Music. According to Kim.

I was so happy when I heard that Steel Union was finally releasing an EP! If you've never heard of Steel Union, they're a fairly new country trio comprised of Rachel Potter, Donny Fallgatter and Josh Matheny. And they are wonderful. I have written about them before and there's one member that I've written about a few times on here: Rachel Potter. She's become one of my favorite female singers and once you hear her sing, you'll know why that is. She has such a great Broadway quality voice which works considering that she's actually performed on Broadway. She released a great album back in 2015 called Not So Black and White and you can find my review of that here . It was one of my favorite albums of 2015 and I still listen to it pretty often.  That said, as much as I like her solo stuff I am absolutely loving Steel Union. Donny Fallgatter has a great country voice while Josh Matheny brings some raspiness into the trio which I like. He's also the...

Welcome to the newest installment of my Music Therapy series. Arthritis Awareness Month is coming to a close and I couldn't let it end without doing another one of these. This one is going to be a bit different from the others. See, sometimes you need to listen to encouraging songs and other times you need to cry it out for the more emotional songs. But you know what? Sometimes what you really need is to listen to something that makes you want to move. This month has been a tough one, but I've noticed that I've been gravitating more towards those kinds of songs. The ones that make me want to dance. The songs that are just plain fun. Sometimes that's enough to pull you out of a funk or at the very least lift your spirits for a bit. There are so many songs I could have picked and it's safe to say they'll be other installments of this series that include more of them. This time I decided to narrow it down to YouTube artists. The next time I'll be focusing m...

First things first. You may have heard about the terrible wildfires that have been plaguing parts of the South. I've been to Gatlinburg, TN a couple of times and it's such a beautiful part of the country. It's a wonderful place to visit and so seeing all the footage of it burning broke my heart. As of right now, three people have been killed and who knows how many buildings have been destroyed. They could really use our help right about now. If you can, and feel led to do so, here's where you can donate to the American Red Cross:  https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation . You can also donate to The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee who will be giving grants to nonprofits helping out. If you're unable to give at this time, please keep the people of Gatlinburg in your thoughts and prayers. Everything helps. Now, today's EP isn't new, but it's a good one. I mean, it's Rachel Potter.  I've said it about her before, but Rachel is the kind o...

It occurred to me that it's been way too long since I've written about this talented lady. This sent me looking through her YouTube channel. This reminded me of two things. The first is that she has multiple videos that I'm going to need to write about at some point. The other is how effortlessly she hits her big notes. I mean, I listen to her enough to know that. I've now gotten to see her perform twice and she's even better live. But it seems like it's been awhile since I've watched any of her videos. Hearing it is one thing; watching it is another. She makes it look so easy, like hitting notes on a piano. If you've never heard Rachel, I assure you that you're in for a treat. Those of you have  heard her know what I'm talking about. Here's Rachel with her beautiful cover of "Let It Go" from Frozen .

Saved my favorite Phantom cover for last. As some of you know, the first solely VoicePlay video I ever saw was their ACA-Top 10 Broadway countdown. That solidified my love for this group. Like countless others, that little snippet of Tony Wakim singing "The Phantom of the Opera" wasn't enough. We wanted more. Well. Well! The people spoke and VoicePlay listened. Bless their a cappella, musical loving hearts. There's just something about these guys singing Broadway that does something to me. Something silly. It's like I go from a grown woman to a 14 year old at a One Direction concert. I have absolutely no chill when it comes to VoicePlay performing songs from musicals. I am sans chill. What's great about this is that I know I'm not alone. Others reading this will undoubtedly have the same problem. Now these guys deciding to do more from Phantom themselves would've been enough. More than enough. But they decided to take this one step further and invi...

Should you happen to come across Steel Union's biography on either their Facebook or Twitter pages, you would see their names and that they like harmony and dobros. Well, I too like harmony and dobros. I've talked about what a sucker I am for great harmonies multiple times in the past, but haven't said as much about my love of the dobro. Ah the dobro, a very cool instrument that gets very little recognition these days. I feel like the only time you really see them anymore is as part of a bluegrass group. Another reason to appreciate bluegrass. But mainstream country music has seemingly turned its back on the poor dobro. So anytime it pops up is a cause for celebration. I somehow always forget how much I love that instrument until I hear it. This is a shame because I happen to own a dobro that I attempted to learn how to play a few years ago. My use of the word attempted should be a clue as to how well that endeavor turned out. But since discovering this trio, I've been ...

Preparing for this blog has renewed my commitment to listen to each album I get right when I get it. I don't know about y'all, but I'm actually pretty bad about that. Unless it's an album I've been really looking forward to, there's a very good chance that I'll hold off on listening to it. I don't know why I do it, but I do. Which is okay, so far as it goes - until you decide to make a best of 2015 list, but can't until you go through and listen to all of them. That's right. These past couple of weeks, I've been going through and listening to every album and EP that I got in 2015. I don't recommend doing this. Especially when it involves roughly 80 full-length albums and over 40 EPs. 1,360 songs total, according to the iTunes playlist I created. Yep. I repeat: I do not recommend doing this. Now, I've been reading a bunch of these kinds of lists and just about all of them focus on one kind of country music only. Like mainstream pop...

Here we are in the middle of August. It's been crazy hot in some places and there's been days where the humidity has been practically suffocating. There's people longing for fall to arrive and I'm one of them. Bring on the cooler temperatures and beautiful foliage. You know what else happens in the fall? The return of hockey. Yep, I recognize that people are generally a lot more excited about football, but I'm much more of a hockey girl. In any event, summer isn't going anywhere just yet. So with that in mind, I'd like to tell y'all which songs I'm currently loving. Songs that were made for these summer months. You know the kind I mean. Songs that make you want to crank the volume up and roll the windows down. The songs that make you want to dance, possibly like an idiot. Maybe especially like an idiot. It's okay. You do you. No judgment here. These songs are more about fun than anything else. Most of them are country; a few are not. Some are c...

Full disclosure: a while back I decided that I was going to stop doing album reviews. Out of everything I write, album reviews take me the longest to complete. Plus there's been some debate about whether album reviews are still relevant or not that factored into this decision. I've clearly changed my mind on this issue. This album being one of the reasons why - this is honestly one of the best albums I've heard in a while. I knew I had to write about it. Even more so in reading all of the responses to what is now being referred to as SaladGate. I'm not going to waste time getting into all of that right now, except to say that I feel like Keith Hill's comments were blown out of proportion and that most people completely missed the valid point he was making. We need to do a better job of supporting female artists. Period. If you ask me, there are three key ways to do that. Buy their music. Go to their shows. Talk about them. So with those things in mind, I'm g...