Thursday, December 10, 2020

Feeling Lonely/Music Releases of 12/11/2020

              Last week, I discovered apparently Eric Clapton is no longer releasing his music to Spotify, as this was the second straight release of his to not be available there whatsoever.  I also went through some really rough emotional patches, it hit me it’d be my first Christmas in years without my cousins I like to talk to and I’m suffering some pretty hard loneliness after the events of the last nine months.  There are websites I’ve posted to like crazy and they’ve ignored me, opinions and beliefs I’ve held and wanted to share, as well as accomplishments I’m proud of and also want to share, only for people to not respond.  It makes me feel despised and shunned for being different, being left-wing, being an ally to the LGBTQ+ community and a large number of other things.  It brings back the feelings of two years ago, when my uncle died, that was a lonely and depressing time, because I didn’t know how to express my sadness.  Some things that help are watching some YouTube videos where people play video games with commentary, sometimes you just want to hear another voice rather than read text for a few hours,  and since in six weeks this country should be in better shape, Twitter’s become more welcoming and I went back and shared some fan-gushing I did earlier this year either here, on Facebook or DeviantArt, not to get noticed, but just to let out towards these people what they’ve meant to me for months/years and felt uncomfortable expressing while it felt like every day was a struggle to be okay and think there was a future.  Hopefully, returning to this venue will allow me some more good times while we wait for the vaccine to be readily available.

 

               There were some good musical releases last week, The Dead Daisies released a new single called “Holy Ground (Shake Your Memory)” for their album (titled "Holy Ground") due out at the end of January showcasing Glenn Hughes’ vocals and Doug Aldrich’s guitarwork, and this looks to be an early contender for the best album of next year.  Mariah Carey, Jennifer Hudson and Ariana Grande teamed up for a soulful Christmas trio rendition of Carey’s original “Oh, Santa,” and Blackmore’s Night’s EP was worth it if you like folksy medieval music or British women singing traditional Christmas carols.  It’s definitely an easy listen that’s worth more than its low MP3 price tag, that’s for sure, and Carrie Underwood released a single teaming up with David Bisbal where she sang in Spanish, which I feel is worth it solely for how unique it is.  Lastly, Evanescence released a single called “Yeah Right” which was an awesome rock track, while revealing their album "The Bitter Truth," which will contain this and “Use My Voice,” one of my favorite songs of this past year, will be released in late March.

 

               Not much is happening in terms of musical releases this week, but there are two similar releases coincidentally happening tonight and another single I’m interested in.

 

Various-Willie Nelson; American Outlaw: A Country Singer Music Festival celebrating one of the most iconic and influential Country Singers to ever live, Willie Nelson.  Seattleite Dave Matthews joins Willie himself for “Crazy,” while Eric Church (who like Willie Nelson, loves that Sweet Leaf) and Kris Kristofferson sing the classic “Me and Bobby McGee.”  Sheryl Crow also shows up to sing "After the Fire is Gone" with Willie Nelson himself, and she and Willie also show up in the other Country Music Tribute being released this evening.

 

Various-Merle Haggard; Sing Me Back Home: I was first introduced to Merle Haggard through Billy Ray Cyrus covering the title track of this album.  Here, Keith Richards is the one who sings it, while Toby Keith and Ronnie Dunn also arrive to sing “Ramblin’ Fever” with Willie Nelson and “It’s All In The Movies” solo, respectively.  A generous Southern Rock presence also shows up, Lynyrd Skynyrd performing “Honky Tonk Night Time Man,” (in fact, rumor has it that Ronnie Van Zant’s last studio recording was a version of that song with different lyrics called “Jacksonville Kid,” which is available on several Lynyrd Skynyrd releases after his death, such as the deluxe edition of "Street Survivors") and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top sings “The Bottle Let Me Down” and “Workin’ Man Blues” with Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule.  Sheryl Crow sings "Natural High."

 

Haley Reinhart-O Holy Night: I first heard of Haley a couple of years ago when she recorded an album of 60s covers (including “For What It’s Worth,” “Oh Darling” and “White Rabbit”).  She is connected/maybe a part of popular group Postmodern Jukebox, which plays modern music in the style of 1920s bar and jazz music.  This is one of my favorite Christmas hymns and I look forward to hearing it from her.

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