[meme] these graces that hold me, it's from you that I borrow

[vanitashaze]

From sheryden:

Leave comment on this post, and I'll give you a band.You put your ten favorite songs by that band on your LJ and challenge others to do the same. Don't worry, I'll make it one you know.

I got the lovely Vienna Teng.

i. Recessional
In the terminal she sleeps on my shoulder / hair falling forward, mouth all askew
As fluorescent announcements beat their wings overhead / "Passengers missing, we're looking for you."

ii. Undone [Live at the San Francisco Independent]
Like sudden daylight there you were / took all I had just not to swerve
And slow instead of yield / but then your light was gone

iii. No Gringo
Oh Arizona's burning / they say the fence turned 'round
Now the razor wire keeps us out

iv. Radio
Oh the flash / then the silence
Shouldn't there be screaming praying crying / oh anything at all

v. Pontchartrain
Who drew the line? / Who drew the line between you and me?
Who drew the line / that everyone sees?

vi. Watershed
While you were building your empires / I was still sleeping / I was still sleeping
While you were setting your woods afire / I was still dreaming / I was still dreaming

vii. Daughter
You're talking about things / interesting just slightly
And things that matter too much / to say any way but lightly

viii. Decade and One
I thought of anger and adulation / And the taste of dreams realized
And the waste dreams realized / leave behind

ix. In Another Life
And we feel it like the shiver / of a passing train
That other life / deep underground

x. Love Turns 40
But something keeps you faithful / when all else in you turns and runs
Love turns forty / and the morning comes

Comments

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

Ah, irony strikes again! I can see why you wouldn't really appreciate Waking Hour or even Warm Strangers - they're mostly relationship albums, familial or romantic, and they're very good but don't at all showcase her full range - but lately she's embraced a more, eh, global focus - questions and answers instead of portraiture - that I think you would approve of. ("No Gringo", especially, I think you would like, but also "Radio" and "Grandmother Song".)

And yes, I know, I've been pimping Inland Territories to everyone I can, but there's a reason. It's good.

Songs: Ohia.

(Also, I just realized that you have an excerpt from Woman Warrior on your journal. So, yes, points for perceptiveness, but still. I loved that book, and am so happy the love is shared.)

you're not Cinderella, so don't forget your shoes / I've never been as lonely as when I was with you

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

I dug up the Vienna Teng mix CD that I made after the concert, and I remembered I liked a couple of songs okay on Waking Hour ("Gravity"—I downloaded the web-only Lake Version from her site, too—and "Enough to Go By") and Warm Strangers ("Harbor" and her cover of "Green Island Serenade," the latter of which may be about exiled political prisoners, among other things). the mix has a lovely live cover of "Cannonball" as well, though I don't know when or where it was recorded. for the most part I found her albums sweet but forgettable. it's not necessarily the subject matter that struck me this way, but the lyrics. to bring up another singer-songwriter for whom Vienna Teng has opened at concerts, I've loved a lot of Mason Jennings's songs about personal relationships,* but when he sings about politics or spirituality I usually find his songwriting clumsy to the point of embarrassment. then there's my feelings about Ani DiFranco: I love her lyrics so much, yet I've never really enjoyed her voice. I'll look into Vienna Teng's newer work—I just saw she has audio streaming on her site, so that's somewhere to start.

heh, I don't know if I even have ten favorite songs by Songs: Ohia; I have all their albums somewhere, but I think I started getting into them as Magnolia Electric Co. I guess this is as good a reason as any to look up their older work again.


*for example, the first two verses of "Sorry Signs on Cash Machines," one of my favorite Mason Jennings songs:

Oh, my heart is a thoroughbred
I can't sleep in my bed
Everything is burning up inside me

I need something I can feel
Cigarettes and a driving wheel
And oh my God, when you cross your legs beside me

... and there are no Mason Jennings lyrics re: politics that I like enough to quote here.

and I'm so glad you loved The Woman Warrior too!

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

after I redid my journal's color scheme to match the header, I happened to check it on another computer with an older monitor—the purple background of the sidebar was much darker, and I had a little trouble reading the text. I decided to leave the purple alone and assume it was that older monitor's fault, but I hope it's not as dark on your monitor!