Music. According to Kim.

Happy Halloween, everybody! We're going to kick this one off with what I'm calling Life Lessons from VoicePlay. Because in the time that I've been a fan of theirs, they have taught me some things. Granted, some of these lessons were taught inadvertently, but still. Here we go. Lesson #1: Eli and Geoff inadvertently taught me that googling things from your childhood is not a good idea (see my  write-up  of their version of "Love Yourself)". Unless you're in the mood to feel as old as dirt. I feel like this one seems less traumatic as you get older, but I've now reached a point where I can remember things from 20 years ago. I'm not okay with that just yet. Lesson #2a: Eating and/or drinking with viewing and/or listening to VoicePlay is dangerous, to yourself and possibly any electronics in range. I've warned about this before, but it's important. Lesson #2b: You are no match for Earl. Because most of my near-choking VoicePlay induced moment...

I was combing through various videos, trying to think of another one I could highlight for these last couple of days before Halloween. There's so many options to choose from that it makes me feel bad that I didn't decide to feature creepy or dark videos earlier in the month. There were some other, more Halloween-y videos I could have gone with, but this one popped up in my suggested videos on YouTube. I'd forgotten this video and thought it'd be a great choice.  The song is "Stitches", originally by Shawn Mendes. This version is performed by the incredible Evynne Hollens. As I've said, Evynne has become one of my favorite female singers. She might even be my absolute favorite. She has such a beautiful voice and an ability to make it do whatever it needs to do to suit whatever song she's singing at the time. Listening to Evynne singing is always a treat. On top of that, she's a wonderful performer who always makes you really feel the lyrics. Thi...

Finally! This post is about four years in the making! We are fast approaching the end of October and Halloween and every year I've wanted to do a post highlighting some of my favorite creepy, dark country songs. And it's never happened. Until now. As I said in my video spotlight on Two Story Road's wonderful a cappella version of their song "Arson", I've always found dark songs to be the most interesting of songs, particularly from a songwriting perspective. Especially in times like this when there's so many party songs out there. I like listening to dark country songs to balance that out sometimes. In fact, I actually have a playlist made up of 59 of these kinds of songs. I know there's a lot more to be found out there. Maybe it's weird, but I genuinely enjoy listening to these kinds of songs. Not all the time. It definitely requires a certain type of mood. I feel like I always listen to them more this time of year because what better time of ...

As Halloween is fast approaching, I thought it'd be appropriate to highlight some of country music's dark songs. What do I mean by dark songs? I'm talking about songs about things like deception and betrayal, murder and vengeance. You get the general idea. These, as you may imagine, are not the happiest on songs. Maybe not the kinds of songs you'd want to crank up while driving around with the windows down. Or maybe you do - I'm not here to judge. Actually, I've always found these kinds of songs to be the most interesting songs. I think it takes a different kind of mindset to write them and I find them important. Because as unpleasant as the subject matters are, the reality is that these things happen. It doesn't do anyone any good to pretend that they don't. With that in mind, this felt like a good time of year to showcase at least a couple of them. Starting off with "Arson" the A Cappella remix by Two Story Road. If you haven't heard ...

Let it be known that the men of VoicePlay have a crazy way of making me alter my writing plans. I was going to write a few more country related posts before writing about them again, but then they released this. After watching it for the first time, I knew it had to be my next post. "I Love Me" has already become one of my favorite videos of theirs; in fact, it may actually be my overall favorite. This, my friends, is saying something. Not having ever heard the song before, I had no thoughts about it going in. That said, there were two things that made me really excited to watch it. The first one being that if you've been paying attention, you'll know that Tony has been MIA from the last few videos. Long enough to send a good portion of the VoicePlay fan collective into a serious case of Wakim withdrawals. Well, let us all rejoice because Houston? We have a Tony! To that end, if you haven't already been made aware of it, Tony and Layne have started a video p...