Two-for-Tuesday, Jewel by Request

It’s Brian’s birthday today and last night he said that he couldn’t believe he was going to be xx years old for only a few more hours. I was stunned and had to stop to do the math for a moment— thought he was a year younger! Already everyone thinks he’s much younger than he is. Old friends see his photos and comment on how my sons have grown. That’s him, holding our youngest and floofiest family member, Eliot.

Since Brian didn’t specify which Jewel song would make him happiest today, I picked one from the 90’s and one from 2010. Her debut studio album, Pieces of You, wowed the world in 1995 and featured “You Were Meant for Me” as its second single. It’s the same album that featured “Foolish Games” and “Who Will Save your Soul.”

Her second album, Spirit, came out in 1998 and had one of my favorite songs, “Hands,” but since that one has been much parodied over the years, and sometimes delightfully so, I thought we’d skip ahead into a country album of hers that I really wasn’t that familiar with. It’s called Sweet and Wild, and so my own personal dedication to Brian is the video below called “Satisfied.”

If you see Brian, in person or on the socials today, wish the young man a happy birthday.

Winter Winds (and Cold Rain)

It’s funny, now that we’ve gone whole hog into a week of wintery, cold songs, things here are warming up. Highs in the 40’s (that’s Fahrenheit, of course) and up to 58° on Friday. Isn’t it ironic (don’tcha think)? But that’s a song for another day.

Today it’s Mumford & Sons, who first gained popularity when their song “Little Lion Man” blew away American radio stations with a lead banjo in 2010. It was the first single from their debut album Sigh No More, and I loved the song, but remember wondering if the “bleeped” out F word helped it get some extra, rebellious airplay.

In all fairness, though, the song had a refreshing sense of vulnerability that made Billboard Magazine later say it helped define the music of the decade. I recall my son Jonathan, the closest we have in the family to a music historian and song critic saying, “I’m surprised how much I like them.”

In March of 2021, there was a bit of a controversy on Twitter that led to one of the original band members, Winston Marshall quitting the band. If that topic interests you, you can click here. But for today, our “cool” winter song is the second single from that first album in 2009. Here’s the full original band with “Winter Winds.”