Boyhowdy has been guest-blogging at Breakthrough Radio this week - in yet another burst of synchronicity that is my life, below is a snippet of his post from earlier today, as he describes the modus operandi of Star Maker Machine:
For example, this week, our theme is Winter Wonderland, which means we’re posting songs with the word snow in the title; though I’m submitting this post in advance, I have no idea what the pack has come up with, but given the general trend over there, I can predict with reasonable certainty that this week’s early entries have consisted of mostly older, well-cared-for songs from across the genre spectrum...
These more recent piano ballads which use the idea of snow as both metaphor and setting – Over The Rhine’s lush Snow Angel, and neo-trad folkie Kristen Andreassen’s lovely, hushed Like The Snow — wouldn’t be as good a fit there, and since they’re not covers, I can’t share them over at Cover Lay Down. But they’re eminently worth including here today.
The synchronistic part being... I uploaded a draft of Snow Angel early yesterday morning, planning to fine-tune and finish later in the day (after I returned from taking a friend to the doctor... and picking out new bathroom tiles) - the upshot is... I was too exhausted after my errands and vowed to complete the post today... at which point I read BH's submission. I'm still going to follow through on my original intention... and just chalk it up to great-minds-think-alike phenomenon - I'm honored to share an idea with someone whose vivid writing and diverse music tastes I very much admire!
I'm a bit late to the Over the Rhine (married couple Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler) bandwagon, still not possessing any of their regular recordings, but I bought Snow Angels (based on a friend's recommendation) a few years ago... and adore her gorgeous voice, his evocative songwriting and the spare yet rich arrangements of every song on the CD.
From OTR's website:
The Seattle Times calls Over the Rhine's Holiday CD, Snow Angels, "the best soundtrack since A Charlie Brown Christmas for feeling melancholy and lovesick in December."
Over the Rhine: Snow Angel
[purchase]
They say the Eskimos have 100 words for snow and, on Snow Angel, Karin's delivery is plaintive with broken-hearted weariness - as a yang to that yin, I offer up another declaration of love (from the same CD), this song as sizzling as the other is frozen...
Over the Rhine: Snowed In with You
[purchase]
