Sara B

A while back during a visit with my brother and his family, my brother and I got into this discussion that caused us to sound like the stereo-typical old codgers. The subject of the discussion was music today. It was decided by us (which by the way is the ultimate authority) that there is no current group or artist that has grabbed us to the point that we want to just listen to their music over-and-over. There are no songs that captivate us to the point of wanting to listen to them enough where we can sing along. All the many factors such as quality of music to lack of beauty and theme were discussed which further solidified our opinions.

Then a few months later, I discovered Sara Bareilles. I heard "Love Song" on that Direct TV commercial and thought it sounded pretty good! Ashton wanted the single on her MP3 player, so I downloaded it for her and added it on my iPhone. I listened and loved it! Decided to download the whole "Little Voices" album and it is now in constant rotation on my iPhone selections. It has been a LONG time since I have encounterd a full album without a weak link. Bareilles' voice is rich and emotive. The music she has composed is down-right addicting. This is a great artist and a tremendous album. I want to hear and learn her songs (even though I have a very difficult time singing like a girl--no comments please!).

I think I'll buy a copy for my brother.

Small World

This morning a good friend of ours, Dana, brought her mother to church with her. When introduced to me, she commented, "Irby? I knew an Irby when I was at school at North Texas State." Knowing that my father had attended North Texas State, I asked her if his name was, "Bob or Robert" she said, "No" and then explained that she dated this Irby for a while. Gaging her approximate age and thinking this coincidence, is too great, I explained that my father went to North Texas and was a music major. This jarred her memory and she said, "well, the Irby I knew was a music major." Turns out she did date my dad in college and journeyed with him and a quintet of singers who called themselves the "Dipsy Doodlers" one summer. This summer tour was one that my dad spoke of often with fondness. There is a framed black and white picture of him and the other "doodlers" in full hillbilly garb prominently displayed in his study. As we talked, she said that she had a print of the same picture. While musing about their summer, she commented, "I think we decided that we loved each other, but were not 'in love' with each other."

As we were all walking out of the room in which we were talking, Dana turns to me and says, "You know my mother was one of the 'North Texas Beauties' when she was in school." Way to go dad!