word itself). As for the rest of the album, I’ll take a pass for now and save it for a bad day on my next trip to England.

I've posted this video before, but I'm putting it up again in case you don't know the song.  If you like this blog, join me on Facebook.  Enjoy!