The Weight

When Mum turned 50 we held an enormous party. 200 people, sit down dinner, the works. Now, both my brothers and Dad all play the guitar and quite like standing up in front of lots of people to sing songs. I'm not so keen myself, but when they suggested rewriting The Weight by The Band song to reflect Mum and what she has done for us and then singing it at her party, I couldn't say no. So we sang Take A Load off Judeeee. I was dreadful, really did get up there and proved that I can't sing to 200 of my nearest and dearest. To get the right key for the boys, it was totally the wrong range for me. But Mum didn't care. She loved it, and that was what mattered.

Moving on a decade or so, I have 2 small boys. A dear friend gave them a cd with grown up music on that she thought they would like. This song was one of them. The boys love it. Dave loves it. We are playing it a lot. So, in many ways it will also remind me of this time, driving the boys to nursery in the car, having them belt it out at the top of their voices. I still can't sing it but I still love it.

A courtship music

There are two albums that I was playing alot at the time when Dave and I first met. Ryan Adams's Heartbreaker and Jack Johnson's Brushfire Fairy Tales. It was a fun time for me, I'd left my city career and was back at University doing a Masters Degree. My days were filled with debates and I was engaging academically in a way I never quite managed during my first degree. I had the luxury of time to do whatever I wanted and I was newly in love. It was also late spring, early summer and the weather was playing ball. We filled every cliche in the book but didn't care. It was our time.

There are two favourite songs, one from each album to remind me of then.

Damn Sam, I Love a Woman That Rains: Ryan Adams

BrushFire FairyTales: Jack Johnson