Brandon's Buzz

John Mellencamp — “Case 795 (The Family)”
(from Human Wheels) — 

A not-so-subtle reminder (courtesy of the most relevant tune Bob Dylan never wrote) that we all — the social worker, the newspaper reporter, the next-door neighbor — are in this mess together.

Tara MacLean — “If I Fall” (from Passenger) —

Funny how the memory works: I quite sincerely can’t name five things on this Earth that I love doing more than CD shopping with my best friend Sherry Ann, and every single time I hear this song — a moody, magnificent triumph from gorgeous Canadian chick who, sadly, never got a fair shake south of her own border — I flash back to the night ten years ago when Sherry and I stood before the new release wall inside of Hastings in College Station, Texas, and literally battled, tug-of-war style (and I am not making that up!), over the lone copy of Passenger that the store had in stock. (As I recall, I ended up letting her win, partly because I’m a nice guy, and partly because I didn’t wish to embarrass myself any further than I already had; as I was wearing a Longhorns t-shirt to begin with, I was already a clearly-marked outsider in enemy territory. Like Kenny once said, you better know when to hold ’em and know when to fold ’em.)

Melissa Etheridge — “Fearless Love” (from Fearless Love) —

You know, somewhere in all the save-the-world semantics that have monopolized much of her material for the last decade, it seemed as though Miss Melissa had misplaced entirely that rare ability she has always had to write those clean, catchy-as-hell (yet refreshingly adult) melodic pop songs. Consider that foolishness rectified.

One of the highlights of my daily Twitter experience is checking out the latest musings from one of my all-time favorite artists, the incredible Rob Thomas. (Yes, that Rob Thomas, and if you don’t already follow him on Twitter, you can find him by searching for “ThisIsRobThomas” from the social network’s main website, or by clicking here. For that matter, if you don’t yet follow me, you can either search for “BrandonsBuzz” or click on the Twitter link inside the maroon box of tweets in the far right column of this very page.)

In amongst chattering with his friends and fans, Rob has a regular feature on his Twitter feed that he calls, simply, “Song of the Day.” There are no frills here, and no expansive ruminations: just a song title — and the name of a singer to whom the named tune corresponds — which presumably Rob is either listening to that very moment or otherwise just generally enjoys. The range of Rob’s choices can be a bit scattershot; sometimes he chooses a new-ish title, and others, he goes for a bona-fide blast from the past. Some days, he selects a superstar-sung classic that urrybody can hum along with, and others, he reaches into his hat and pulls out an obscure ditty that, probably, only he can sing in the shower. (Wednesday’s “Song” was Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic,” one of the all-time greats; before that, “Moves” from The New Pornographers and “Come Rain or Come Shine” from Ray Charles; recent titles from the past two weeks or so have come from the disparate likes of Suzanne Vega, The Black Keys, Cat Stevens, Soul Coughing, and — heads up, Sherry Ann! — Jason Mraz and The National.)

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