On Blogging and Its Influence on Music

It occurred to me a few months ago that I hadn't bought a new CD in over a year and a half, and that all of the music I was hearing, in the car, in the house, was becoming stale. So then I went to my trusty blog and talked about my love for U2 and announced it was time for some new (old) tunes. On the recommendation of my lovely commentors, I bought U2-18 and I have been loving it. The kids and I rock out to it on the way to school. Tommy begs me to play #15, 'Elevation', over and over. It cracks me up.

Then, an unknown little blogger named BooMama wrote about a singer that she loves called Dave Barnes. My mother, who lurks on everyone's blog, including yours, bought the CD and loved it so much she sent one to me and both of my sisters. (By the way, if you are a real life friend of mine and you write an emotionally wrenching post, my mom will lurk on your blog and then call me to talk about whether or not you are going to be okay.)

So anyway, now I am up to two CD's in two weeks. Then, again on BooMama's blog, I found out about a free CD giveaway from a fella called Matt Maher, so I signed up for that one, and it came in the mail last weekend. Ask and you shall receive.

Now I have plenty of fresh tunes to enjoy, and I am loving all of them.

The only problem I have with new music is that I don't know the words to it. And anyone who has ever ridden in a car with me knows that I must sing every single word or I cannot properly enjoy a song.

My husband snickered when I told him I hadn't heard of Matt Maher before, and immediately named off four Matt Maher songs that we sing in church. Greg has a savant-like ability to recognize praise songs and their writers within the first two chords of the song. Then he can pick up a guitar and play it and sing every word. I, on the other hand, will sometimes be halfway through the chorus before I realize that I have heard it before.

Greg also snickered at how excited I was to get free stuff to review on the blog. I haven't mentioned this before, but he has a very well known professional (techie geek) blog, and it has turned into a successful part-time income for him. One side effect of his success is that he gets free products in the mail almost every day to review. Which would be really exciting to me if the products weren't so steeped in techie geekiness. And so cluttery in my house.*


The Matt Maher CD, Empty and Beautiful, has been playing in my car for a few days, and so far it has been quite nice. It's mellow and lovely. "Your Grace is Enough" has been a favorite song around our house for a while now, especially for a certain kid named Grace. We also sing "For your Glory" at our church, which I love. This CD is on sale here for $8.97.

*I briefly considered linking to his blog, but it's not anonymous enough for me. But if you already know my last name and Google it, you'll land right smack on his website. And if you e-mail me and convince me you're not a stalker, I'll be glad to send you the link. I just didn't want to post it on here.