A couple of things. Back in December 2021, I said I’d be back in January 2022, I just didn’t say when. I like to keep everyone guessing. Even myself. Especially myself. That’s the best part.

Back in the beginning, when I started posting all of my wares, I made sure that I numbered my music and art posts so that I wouldn’t feel like I’m falling behind regarding “calendar” dates. That causes stress and guilt which also causes the very problems you were trying to help with creativity in the first place.

I have a small offering of what today brought. I had many false starts and struggles with a couple of different songs. It was super frustrating so I only made it this far for this Music Monday. But at least I showed up and made noise today. That’s the important part even though that seems absurd. But for me, that is the important part.

To be continued.

Carolaoke Song #52 - Annie Lennox - "Little Bird" (snippet)

Original Song Reference:

December is one of my favorite times of the year and also one of the busiest so I won’t be posting any of my art or musical wares for the rest of the year. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great festive winter season however you may celebrate. Here’s to a promising 2022! Please keep well everyone.

I’ve been so far down the visual art rabbit hole lately that I forgot how to use words. Singing still seems to work. Please enjoy my Caroloake song #51 for today’s Music Monday and please keep well everyone.

Carolaoke Song #50 - No Doubt - "In My Head"

Original Song Reference:

I’ve been really getting into singers like Caro Emerald and Paloma Faith lately. The song I chose today is Paloma Faith’s “Upside Down”. This song is perfect in every way. The words, the music, the music video and most of all, her vocals (she's amazing!)

I’m especially fond of these lyrics:

“I don't care (care care)
I'm halfway there (nowhere)
On a road that leads me to straight to who knows where…”

For some reason it reminds me of the line in Almost Famous when Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) tells young William Miller (Patrick Fugit) “you’ll meet them all again on their long journey to the middle.”

Carolaoke Song #50 - Paloma Faith - "Upside Down"

Original Song Reference:

Juice Newton! She was in heavy rotation at my parents house when I was younger. If I remember correctly, she was also inside the jukebox at the campground that we spent most summers at (great childhood memories by the way, thank you Mom and Dad!) That’s the first place I heard Steve Miller Band’s, “Abracadabra” and I couldn’t get enough of playing that over and over again. That jukebox sounded amazing - all warm and bass(y). It was cool to be down there when it was raining during the week and nobody was there. That was some freedom, let me tell you. My sister and I would entertain ourselves listening to music and playing the various arcade games that were there, feeling like grownups even though the camper was just up the hill. The campground even had a little store on the premises that we’d get candy at to take back up to the camper.

A note about the actual karaoke track I used for this little tribute. The instrumental part of the track is really bang on, however, the male backup singers in this version come on like a team of football players singing along in the locker room and was throwing me off my girly Juice Newton vibe. I mean no disrespect to anyone, especially football players who may or may not be able to sing, it just stood out to me as such. I provided a little sound clip of what it sounded like before I added my vocals. I found it very entertaining.

Male backing vocals sample:

Carolaoke Song #49 - Juice Newton - "Queen of Hearts"

Original Song Reference: