Music Monday: David Gray

Music is one of my favorite things – listening to it, not actually playing it. I had many lessons as a child, playing the violin for 4 years, piano for 2 years and the guitar for one summer (I had a small crush on the best friend of my guitar teacher; sadly, I did not put as much into learning to play the guitar as I did into pursuing the guy and I failed at both) – so I would never, ever claim to be a musician, but I love music! The perfect day would most definitely include being at a concert of some kind – live music, no matter what it is, moves me in a way nothing else does. My kids are beginning to share my love of music and aside from the Wiggles and Yo Gabba Gabba!, we don’t listen to kids music and that makes my heart happy. Liam’s favorite song is One Republic’s Apologize (or something from AC/DC – but he’s not allowed to listen to that when I’m in the car, I have my musical limits).

On Mondays (or as many of them as I can) I hope to share with you the music or musicians that I love and talk a little bit about my experience with them. Or to talk about music in general.

I’ll take this first opportunity to talk about someone I first heard on an episode of Dawson’s Creek (oh how I loved that show and Pacey, and I found many new-to-me songs and musicians though this show and Felicity, the good old WB network). It was at the end of the episode where Pacey and Joey returned from their summer at sea to face what they left behind… angry, sad-faced Dawson. After the long day, they met back up at the boat to make googly faces at each other and… read (no really). But the song playing in the background was David Gray’s This Year’s Love. The piano intro still gives me chills, no matter how many times I hear it.

I’ve seen him live three times and each of those concerts would rank in my top ten concerts list (if I had one – note to self, make this list). Minneapolis at the old theater on University of Minnesota’s campus, we were in the balcony – lucky enough to have gotten tickets to a show that sold out in less than 10 minutes – and you could feel the floor swaying back and forth to the music. Then twice in Chicago, once at The Vic and then at the Auditorium Theater. And hopefully a few more times to come in the future.

There is nothing about his music or his signature head wiggle that I don’t enjoy. And while This Year’s Love will always be my favorite, I love the new stuff, too:

I hope you enjoyed this first foray into Music Monday… who is your favorite musician or band?