Category Archives: Music

What I did on my winter vacation

After many, many years of posting in my year-end roundup that I had not left the country yet again, I will finally have a different answer at the end of 2020. I went to Mexico for the first time last month, and it was delightful.

Rockford and I have gone to the Shaky Knees music festival in Atlanta for the last four years or so for our anniversary. It’s a very well-run festival, there are food trucks everywhere, the lineup has been terrific every year, and it’s a pretty easy drive from our house to Atlanta. I’ve loved all of our trips there, but I’ve never come home feeling like I’d spent the weekend relaxing.

And so, as we drove home after last year’s adventure, I told Rockford I’d like to change things up and maybe go somewhere and sit on the beach and do nothing for a few days. He was willing to entertain the idea, but I knew he was disappointed because he loved being immersed in live music for days on end. And then a few days after we got home, Wilco — one of our favorite bands — announced that they were planning their own festival at a resort in Mexico. I forwarded the announcement to Rockford, who said “Well, you manifested this so we have to go.” And so we did.

I felt odd about it, so I didn’t talk about it much ahead of time. It was far more money than we’ve ever spend on a just-the-two-of-us vacation, and getting a passport just to go see one’s favorite musicians seems like crossing a fandom Rubicon. But I’m so glad we went. It was a lovely couple of days in a beautiful environment, and we actually came back feeling like we’d been on vacation.

Was it weird being on vacation with Wilco, Sharon Van Etten, Yo La Tengo, Calexico (and more!) and a bunch of music fans? Yes, a little. Would I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat.

A definitive ranking of Hallelujahs

I had a hankerin’ for some Jeff Buckley “Hallelujah” the other day, so I fired up the ol’ Amazon Music machine and played it. And then it played everything titled “Hallelujah” forever and ever amen, and I listened to every “Hallelujah” cover until it hit Panic! At The Disco’s “Hallelujah,” which isn’t a Leonard Cohen cover at all. Listening to nine different covers of “Hallelujah” in a row may not be a particularly productive use of one’s time but it is not unpleasant.

  1. The Canadian Tenors
  2. Kelley Mooney
  3. Tori Kelly
  4. Pentatonix
  5. Rufus Wainwright
  6. Leonard Cohen
  7. Brandi Carlile
  8. KD Lang
  9. Jeff Buckley

In our final analysis, Jeff Buckley’s version remains My Favorite Version of “Hallelujah.” KD Lang and Brandi Carlile are awfully close, though. “Hallelujah” needs to have a little grit and gravel to it. The Canadian Tenors are lovely singers, but they do not bring the grit nor the gravel. See also: Tori Kelly or Pentatonix.

I still don’t get Bergman films

I didn’t exactly shine as a student in high school. I was pretty average, and my general policy was to put in the least amount of effort that would get me a B or better. So I’m not sure how I tumbled into being friends with the Straight-A Smart Kids crowd, but tumble I did and that’s how I first heard Paul Simon’s “Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War.”

“Rene and Georgette Magritte with their dog, Brussels 1967.” (Lothar Wolleh)
My high school friend Beau is probably the smartest person I’ve ever known. He took math and science classes at the nearest university when we were in middle school, and now he researches philosophy and metaphysics at Oxford. Something of an unusual career path for a kid from rural western North Carolina.

When we were in high school he’d invite friends over to watch Ingmar Bergman and Stanley Kubrick movies and then he and Rockford would discuss them and I’d pretend I knew what they were talking about. Beau tried to make sure his friends were always expanding their horizons, and when he learned that I loved “Graceland” but hadn’t heard “Hearts and Bones,” he put on the CD.

I didn’t love Bergman or Kubrick so much, but “Rene and Georgette” had me at hello and is still one of my favorite songs. It was inspired by a couple of photos of the artist, his wife and their dog taken in Belgium in the late ’60s, and Rolling Stones think it’s one of Paul Simon’s best songs. I agree. I love the image of Rene and Georgette dancing alone in their living room to The Orioles and The Five Satins, and I love the little echoes of doo-wop in the song. I’ve always wondered, though — and before you judge me for wondering this, please know that I also judge myself because it’s pretty dumb thought — could it be, possibly, that the dog’s name is After The War?

That doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility for Magritte, but it’s probably not the case. If I ever get a dog, though, I’ll consider naming it Après La Guerre, and I’ll call it Gary for short, and I’ll sing Paul Simon songs to it all the time.