1/ I'm clearly feeling intense nostalgia this morning, and I'm pulling out the five CDs we had on a CD carrousel when we were just engaged and moved in together. Together, these CDs made up the soundtrack of our sale days.
2/ Honestly, at the time these were the only CDs we owned. I had a ton of records, but due to space we got a CD player and never set up the turntable.
I don't know that any of them are even the artists' best work, but they do hold a special place in my heart.
3/ CD #1: Perfectly Frank, Tony Bennett
A recording of Sinatra standards, but in deep, *deep* torchlight stylings. Great for melancholy rainy days.
3/ CD #2: The Glory of Gershwin, Various Artists
The CD that came with the player. Gershwin standards sung by big at the time artists: Sting, Cher, Elton John, Meat Loaf, Peter Gabriel, Lisa Stansfield, etc. All to swooning orchestrations by Beatles producer George Martin.
4/ CD #3: Loved Ones, Ellis & Branford Marsalis
Simple arrangements; the father & son duo are the only musicians on the entire album. Wistful and - in places - oddly danceable.
5/ CD #4: The Long Black Veil, The Chieftains
Typical Chieftains fare, with various guest artists on vocals - including the Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Sinéad O'Connor and Van Morrison.
6/ CD #5: I Love Everybody, Lyle Lovett
Lovett's first real non-large-band album, featuring stripped-down demo versions of songs that didn't make it on to his earlier albums. Also my wife's introduction to his music, and still her favorite of them.
7/ One last note. One surprise of my early engagement was that all of the songs on these albums actually had lyrics, and that they weren't obscure- my wife knew them all.
Oddly, we'd been raised on the same songs. But she came from a musical theater family, whereas
8/ I came from a jazz instrumentalist family. So the songs were so familiar to each of us that they were family, but our concept of them couldn't have been further apart. We quickly came to appreciated one another's versions, and now we live with both styles playing in our home.
9/ And if that's not the best definition of marriage I've ever come across, I don't know what is.
/ end nostalgia rant
*salad days
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