The Days That I Listen To Music Are Better

By Cheryl Ryan

Of course, we need to listen to the news but there is just so much of it. The days that I never turn on the news are good. The days that I listen to music are better. And the days that I bust out a dance or a song are the best.

So let’s talk music.  A few years ago I told my husband that I would not go to one more Rolling Stones concert and that he’d have to go with a friend from now on.  We’d already gone four times and I just couldn’t keep listening to the same rock songs over and over. I told him that I would go to concerts if he found some good new music.  He ran with this plan and wholeheartedly started searching. We asked our kids what they liked and starting looking for music stations on Pandora and Spotify.

What we found out is that there are some really good musical artists out there that aren’t on the MTV music awards each year and they’re playing in smaller venues. It’s been fun finding out what we’ve been missing. I know that music is incredibly subjective and that there is so much that we haven’t found. I’ve listed a few of the concerts that we agreed on and could get tickets to below. But I’m really hoping that you’ll share some that you love so that we can continue our music journey.  Oh and by the way, I actually appreciate the Rolling Stones way more now that I get to listen to different music too.

Some Concerts We’ve Been To:

Amos Lee was playing at The Mountain Winery. We’d never heard him before and he was sharing the billing with David Gray. Apparently, they switched each night and he was up last that evening. He admitted to partaking in some of the winery wine and was particularly animated during his performance and we fell in love with him. We’ve followed him around to two more concerts and he’s just a great live performer.  He plays bluegrass, folk, and soul.

We saw Alt-J at The Greek Theatre with our kids. It was a beautiful night and the views were spectacular. Their music is Alternative/Indie and really mesmerizing in concert.

Colin Hay is a Scottish-born musician who was the lead vocals for Men At Work. I didn’t know anything about him but my husband, Lou, wanted to go, so I surprised him with tickets for Christmas. He put on a show that included stories of his life and the meaning behind each song that he wrote. I loved the story-telling style and his voice is still really strong. It made for an intimate, really enjoyable concert.

Kaleo is an Icelandic band. The lead vocalist, Jokull Juliusson, even sings a few songs in Icelandic. His voice is strangely powerful and seemed to fill up the entire Masonic Lodge concert hall in San Francisco. And the bonus was that our friend’s daughter saw us up in the balcony which made us feel kind of cool. They are blues/rock, indie/folk.

I hope you dance this weekend and please share your favorite music with us.