Expectations - One of the great random discoveries of music I've ever had, my stumbling across Katie Pruitt is a little embarrassing and eye opening. It comes down to the fact that I'm a sucker for a pretty face. In one of my deep Instagram dives I felt pulled to investigate into a series of photos from another artist I listen to. Courtney Marie Andrews knows Katie Pruitt, but I don't, so obviously I had to dig deeper once I saw a cute lady on my feed... I'm that annoying.
Turns out, Katie Pruitt not only creates beautiful music, but she has a voice that makes you double take in awe and amazement. Listening to "Expectations" around my mother, she gave out a gasp, said wow, and I told her to "wait for it" as Pruitt was about to belt out an even higher note. Truly a goose-bump inducing tune that has not left my queue. I think I've listened to this track 30 times in the past four days.
From the start of the track I was hooked. Guitar tones galore roped me in and changed up the feel as we hit the verses where a carefully planned, simplistic bass and drum groove took over the air space. Pruitt's vocals and lyrics hit me right away as I was finally once intrigued and paying attention to the words in a song.
Upon build up after build up Pruitt graces us with her angelic, strong, and elegant voice only to hit the stratosphere with her final push making every hair on my body stand up. The first time I heard the ending coda of the track I was baffled, forced to run it back again just to analyze some more. This song is all feeling, all heart, and precisely the type of music I think should be in every home in the world. It's just a gosh darn great song that makes you feel something even if it helps you move your body instead of thinking about the problems in your life.
I don't think I've done this song justice - it demands so much more. I can only imagine the energy in the room when the first cut was mastered and friends and family gathered around to hear Pruitt's baby for the first time. It almost brings me to tears every time I hear it. Turn it up, play it loud, and let those feelings flow through you.
Prologue /Jet Song - Hands down one of the best musicals to ever grace my eye balls, West Side Story lives in infamy in the Torres household. Is it because my father also grew up on the streets of New York City or is it the fact that my family is Cuban and we can draw some connections between the Sharks? That's where this contradiction comes into play, because"every Puerto Rican's a lousy chicken" so we side with the Jets...
We'd always tease my aunt, born and raised in Puerto Rico, whenever we could as I sung the lyrics under my breathe. It was all fun and games and she'd give it back to you in a heart beat.
My parents used to have a CD of the music from West Side Story played by popular recording artists during the time and I absolutely loved it. Coupled with my love for the musical I couldn't get enough of the re-imagined versions of those songs. The stand out though proved to be the Jet Song as it were my favorite in the musical and one that Brian Setzer took to the moon and back.
I love the whistle intro, the classic swing of the finger snaps. The intro alone gets me so excited I can't contain my feelings as I perk up and get moving. My brother and I would quote the beginning of this track incessantly as we professed to each other - "you're gonna get arrested man" - we'd even round it out with the various grunts and groans in the background serving as the sounds during the brawl between the Sharks and the Jets.
Only exposed to the classic versions of the original film's songs, my brain was appropriately blown sky high when I first heard the rocking version of the Jet Song. Take 'er out for a spin and see where it takes you.
Eyes of the World - "Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world"
I can remember the exact time I was introduced to this fine Dead track. Back in high school, when I first started to get into the Grateful Dead I would wear the tie dye t-shirts and the occasional bandana with my hair long. People called me a hippie, but I think I was a pretty vanilla hippie. Seeing through my colorful exterior and into the music loving core was one of my school's vice principles; quite possibly one of the last people I ever thought to talk to me about the Dead.
In our lunch room Mr. Snyder and I talked about our favorite tracks, albums, and had the various conversations dead heads have with each other. Back then I was a novice listener probably only exposed to the hits and a small sect of outliers. That is where Mr. Snyder came in, seemingly from the clouds, when he suggested I have a listen to two of his favorite tracks. The first one was "Estimated Prophet" off the Dead's epic Terrapin Station album. I was familiar with Terrapin Station as a song suite, but not the rest of the album. My naivete proved deeper as his second recommendation found me stumped without a retort. "Eyes of the World" off Wake of the Flood found me in a vacuum but then let the air in.
I like to think of Dead songs being vastly different in style and construction, but I'm not sure if it's just the order I was introduced to them in or the environment I found myself in when I first listened. To me, right now, "Eyes of the World" pops out as a differential track from the rest of the band's catalog. A happy, or in the words of the internet, a "hippy-dippy" song, this Dead tune uplifts your spirits and lets you sing along with the catchy lyrics. It's not that far out there or filled with a multitude of moving parts that usually align with the way the Grateful Dead play their unique brand of music.
August, GA - Let it be known that the Spotify version of this track has it has "August, Ga" rather than Augusta, but that fact doesn't really matter. As I navigated my first long distance relationship, the subsequent break up, and the introduction to hardcore and punk shows, I started to get into my sad boy era filled with all the essential music to round out my feelings. My friends were into pop punk and hardcore and they brought me along, wearing my college sweatshirt, to my first hardcore show to see a band I now wish I could see an infinite amount of times.
That band wasn't Into It, Over It, but the sentiment in the room and the vast array of personalities and styles would at some point understand the feelings I was experiencing. I can't recall where I stumbled upon "Augusta, GA" or when it came into my life, but it worked it's way in there amidst my journey of finding new music.
Back then, as much the same as now, I sang the songs but never paid attention to what the lyrics were actually saying. I never interpreted them deeply or searched for some meaning, I simply sang them and felt the inherent sentiments coming out of the speakers. Back on the feeling train, my interest in music has almost always been rhythmic, grasping to feelings. This style of music was, and still is, pretty to me. The guitar work is intriguing, bright, and "nice" while the vocals are comforting and packed with the emotion that I was so familiar with in those years. Singing these types of songs now brings me back to a time I look back on fondly yet sadly.
You Love the Thunder - I can't listen to Jackson Browne without the not so subtle jabs of "Communist!" coming from my father's mouth. "What, you don't like Jackson Browne" I ask. "I like his music, I just don't like his politics." And with that we move on and I turn up the stereo more. It's nothing serious, we can push each other's buttons a little bit every now and then (try all the time.)
With politics aside, I love me some Jackson Browne. An extremely talented musician with a pen so sharp I can't comprehend how he writes such catchy and meaningful tunes. I believe its the piano playing that drew me in, much alike the rest of the population, and the piano playing that keeps me coming back. Growing up in a rock and roll house I think I believed that making music was predominately done with electric guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. That's the magic formula right? Well, there are other formulas I came to find out.
I think most of musicians with piano as there main instrument enjoyed success because of the difference in their music, the straying from "popularity." Billy Joel, Elton John, and Jackson Browne - all great piano players, great singers, and great songwriters... Elton John maybe not so much, but you get the point.
Jackson Browne took his song crafting skills and played those tunes on a familiar instrument, but one that provides a song with a totally different feel than one driven by the electric guitar. There's seemingly more range, albeit a different range, but non the less a difference that catches peoples attention and allows for a track to navigate other avenues.
Scrolling through my iTunes I came across the Jackson Brown songs I've saved and was delighted to find and remember this specific track. One I hadn't heard in a while, but one that immediately excited me as I threw it on. Enjoy.
Your Smiling Face - Another artist that hooked me with their greatest hits album, James Taylor grabbed hold of me and has never let go. There is always an exception to the rule though and that exception happens to be "Your Smiling Face." Released after the greatest hits, JT took off like a rocket ship with its opening track, yes you guessed it the very song in question here. Even though I was a product of the hits, I fell in love with "Your Smiling Face" immediately, without any conviction or doubt.
Much the difference from the majority of his greatest hits album, this track includes a full band and a rocking aspect much akin to the late seventies southern California yacht rock style. What a genre and what a time to be alive... good thing we have these recordings to fall back on. What would my friend's and I have to listen to and talk about if there was no such thing?
"Your Smiling Face" hits me like a ray of sunshine, warm and hopeful. It makes me smile and sing as loud as I can - granted the stereo has to be turned up to ten while that happens. But seriously, when I think about James Taylor I think about that greatest hits album and this song. They should have taken a space ship to the future, found this track floating around and brought it back where it belongs. Come on JT, shoulda known to hold off for a year or two.
The Way You'd Love Her - Mac DeMarco found me directly in the right way; when I thought I was cool, when I thought I wasn't a hipster. Turns out I was more hipster than I'd like to admit, but I guess you're into what you're into for a reason. I wasn't doing it for any sort of clout.
Back when this EP cam out my family went on a vacation down to Myrtle Beach. I got this record and couldn't stop listening to it. The protests from my brother included jabs about how, whoever it was singing, sounded like a dying bird. It's funny, I think he'd enjoy this music now, especially since our family friend, who was also on that trip, has now gotten into Mac after the years since our trip.
This EP hit me hard and still has a hold on me. Whenever I think about simple love songs I think of these tracks and how dumbfounded I've been over the way Mac could write such catchy, deep tunes that were also incredibly simple at times. It doesn't take much to write a good song. A little bit of luck, talent of course, but also an ability to see past all the formulas and intricacies. It could be two chords, three words, or a set of repetitious lines hitting you over and over again.
I tried to pick one of the more upbeat songs of the record, even if it's subject matter is a bit sad. If only you could show her the way you'd love her, it would all be okay. I've been there before and it's a lonely feeling. Mac does the incredible job of letting you into those feelings while making it catchy and introducing you to other emotions at the same time.
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