CONNECT 4

In my new job, I have taken to signing off emails with the line, “Looking forward to connecting soon.”  I don't write this line in vain because in fact, one of my main responsibilities on a daily basis at work is connecting with people.

Recently, I met with one of the premier special events rental companies in the greater Pittsburgh market late on a Friday afternoon.  At the end of our meeting we exchanged pleasantries and asked what each other was doing that weekend.  The gentleman, being my senior, mentioned that he and his wife would be going to a concert, and when I eagerly asked which one, he politely said that it was an artist before my time.  When I pressed him, he said “Arlo Guthrie” which I quickly responded that “It’s not Thanksgiving until you hear ‘Alice’s Restaurant’.  We then shared a quick laugh, but what really blew me away was that days later, I received a copy of “Alice's Restaurant 50th Anniversary Massacree” in the mail.

Music continues to be a constant in my life that connects me to my friends.  Both songs and bands often times link to me to people from various different points in my life. One of those bands is Phish.  And it is fitting that they are the group that sings a song called “The Connection”, "When I see the connection / Though I see, I don't stare”.  As I look into the figurative mirror of my life, they are the band that ties me to my childhood friends from New Jersey.   They were a constant in my college years in Washington DC and during my years of booking/traveling with bands.  They link me to my brother-in-law who lives on another continent and after seeing the band perform for the first time in a couple of years, I realized that even though I do not own any of their albums, they are a band that acts as a social glue for me.

  

I have yet to introduce my boys to Phish, but the song about connections that they have heard is Kermit the Frog’s “Rainbow Connection”:  “Why are there so many / Songs about rainbows/ And what's on the other side / Rainbows are visions / They're only illusions / And rainbows have nothing to hide.”  My intent of this blog is to share some of my ideas about music and how it plays a part in my life and I understand that by sharing those thoughts, I have put myself out there.  Hopefully in a way that you the reader can connect with . . .

As always, thanks for reading and enjoy my nominees/winners for what has become an obligatory year in review.  Happy New Decade!

Song of the Year:

Better Oblivion Community Center – “Dylan Thomas”

Black Pumas - "Colors"

Citizen Cope – “Justice”

Hozier - "Almost (Sweet Music)"

Daniel Norgen - "Let Love Rule the Game"

Concert of the Year:

J Roddy Walston & The Business at Point State Park - June 11

Cautious Clay at Schenley Plaza - June 29 

Grand Masters of Guitar at THIS IS RED - July 11 

Pink Talking Fish at Hamilton Live – October 12

Phish at Petersen Events Center – December 4

Album of the Year 

Bon Iver “I, I”

City and Colour – “A Pill for Loneliness”

Sam Fender – “Hypersonic Missiles”

Bruce Hornsby - “Absolute Zero”

Dermot Kennedy – “Without Fear”