I can hear a Christmas carol playing while I stand in line here at the Starbucks in Denver Airport. I think I’m the only person listening to the words, which are full of Good News. Whether it’s sung by Bing Crosby or Perry Como, by Bob Seeger or Elvis Presley, the music of the seasonContinue reading “Good News In the Starbucks Queue”
Category Archives: Music
Why One Line in This Christmas Song May Be the Greatest Ever Written
Unexpected news? A bill you didn’t see coming? Health issues for someone you love? Relationships strained? I get it. It’s hard any time of the year, but worse at Christmas. Looking at my friends’ profiles, it’s easy to see that I’m not alone in thinking the peaceful season is fraught with pain and worry andContinue reading “Why One Line in This Christmas Song May Be the Greatest Ever Written”
Top 10 Albums of 2013
I have an eclectic taste in music, and I don’t listen to the radio. I enjoy music based on what I discover through experiences, through recommendations from friends, through browsing the playlists on Spotify and seeing what catches my eye and ear. The albums represented here are not the only ones I listened to inContinue reading “Top 10 Albums of 2013”
A Jazzy, Classical, Somewhat Folky but Still Appalachian Christmas
Every year, I search for a great new Christmas album to add to my collection. With more than 11,150 Christmas songs in my collection since I began in 1987, I’ve heard everything. Good and bad. When you find a holiday album that is simply perfect in every way, it’s a cause for celebration. This year,Continue reading “A Jazzy, Classical, Somewhat Folky but Still Appalachian Christmas”
Being Alive
From one of my favorite composers, a beautiful, truthful lyric on marriage that never fails to move me every time I hear it. Someone to hold you too close. Someone to hurt you too deep. Someone to sit in you chair, To ruin your sleep. Someone to need you too much. Someone to know youContinue reading “Being Alive”
O Vos Omnes
Most people I know today would be surprised to discover that while in college I was part of a very traditional, “high church” style choir called the Biola Chorale. For four years, this group of people were my best friends and it was probably my deep love and involvement in the choir that caused meContinue reading “O Vos Omnes”
The Genius of John Williams, Part One
If you were to try and name America’s greatest composer, you could name some amazing individuals. Leonard Bernstein. Aaron Copland. Charles Ives. But as great as these composers are, none of them have had the impact on the public at large as an individual who has been actively composing for nearly 50 years and hasContinue reading “The Genius of John Williams, Part One”
Beautiful Songs Under a Winter Moon
You probably haven’t heard of Mindy Gledhill. And if you expect to hear her in the usual mix of stuff they play on the “Christmas Music Stations,” you just won’t. Her combination of melancholy, simply-sung and arranged songs, along with a uniquely stylized voice, just won’t fit in with stations that insist on playing WhitneyContinue reading “Beautiful Songs Under a Winter Moon”
Protected: Perfection for Christmas: The J’s with Jamie
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Hallelujah
This is one of the greatest songs of the last 40 years. It was written in 1984 by singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, and his rendition is sad, dirge-like, and very melancholy, even with the words, “Hallelujah” repeatedly sung throughout. Cohen’s gravelly voice and the slow tempo give the song a dark cynicism. But there is beautyContinue reading “Hallelujah”
Duane S. Montague 