Music to my Ears

Music has been fairly important in my life, even though I personally have all the musical talent of a dead salamander. Or less. Actually, I did take piano lessons for 9 months in 1992 or so, and learned to play various kiddie songs with moderate success, but musical concepts are lost on me. I'm pretty much tone deaf (despite the insistence of a music theory professor friend that there's no such thing), I'm not really sure what a key is, and I can hardly even tell the difference between the sound quality of high-end speakers and that of a clock radio.

That said, I still love to listen to music and enjoy it greatly, even if I can't pick out all the instruments or sing along with it. So here are some clues to my musical taste.

Early-to-mid 80s:

• A Flock of Seagulls, A Flock of Seagulls Traveling music. I always listened to this one with my headphones in the backseat of my parents' car when we were traveling.
• Men Without Hats, Folk of the 80's, Part III Part of the soundtrack of my freshman year in college. This is not the album with "Safety Dance" on it, by the way (though I like that one, too, and finally got a CD with both albums on it--woo hoo!).
• Wang Chung, Points on the Curve Another big part of my freshman year in college. I have some weird memories of this album.
• The Who, Quadrophenia This is the album I'd put on in the dorm stairwell (with headphones again, of course) while pouring out my young adult angst into notebooks & feeling generally anguished.
• R.E.M., various albums Chronic Town, Murmur, and Reckoning were all a prominent part of my early college landscape.
• Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense and other albums I went through a major Talking Heads phase in college as well.

Mid-to-late 80s:

• R.E.M., Fables of the Reconstruction One of my favorite albums of all time.
• X, More Fun in the New World I can't figure out why X never made it bigger. They don't sound very punk to me.
• They Might Be Giants, They Might Be Giants This is still my favorite one of their albums.
• Amy Grant, The Collection Though seemingly a major contrast from the others, this album was very instrumental (pun not intended) in my life. It snuck into my ears & was a major influence in my becoming a Christian in 1987.
• Petra, Back to the Streets Same as above, except that I actually chose this one. It's rather dated now.
• Men Without Hats, Pop Goes the World Part of the soundtrack of my senior year in college.
• The Choir, Chase the Kangaroo I'd put this one on while driving out in the hill country around Austin. A great album.
• Sam Phillips, The Indescribable Wow When I first met my husband Mark, he had this tape with him & was lending it to a friend (the girl he was interested in, actually). I knew right away we had something in common.
• The Choir, Wide-Eyed Wonder Not my favorite Choir album, but definitely the most influential! I had this tape in my car the first time I gave Mark a ride, the summer I met him. He was amazed that I'd have it--he didn't even have it yet. We should have known we were doomed to marry. ;-)

90s:

• Charlie Peacock, Lie Down in the Grass and Charlie Peacock These are from the early-to-mid 80s, but I didn't hear them until the early 90s. I'd probably want them with me if I had to go to a desert island.
• The Innocence Mission, The Innocence Mission I listened to this almost every day while driving to my temp job at Fidelity Investments in 1990. It rained constantly during that whole time. It all fit together somehow. It's been a major album featured in our marriage, too.
• Bruce Cockburn, Salt, Sun, and Time and Nothing But a Burning Light Two more albums that have permeated our marriage.
• The Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas Mood music. This is the album that was playing in the delivery room when our first son, Ryan, was born.
• Enya, Watermark More mood music. This is the album that was playing when our second son, Kyle, was born.
• Over the Rhine, eve We won this from KGSR, & I can't believe they've had it in their possession but didn't play it!

Late 90s to Present:

• The Jayhawks, Tomorrow the Green Grass
• Harrod & Funck, Dreams of the Color Blind
• Fleming & John, Delusions of Grandeur
• Raspberry Jam, oceanic
• Dryve, thrifty mr. kickstar
• All Star United, All Star United
• Over the Rhine, Good Dog, Bad Dog: The Home Recordings
• The Innocence Mission, Birds of My Neighborhood
• Sixpence None the Richer, Sixpence None the Richer

This is by no means an exhaustive list (entire styles of music have been left out), but just a sample of the music of my life.

Genesis (my first real concert), Jerry Jeff Walker (just tagging along with my friend's mother), The Go-Go's, The Fixx, Joan Jett, The Cars with Wang Chung, Omar & the Howlers, Dino Lee, Guadalcanal Diary (saw some of it & wish I'd seen more), The Judys (twice), Warren Zevon, Black Flag (yes, really), R.E.M. (twice), David Meece, Michael W. Smith (once alone, once with Amy Grant), Amy Grant, Faithworks (local band), Petra, Men Without Hats (opening for Icehouse), DeGarmo & Key with DC Talk (back in 1989 when DC Talk was a rap group), Rich Mullins, Bryan Duncan, Rick Cua, Michael Card, The Choir (four times), John Austin, Charlie Peacock, The Innocence Mission (3 times plus an in-store appearance), Bruce Cockburn (twice, including once with Sam Phillips), The Prayer Chain with Love Coma (the loudest concert I've ever been to), The Prayer Chain with The Throes, a parking lot concert (with Love Coma, Sixpence None the Richer, and The Kry), The Newsboys, PFR with Jars of Clay (I missed most of the Jars of Clay set & still don't see what the hoopla is concerning them), John Michael Talbot, Pierce Pettis (in-store appearance), Brooks Williams, Fleming & John, Over the Rhine, Sixpence None the Richer.

I actually ran a Web site & mailing list called the Austin Christian Alternative Concert Connection for a over a year without going to see any concerts! I finally shut it down and I think someone else is now running a similar site.

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