Q is for Quiet

Can you feel the silence?

Taylor loves to shush his band…

And again…

Do a little exploring…

I’m not a big country fan, but I am a music fan. I watched the CMA awards last night and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of genre mixing. There were some awesome performances. Here’s some of them:

I know some of you out there have some weird thing about not liking Daughtry because he was on AI the same season Taylor was. Let’s try to get past that. Open up your ears and listen to this, Vince Gill and Daughtry sound really good together:

Here’s another one. Kenny Chesney and Dave Matthews.

Kid Rock and Jamey Johnson

And this…this was the best version I’ve heard aside from the original. These guys are very talented musicians.

I thought Carrie Underwood did a pretty decent job. A friend of mine told me a story this morning that her son was watching the CMA’s and said, “Wow. That’s Carrie Underwood? I guess American Idol can really change your life. She used to be just a normal girl and now she’s hosting the CMA’s.” Yes, it can change your life, if you play your hand right.

Taylor Swift is my secret musical love. I love her music and I think she’s very talented for as young as she is. So, of course, I have to include her. She is singing Fifteen, which really holds a special meaning for me.

Oh, and Sugarland. Love them too.

There is so much great music out there and it’s silly to limit yourself to one artist or one genre even. Let yourself go explore. You might be surprised at what you find.

I’m going to Hollywood!!!

Been waiting for this….

I have been waiting for more footage of him singing Ain’t No Sunshine for 3 years now. So awesome…oh, and if you want to listen to it over and over, watch this…

I’m feeling alright…

Awesome. Just awesome…

That’s what I miss. And Brian Less? He is fantastic!!

P is for performer…

O is for Over Reaching…

Oh Taylor…you’ve done it this time. Sometimes you just really crack me up.

Would that have been 2006?

N is for National Anthem

Taylor has sung the National Anthem so many times that he’s gotten really good at it.

and finally….

Here’s a little history lesson for you….

Francis Scott Key was a gifted amateur poet. Inspired by the sight of the American flag flying over Fort McHenry the morning after the bombardment, he scribbled the initial verse of his song on the back of a letter. Back in Baltimore, he completed the four verses (PDF) and copied them onto a sheet of paper, probably making more than one copy. A local printer issued the new song as a broadside. Shortly afterward, two Baltimore newspapers published it, and by mid-October it had appeared in at least seventeen other papers in cities up and down the East Coast.

This 19th century version (MP3) of the Star-Spangled Banner was performed on original instruments from the National Museum of American History’s collection. Arranged by G. W. E. Friederich, the music is played as it would have been heard in 1854.
The Star-Spangled Banner

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
’Tis the star-spangled banner – O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

American Idol Rewind

War

Oh, let’s count the cliches…

Just do me a favor. Just read this. Let’s have a contest. The winner will be the one who finds the most cliches…and who wants to place a bet on whether a Soul Patroller wrote this or not?

And sometimes a song is worth a thousand words:

or this: