November 2007

My husband introduced me to a new artist this morning (new to me, that is). Her name is Jody Gnant and I am absolutely blown away.

Let me preface my review and praise with this: I listen to music all day long. Even before I had this music blog, I could always be found in the midst of music - singing along, bobbing my head, tapping my toes, swaying, snapping, dancing, drumming, thumping ….becoming one with the beat, man! I can be listening, one minute, to Montgomery Gentry and segue right into My Chemical Romance. From Kanye West to Nickelback, from Shania to Fergie, from Poison to Daughtry, and from Gwen Stefani to vintage Janet Jackson. I’m all over the place with my music obsession.

That’s why it’s so exciting to find a new artist to throw into the mix. I’m welcoming Jody Gnant to my musical world with open arms. When I was trying to come up with a description of her musical style, I kept trying to think of who I could compare her to. I thought, “She’s kind of like a clean, un-freaky Amy Winehouse meets Jewel, sprinkled lightly with Diana Krall - with a potent splash of Lena Horne.”

Then, I realized that more than anything - she’s Jody Gnant. Her voice is absolutely haunting and passion for her music is palpable.

I just can’t figure out why she isn’t a household name yet. I have a strong, strong feeling that those words won’t be applicable a year from now, though. Below are a few of the videos I found. Below the videos you’ll find a link to Jody’s Website. Keep an eye on this one!

The first video is for the song, “Over,” which is from the cd Pivot.

Be sure to check out Jody’s Website and download her music as well as buy her cd, Pivot. It’ll be the best $10 you spent in a long time.

My heart is absolutely broken for one of my all-time favorite artists. Kanye West just lost his mom, who was only 58 years old for crying out loud! There are lots of theories circulating about what caused her death - but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. Not for the family, anyway.

From what I’ve read and what I’ve always seen, Kanye and his mom were very, very close. Friends of the family have been quoted as saying that the two of them always laughed a lot when they were together. Everything I read about Donda West goes on about what a lovely and sweet woman she was.

This is just so unbelievably sad. The world lost an angel but Heaven gained one.

Keep Kanye in your prayers and thoughts - he must feel so lost right now.

LL Cool J and Jay Z have pretty different ideas about the title of Nas’ album. I’m a fan of all 3, but I have to say I agree with Jay Z’s words more than I do anyone else’s. There are 3 words that I wish would die and never come back: The N word, the B word - and most of all, the word that assumes God’s last name is damn. They won’t ever disappear, of course, but I’d love to see every human being with an IQ over 2 stop using them. Then when anyone spits out any of the 3 you’ll know right away their IQ registers a whopping 1.

Not that there’s really anything different about that…

My thinking on the subject of the album is this: If we’re, as a society, going to pistol whip everyone who ever says the N word - everyone else needs to quit keeping it alive! Music has a huge affect on our vocabulary - a lot of the phrases we use everday were lifted from a song. To keep putting the redneck , trashy, inflammatory, stupid little word in songs and titles just puts it more in the spotlight and more on people’s tongues.

Below are LL Cool J (the first one) and Jay Z’s thoughts:

I’ve been looking for a video of Fergie’s version of Heart’s Barracuda to post. For anyone who hasn’t seen Shrek 3, they probably haven’t heard her awesome performance. I honestly hated the original song, but I think I’d love anything Fergie sang. Anyway, the first video below will make you fall in love with her version, too.

The video, below, isn’t for the song quality so much as it is for the Fegrie moves - you gotta check them out!

Fergie is, without a doubt one of my top 3 favorite female singers - right up there with Rihanna and Gwen Stefani. Her Clumsy is actually my favorite song right now - I could listen to it all day and all night. Hmmm, I DO listen to it all day and all night….