The Music in Me

Lately, I have given into music.  Sometimes I have to take a break from music for awhile, because I can get so incredibly sucked into it that I am incapable of functioning beyond listening to the same song or the same group over and over and over. 
And over and over and over. 
And over and over and over. 
This drives Matt crazy sometimes, although he tries to be a good sport about it.
The kids don't seem to mind.
Thankfully.
So, lately, I've let music consume me.  It started out with the innocent purchase of Ingrid Michaelson's album Everybody.  I had heard the song "Everybody" on Pandora's folk station, and I liked it.  Then I listened to more of her songs.  And I got hooked.  Like............really hooked.  I spent at least a month absolutely obsessed with this album, and, specifically, the song "The Chain."  I don't know what it is about this song, but I can't stop listening to it.  It's the lyrics. It's the voice.  It's the piano.  It's the harmony.  I'm a girl obsessed. 

Then, a little over a week ago, I got the new album by The Civil Wars in the mail.  I had a feeling I would again fall in love.  And again, I was right.  How could I not?
These two like Faulkner.
They read O'Connor. 
She plays the piano. 
He plays the guitar.
Their harmony does something inside of me that I just can't explain.  My favorites on this album change by the day, but I have fallen especially hard for the song "Poison and Wine."  Again, it's the lyrics.  It's the voices.  It's the piano and guitar.  It's the harmony. 

Then there was that phase of listening to every recorded version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." 



A few months ago I discovered the group Gungor.  During that phase, I listened to "Beautiful Things" over and over and over again.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, a good friend posted Gungor singing "The Earth Is Yours"  in the forest.  I like it when people play and sing in the forest, especially when they are incredible musicians.  

And, although I've already posted this video, February isn't February without me literally drowning in Dar Williams.



I've had lots of Dar Williams obsessive moments.  I've been obsessed with "If I Wrote You," "The One Who Knows," "Iowa," "When I Was a Boy," "After All," and "Empire."  I'm sure there are more.  

So do you get obsessed with music?  Whom do you love?  Whom can you just not stop listening to?  What is it about music that fills us with longing and love and ache and joy? 

I don't understand it, but if you drive by my house and hear me harmonizing or see me dancing in my living room, you'll know that yet again I have given into the...whatever it is...about music that nourishes some intense craving in my soul.