Monday Music Review: Andy Lange

Monday Music Review on Sunday? Yes, because Monday comes quickly and I want you to be prepared in the morning when you roll out of bed in need of coffee and a good tune to get you moving. So, for this blog, the Monday Music Review comes a day early because it’s my party. And that’s the way I want it.

You all know that I think Christian Kane could very well be the center of the entertainment universe. We’ve talked about his music and his movies; we’ve yet to cover his television show, Leverage (which premieres for Season 4 on June 26 on TNT, by the way), but maybe we will soon. I’m sure you’re wondering what a TV show has to do with the Monday Music Review.

Wonder no more. It might be the extra long winding road, roadside taco stand pitstop type of scenic route but I do always get you where we're going sooner or later, don't I?

A few weeks ago, I was watching a DVR’d episode of Leverage; Nate and Sophie were this close to kissing and even though I’d seen the episode before, I was on pins and needles that they’d finally give in to the fact that they’re meant to be together. In the background, the song lyrics floated by... “I’m not sure yet about life, about love, but in time, I’m sure everything will be fine.”  Simple, profound, and hopefully foreshadowing a Happily Ever After for Nate & Sophie.

A little research led me to find the song, Not Sure Yet, and to discover the man behind this lyric, Andy Lange. Welcome to my infinite playlist, Andy.

Andy’s website says his music is a “brilliant confluence of catchy melodies”. I’m not exactly sure what a confluence is but it might have something to do with the fact that Andy Lange separately sings, plays keyboard, strums guitar, and creates other instruments out of objects that weren’t created to be instruments (think 5 gallon plastic buckets as drums). He then overlaps them to make a finished song. I find that fascinating but I also wonder how being a true one-man band works out for a concert. I guess Andy sings and plays one instrument while the sound magicians handle the rest. Maybe one day, I’ll find out live and in person.

Andy reminds me of a cross between Matt Nathanson and Jack Johnson, with clear and simple lyrics, soothing melodies, and a fragile vulnerability that makes me want to find Andy and give him a hug.

Every time I youtube Andy Lange, I find a new favorite tune (many of which are collaborations with a guy you’ll learn about next week). For this moment, my favorites are:

Hold It Against Me: This song is, to be candid, simply perfect. It’s romantic, it’s sweet, it’s unconditional. With the lyric, “You feel like paradise and I need a vacation tonight”, it’s a song you’d use to slow dance in your living room with the person you want to spend the rest of forever with. They say French is the “language of love”; if this sign language interpretation of Hold It Against Me in the link doesn’t make you rethink that notion, nothing will. Simply beautiful.

Wherever: This Lange tune is the ultimate in escapism, with the sweep-you-off-your-feet words every girl wants to hear: “I wanna get you out, I wanna take you away from there, wherever you want to go”. If he'd talk to me like that, I'd probably go just about anywhere with Andy Lange too.

and…

Don’t Lose Your Light: With the sweet sentiment “You’ve turned me around so much I’ve lost track. Maybe someone already wrote a long song about you”, this Lange song had me hooked because, let’s face it, nothing under the starry sky is more romantic than being the object of someone’s love song.

I don’t know where Andy Lange gets his creative inspiration but he makes me want to watch a romantic movie or write a sappy love letter where all the i’s are dotted with hearts. I’m off to find some stationary and my good writing pen. Until next time, friends, make today… Something More!

Monday Music Review- Nathan Lienard

Monday Music Review on Sunday? Yes, because Monday comes quickly and I want you to be prepared in the morning when you roll out of bed in need of coffee and a good tune to get you moving. So, for this blog, the Monday Music Review comes a day early because it’s my party. And that’s the way I want it.

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy the fact that most of the MMR artists thus far have been artists you didn’t know but now wonder how you ever lived without. Today we have another of those artists who makes me want to call my local radio station and say “How is it that you don’t know this phenomenal artist?” Welcome to my playlist, Nathan Lienard.

I was perusing the internet on Friday and saw that a great friend from college, Melissa, had posted a facebook status about Nathan’s new single. They are friends and any friend of Melissa’s is a friend of mine so I checked it out and knew immediately, if not sooner, that Nathan Lienard had to be this week’s MMR.

Toward the end of his college career, Nathan traded his baseball bat for a guitar and has been playing, singing, and songwriting ever since. And my biggest complaint about that is that I didn’t know it before now. Nathan describes himself as having a “chilled out coffeehouse style”. I would agree; Nathan’s sound is rich and mellow, his lyrics clear and beautifully simple. He truly has a way with words and if you ever need a romantic line, Nathan should be your go-to guy. He has a sound that would easily carry you through a day at the office, and songs that have a similar vibe but aren’t cookie cutter so you could replay his 2009 CD The Road is Long over and over without getting bored.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a zillion times, I love lyrics. I learn them, write them down, repeat them. I want them to matter to me, to be words I might use, to be lines that make me think, “that’s just what I meant to say but didn’t know how to say it.” Nathan Lienard must be in my head somewhere because he understands this to a degree not found in many of today’s artists. I love the sentiment of “I can’t see two days from now, tomorrow’s in the way” in the song Dear Friend. It’s a gentle reminder to focus on the present and to cherish each moment. “No time for details, got the big picture on my mind. No need for who, what, when, how, or why” in The Road is Long reminds me not to sweat the small stuff. For this type-A personality who often gets sidetracked by the details, this is a reminder I need often.

Nathan Lienard has a newly released song, Time Machine, which seems to be a bit of a detour from his previous album. This song is a bit more peppy, a little flirty, and just downright fun. It tells me that Nathan Lienard is using his second musical project to stretch and to grow, to see where his always-reaching musical wings will take him. I believe (and there are lots of Williamsburg, Virginia fans who will agree with me) that Nathan Lienard is taking flight in the contemporary easy listening musical world and that his journey will be that of a rising star.

A kind word of advice for you, friends: before you listen to his songs, make some room on your iPod because after you hear Nathan Lienard, there will be no doubt that you’ll want to download the album. Happy listening, friends!

Monday Music Review... The Band of Horses

Monday Music Review on Sunday? Yes, because Monday comes quickly and I want you to be prepared in the morning when you roll out of bed in need of coffee and a good tune to get you moving. So, for this blog, the Monday Music Review comes a day early because it’s my party. And that’s the way I want it.

Band of Horses is a continually evolving group that was formed in Seattle but now calls South Carolina home. They’ve had more member changes than I could track but it seems they’ve found their niche and are currently touring their third album, Infinite Arms, in Europe. From their sound to their cover art and their website layout, there isn’t anything about Band of Horses that I don’t like; they are original, fresh, and have tunes that get stuck in my head.

The album cover above reminds me of what the stars look like if you spin around really fast, with your arms open and your head tipped back, when you get swallowed up in the night and feel invincible and insignificant in the same moment. The Band of Horses' songs make me feel the same way, capturing the minutia of the details and the grand scheme of things simultaneously. I'm not quite sure how they do it but they do it well.

I don't really have the words to describe BoH's unique sound, it makes you want to sway and it has a twang that's not bluegrassy. More than the music, it's the lyrics that grab and hold me. I'm not sure the backstory that led to the lyric "we're wheeling through an endless fog; we are the everliving ghost of what once was", but I can feel the confusion, melancholy, and struggle. And I so desperately want whoever wrote that lyric to find a daisy in a field somewhere. I would teleflora him some flowers if I had an address.

As my friend Rebecca reminded me (before I came back and updated the blog because I realized I missed the mark on doing BoH justice), perhaps the best lyric EVER is the classic Band of Horses' line, "I'd like to think I'm a mess you wear with pride, like some empty dress on the bed you've laid out for tonight. Maybe I'll tell you sometime... you were right." While I don't get why that song is titled I Like to Go to the Barn, I do completely understand expectation and hindsight and all the twists and turns it takes to get from one to the other. I don't know what drama has fueled the Horses' lyrics but I'm glad they've found a creative outlet for the angst; the heartbreakingly beautiful ballads remind me that their is life after loss, whatever your loss may be. 

The first two songs are from the album Cease to Begin (2007) and the last is from their 2010 release, Infinite Arms. Enjoy!

I Like to Go to the Barn

No one's Gonna Love You Like I Do

On My Way Back Home

Monday Music Review- Matt Nathanson

Monday Music Review on Sunday? Yes, because Monday comes quickly and I want you to be prepared in the morning when you roll out of bed in need of coffee and a good tune to get you moving. So, for this blog, the Monday Music Review (which may become a regular feature) comes a day early because it’s my party. And that’s the way I want it.

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to Jensen Ackles and I told you he was the eye candy on a few YouTube videos. While surfing around for some of Jensen’s songs I hadn’t yet heard, I happened upon a great song entitled Just You. The video was Jensen’s photos but the comments included a heated discussion about whether Jensen or Matt Nathanson was singing the song. That reminded me that Matt Nathanson had crossed my musical radar before. Oh hello, Matt Nathanson, nice to see you again.

I first heard his name on Sugarland’s Love on the Inside album (2008), as Jennifer Nettles said the bonus song Come on Get Higher was written by Matt. Matt’s version of the song helped send his album Some Mad Hope platinum; you probably heard it on mainstream radio since they played it constantly.

Matt’s music is a blend of folk and rock; and the reviewers make a huge deal about the fact that his lyrics are supported by a twelve-string acoustic guitar. I don’t really know much about guitars but apparently, more strings equals more difficult and more amazing.

Matt’s songs tell stories but they are written in such a magical way that you have no difficulty following along and putting your own life’s story into the video in your mind. Every Matt Nathanson song reminds me of someone who is now, or who used to be, in my life. That makes me happy and sad at the very same moment. Not a lot of artists can hit you on both ends of your emotional spectrum like that. Those are the kinds of artists, though, that I like to keep on my playlist.

Matt has a great sound and even better lyrics; he’s got the words for everything you want to say even when you didn't know you wanted to say anything. It’s as if Matt is pouring all of his confusion, heartbreak, and hope out on paper. In the moments when misery loves company, Matt Nathanson will be your friend with Bulletproof Weeks. With the lyrics, “talking to what’s left of you, and watching what I say... you sit on your bed, just waiting for right words to come”, I can picture one of those break-ups where one person is trying too hard to fix what’s broken and the other is walking away for a reason they can’t even express. It’s a painful confusion that’s familiar, at one point in life or another, to each of us, yet after Matt gets hold of it and gives it words, you feel like you would have missed something if you’d not been in that struggle for love. Not that you would want to do it again, but that you look back on it differently somehow. It takes an incredibly gifted songwriter to reframe a memory and still make it applicable to the masses; Matt Nathanson has done this remarkably well.

With great tunes like Wedding Dress, Still, Gone, and Sooner Surrender, and Falling Apart, Matt Nathanson’s Some Mad Hope should be in your music collection. And, he has a new album coming out in the Spring 2011 so stay tuned.

Monday Music Review- Jason Manns

Monday Music Review on Sunday? Yes, because Monday comes quickly and I want you to be prepared in the morning when you roll out of bed in need of coffee and a good tune to get you moving. So, for this blog, the Monday Music Review comes a day early because it’s my party. And that’s the way I want it.

Welcome to my world, Jason Manns. If we were playing that fun game of “Who would you want to be trapped with in an elevator?”, I believe you'd make my short list.

Jason collaborated with Jensen Ackles on Crazy Love, a remake of the Van Morrison classic (and I believe that Michael Buble did a version too but don’t hold me to that). This song is simple, sweet, and makes you want to slow dance in your kitchen. If you have someone to dance with, that is; please don’t slow dance in your kitchen alone. People talk about people who do that. J

Crazy Love piqued my interest so I did a little research and found several more fantastic songs.  Jason Manns has a sound all his own and he sticks to what he knows, giving the listener a steady romantic vibe yet somehow working in enough variety that the songs don't all sound alike. 

When you need some romantic words, look no further than any Jason Manns song. Your Song, Journey, and Without You have Hallmark-worthy phrases and just take a look at these lines from Vision: “Next to you, everyone else disappears… I look into the room but all I see is you. I’m not complaining, it’s a beautiful view.” Let’s say it together: awwwwww.

I can picture Jason singing in small, intimate acoustic shows rather than large stage shows. He doesn’t seem to be interested in fame or name recognition, Jason clearly just loves to sing and I just love to listen.

Monday Music Review- Jensen Ackles

Monday Music Review on Sunday? Yes, because Monday comes quickly and I want you to be prepared in the morning when you roll out of bed in need of coffee and a good tune to get you moving. So, for this blog, the Monday Music Review (which may become a regular feature) comes a day early because it’s my party. And that’s the way I want it.

Hello there, Jensen Ackles. Where did you come from and better yet, how long can you stay?

Let’s recap: Christian Kane led us to Steve Carlson. Steve Carlson has now led us to Jensen Ackles. Steve and Jensen, from what I can determine, collaborated to write a few songs including Wasted Jamie which, as it turns out, was a song about a failed blind date set-up between Steve Carlson and a girl in Vegas who turned out years later to be one of Tiger Wood’s “friends” and Where My River Flows which is quickly turning into one of my favorite songs. Jensen collaborated with some other artists too but we’ll get to those connections in the upcoming weeks. (I keep expecting Kevin Bacon to pop as these degrees of separation progress…)

Jensen Ackles had roles in Supernatural, Smallville, and Dawson’s Creek. He was also in Dark Angel and Days of Our Lives and yet, he was not on my radar. Remind me first thing in the morning to get that thing checked; it’s obviously broken.

If you YouTube Jensen, you’ll find lots of videos that have him as the eye candy but other singers as the vocals. I believe, in the above link to Where My River Flows, Jensen wrote it but Steve Carlson sings it (so you know it's gonna be good!) In his biographical information, not much is mentioned about him as a songwriter or singer but Jensen Ackles may be an up-and-comer who will be on the major league music scene soon. In the meantime, take a moment and enjoy the Jensen view. You’ll be glad you did.

Monday Music Review- Steve Carlson

Monday Music Review on Sunday? Yes, because Monday comes quickly and I want you to be prepared in the morning when you roll out of bed in need of coffee and a good tune to get you moving. So, for this blog, the Monday Music Review (which may become a regular feature) comes a day early because it’s my party. And that’s the way I want it.

Meet Steve Carlson.

I found Steve on the Kane (as in Christian Kane) Acoustic Live in London album. Turns out, Steve is a member of Christian’s band but he also has a solo career that has about six albums including a Christmas CD. When I’m in the mood for something peppy but reflective, Steve Carlson is my new go-to guy.

Steve Carlson is a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic and, if his songs are any indication, he’s been both on the giving and receiving ends of heartache but yet he writes about the trials and tribulations of love without making you feel sad. He’s captured the essence of “don’t cry because I’m gone; smile because I was once here”. He's found a way to marry heartache with subtle revenge, to balance the meaning of the memories with the motive to move on. With lyrics like “Stay on your side of town and keep your crowd away from mine... but don’t worry, baby doll, I won’t say everything between you and me”, Steve's Between You and Me reminds us that relationships can end without the airing of dirty laundry (but that holding that dirty laundry over their head for a little while is perfectly acceptable). Pinata Novia details the struggle to love someone who can’t love you back in the way you need them to, and haven’t we all felt like a piñata from time to time? 

Perhaps my favorite Steve Carlson song (thus far) is I Believe which was actually written to be the theme song for the Sher Institute for Reproductive Medicine, a facility that helps couples struggling to become families. A beautifully written duet sung by Carlson and friend Rosalee, the lyrics include “I believe a change is around the corner and in a world that’s out of order, we still have time.” The premise of the song and the video is clearly fertility but the lyrics could be for anyone who struggles and needs to hear that better times are quickly approaching on the horizon.

Steve Carlson is a great artist to have playing at your desk or when you’re working and need some background melodies. These ballads are of loss but aren’t sad; they are peppy but not distracting and have instrumental sections that will make you sorry, very very sorry, you weren't more dedicated to your piano lessons in elementary school.

Steve Carlson's music can be found on the discography section of the link and on YouTube. Happy listening, everyone!

Monday Music Review- Christian Kane- The House Rules

Monday Music Review on Sunday? Yes, because Monday comes quickly and I want you to be prepared in the morning when you roll out of bed in need of coffee and a good tune to get you moving. So, for this blog, the Monday Music Review (which may become a regular feature) comes a day early because it’s my party. And that’s the way I want it.

A few weeks ago, I saw Christian Kane’s The House Rules on CMT’s Big New Music Weekend and I immediately, if not sooner, fell head over heels. And I needed more; not just a little more; A LOT more. So, I went to the Holy Grail that is YouTube and found a body of musical work, in both songwriting and singing, that left me saying, song after song, “Oooh, I love that one.” I remain unable to find my favorite Kane song because they are all JUST. THAT. GOOD.

As my addiction to all things Kane grew, I went to Netflix where I found movies AND television shows; I’ve been having a blast trying to catch up on Leverage & Angel, and movies including Her Minor Thing, Not Since You, Keep Your Distance, Just Married, The Donner Party, The Broken Hearts Club, Hide, Crooked E... and I could go on. I went to Facebook where I met countless fans from all over the world who call themselves Kaniacs and whom I now call friends. It was then that I realized that Christian Kane is a trifecta of entertainment PERFECTION. And he’s completely adorable and yummy to look at too. I want to hug him. And one day, hopefully soon, I will. Stay tuned.

But, as he says (and I’m paraphrasing), ‘As an actor, I play a character so I get paid to lie. As a singer and songwriter, I tell the truth.’ That truth is what makes Christian Kane the guy you want to have a drink with on Saturday night and take home to mama on Sunday. He’s country doused with gasoline. The House Rules is a party in a box and Christian Kane has lit the confetti cannons. From the first lines of the title track, it’s obvious that Christian and his band “only come to have fun, we don’t take kindly to serious”, and we know it’s gonna be a wild ride so I hope, when you get this album (and you really should!) that you follow the advice to “buckle up tight”. All you’ll ever need to know is on this CD- it’s a reminder to get off the fence, start over, move on, love someone even when they don’t deserve it, give a second chance, and most importantly, live your dream. It’s an escape, an adventure, a full throttle roller coaster ride. There’s not a bad or filler song in the mix. This is not a CD you buy for two songs; it’s a CD you buy and wish there were two more songs, or 10 more for that matter. If The House Rules doesn’t get you up and moving, if it doesn’t make you dance your head, tap your feet, and drum your fingers on your steering wheel, I don’t know what will.

As a card carrying, t-shirt wearing, song lyric quoting Kaniac, I’m betting you’ll read Christian Kane’s name on this blog from time to time… because I’m keeping both eyes on this prize. Christian Kane has paid his dues to get to this point, he has his act together and he’s sharing it with us. I, for one, want to be on his rocket ship as he launches into the orbit of superstardom.. and I don’t want you to miss out either. So give him a listen and hear what you’ve been missing; you’ll be glad you did because Christian Kane is AMAZING. He is… Something Else.

And here are some links for you:
Christian Kane
The House Rules on YouTube