Post one of your favorite weather-related songs.

In the early 2000s, I used to burn winter mix CDs for friends and relatives as Christmas gifts. I used a blend of traditional carols and modern interpretations of them and songs that were loosely or directly about the winter season.

A lot of the songs I picked were more reflective - not so much jolly treacle.

This was one of them.

At Christmas this year, I noticed my parents had one of those mix CDs in rotation (alongside Mannheim Steamroller - yuck 🤮!). It was one of the artifacts of our relationship that I noticed that day. All these sorts of silent bids for connection in the background that made me feel loved. That made me feel like they were proud of me after all.

These artifacts - photos, ornaments , music - they didn’t and haven’t undone the trauma and the pain I experienced as a teenager (and sometimes as a kid). But they felt sort of like an unspoken apology. A “Hey, we’re trying.”

And maybe that’s the best I can hope for.

And maybe, at this point, that’s OK.

A favorite a capella (no instruments, only vocals) track.

We sang a TTBB arrangement of this when I was singing with the Columbus Gay Men's Chorus. It was one of my most favorite songs that we ever performed. And singing it under the direction of David Monseur made it all that much better.

There's a TED talk about it - the song, not me.

Eric Whitacre: A choir as big as the Internet (ted.com)

Post one of your favorite country songs.

This was the entry point for me to start exploring Dolly Parton's catalog beyond 9 to 5.

remember where I was (Dollywood) and what I was doing (exiting through the gift shop) when I first heard it as a teenager.

I often say that I'm an atheist, but if angels are anywhere on earth Dolly Parton walks chiefly among them. I read today (May 5) that she's had to cancel her Vegas residency because of some health concerns. I texted two friends to make sure they were okay. And maybe to make sure I was, too.

Post one of your favorite songs of the year so far.

Pulled from nowhere, forged in failure You swim against the tide All the while you see so clearly All that lies ahead

This song wanted to meet a friend of mine. They shared with me recently that they've had a moment of clarity about how all this is going to end up. That it's obviously sucking and going to suck, but we're going to be OK. Their clarity is hope, their story is their journeying, and from their mountaintop view, they see we'll be OK.

You see the world now all connected Flowing as a brain You see the world they way it will be Unfolding in your hands

The vocal humming chord progression at the start reminds me of "America" by Simon & Garfunkel, and I can't imagine it's accidental.

What lies ahead What lies ahead Is forming in your hands

Fuck. Yes.

Is now the time for mincing words? Is now the time for simple civil discourse? We're writing our hit parade. What's it going to sound like?

This AM, husband and I listened to "I'll Be Seeing You".

We listened to Rosemary Clooney's version first:

Rosemary Clooney - "I'll Be Seeing You"

And then to Martha Wainwright's version:

Martha Wainwright - "I'll Be Seeing You"

He told me about the song's relatedness to WWII (confirmed here: "Not only is this a famous track in music history, but on a cultural scale as well. This tune was an emotional victory during the time of the second World War when loved ones were sent away into combat.").

So I thought about the music that musicians make, and the poems that poets write, and the paintings that painters paint, and the writing that writers write - all in response to war. How, when they do their jobs, they're acknowledging, confronting, documenting, and showing and reflecting back to us what's happening. Making sure we don't look away when we most desperately want to, but aren't supposed to.

I wondered to myself, "What kind of music is going to come out of this war?"

Tom Waits and Massive Attack have answered that question.

And it is entirely the correct answer.

Now who the hell are these federal pricks? Hiding in the senate like a bloated ass tick Air conditioned fuckstick loafers Sittin' in a room full of army posters

A coal to a diamond, a vote into law They campaign up all the blood they can draw Mold your world, a soldier's just clay How much does every soldier weigh? Cut you at the ankles and they throw that away

Boots on the ground

Fuck. Yes.

Post one of your favorite ballads.

I'm a sucker for a good murder ballad, and this is probably my most favorite one.

I know he said it's not your fault But I don't believe that's true I've punished him from ear to ear Now I've saved the best for you

Whew. Talk about the fury of a woman scorned...

A song by a band whose merchandise you've bought - what was the merchandise

One of my favorite pieces of merch was a promo window decal for the album University by the band Throwing Muses. It’s still my favorite album by them. I put the decal, which I must’ve bought on eBay, onto my first car which was an old, brown station wagon with a bench seat, a broken radio/cassette player, and a bad carburetor.

What song would you play to counterbalance the world when it feels like a broken and unrelenting monolith designed to bring terror and tragedy?

I am a cloud, you do the work: Just tell me what to be. I am a thousand shapes upon the palette of the sky I am a bird, I am a ship, I am a tree.

A song that would easily be at home on a Kate Bush record, with a delicate mightiness within and around it. An eternal provocation of awe and a stillness that moves. Math and music, sometimes in wisps, sometimes in whirls. A source of peace and power, water and air, and a harbinger of horizons.

They can't control a cloud. For all their corruption and cantankerous cronyism, for all their terrible greed, their wars, their division, and their lies, they cannot control a cloud.

A cloud -the clouds- with their shapes and shifts, are yet still ours.

Some albums have a good opening track, but the 2nd track is totally killer. What's your favorite 2nd track song?

This is the first song that comes to mind. It’s the one I always play when I want to welcome the heat of spring or summer. I play it at maximum volume while I drive with windows down and sing along.

Share a track by your favorite vocalist of all-time.

Husband drove me to work today, and I liked talking with him about what makes a vocalist a vocalist. Coming up with a shared and agreed upon example was fun. For me, in general, I don't call most singer/songwriters vocalists. So for me that eliminates people like Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell, Sarah McLaughlin and all the rest. And I don't really count singers in a band as vocalists even though we say they do "lead vocals" or "background vocals." Prince, Beyonce, Queen, Mary J Blige, Dolly Parton, Björk...they just don't meet my definition.

Husband stated confidently, "They have to able to sing a standard. If they can sing a standard, and do it well, and even better if they can do it a capella, they're a vocalist."

I said he hit the nail on the head.

And so here's my favorite vocalist of all-time, Martha Wainwright. Although she's a singer/songwriter, and her original work leaves an impression, I think she shines brightest when she's covering a standard.

Her live version of Leonard Cohen's "Tower of Song" (featured in the film Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man) is incredible. There's a version of her covering ABBA's "The Name of the Game" out there which she transformed into a ballad. Her Que Sera, Sera is good, too.

But her interpretation of Bye Bye Blackbird proves she's a vocalist. A voice from another era. Strength, grace, emotive, diction, it's all there.

One caveat about her covers: keep far away from her version of The Eurythmics' "Love is a Stranger" - it's truly terrible.