Association of Music

For some reason or another, I have been talking or thinking a lot about association. Specifically musical association.

So this is me, shuffling through iTunes for 10 songs. We'll see what happens.

Eric Church - Springsteen

Rebekah Pitts. Hands down my first thought on this one. I see her when this came on the radio in the kitchen. Pausing in the middle of the aisle (probably blocking whoever was walking around trying to work) arms outstretched, red hair swinging, telling us all to appreciate it.  Then we walked around the kitchen and sung it at the top of our lungs. 

Also appropriate first song because of this line, "Funny how a melody/ sounds like a memory."

Need to Breathe - Signature of Divine

My first thought is Jackie Burch Barré. She was one of my first blogs to follow and she was one that first got me wheels turning as to how much sharing music can communicate with friends. This song was one of the first that she put at the end of a blog for "What I'm listening to." I can hear here fantastic rolling laughter that comes way more often that it arguably should.

Natalie Grant - Our Hope Endures:

Charissa, my sister, introduced this song to me. I remember the darkness that she shared it in, and the inspiration it gave. I remember sitting around the old desktop in the hallway, waiting for the you tube video to load on our dial-up and then I listened to it multiple times afterwards. 

Phil Wickham - You're Beautiful 

The memory is standing in-between my brother and sister-in-law in their church in Denver, CO. Standing under the strand of bare lightbulbs and singing this song. It then stayed in my head, and I later bought it and listened to it for the entire last thirty minutes of my flight home. I hear it and see those lightbulbs, and I see the landscape of Georgia stretched out underneath me. 

Audio Adrenaline - Big House

 When I hear this song, I am suddenly standing into a middle field in Northern Georgia, surrounded by nearly a hundred campers and staff. We yell it at the top of our lungs, and dance to the motions of having a big house, and a big table, and playing "SOCK WAR (you're OUT!)".  I can see the faces, lit up with adrenaline post game, everyone of us out of breath, but still we sing. 

Amos Lee - Windows are Rolled Down

The person that comes for this song is Ben Helton. I see Ben sitting in the recliner across the staff lounge while people are lined up on the couch, waiting for one of us to make a decision on where we're going to eat. Ben has his eyebrows up, sitting on the edge of his seat, leaning forward in urgency, talking over the other conversations, asking me to look up just one more song on youtube. This one, "an almost perfect driving song".

  

Augustana - Boston

This one makes me think of my college roommate, Megan. She spent her undergrad years at Gordon College in Boston. I think of all the times we sat around the house trying to stay focused on school work and failing. We'd take a break, pick a song and dance, laugh and sing our way back to whatever paper, essay, book, or quiz that required our attention.  I can clearly see her "let's get down to business face" cracking as the laughter pushed its way out of her eyes, and the corner of her smile. 

Boyce Avenue - Perfect

Another camp memory. This one of dance class. I can see Angela and Rachel working on the choreography in the lodge during staff week. Walking back to the infirmary to check on them and finding one laughing on the floor by the computer, and one up brainstorming possibilities  I can see all the little faces they taught the dance to, and see their giddy joy every time they told me about how ready they were for a performance.

Regina Spektor - Hero

This song makes me think of the movie 500 Days of Summer and all the fun hours spent with Katlyn, Thomas and Owen just chilling on couches and watching this movie more than once in a summer. While never functioning above basic level and fighting over Strong Rock Blankets still I would usually end up in a ball on the floor because I just didn't want to move after the session at camp.

Mumford & Sons - Lover of the Light

Any Mumford presently pulls an image of Taylor Wade because the last time I extensively listened to it we were driving back from Lucas and Jen's wedding and he kept coming up with random facts about the band because Promise, his roommate is apparently a big fan, so much so that he has accurately called the next popular singles for the past three years. This one I think was one. We drove and sang, and I watched the passing lights of the towns, and peered through the coming fog and rain, and ever so often mentioned my niece and how cute she was, eliciting a predictable shake of his head (but I know he was smiling on the inside - she's so cute how could you not?).

I plan on finsihing up the Thank(mas) series in the coming days

with Christmas, parts 4 and 5, 

and Family, part 2(maybe 3).

Stay tuned.