You are here

Music for a Saturday drive

One Saturday morning earlier this year, I picked out some new music from the large pile on my desk to accompany me on my afternoon errands. Though I was not able to study the lyrics, here is a bit about what I heard musically.

The first disc I put in was RCA Records How Great Thou Art: Gospel Favorites Live from the Grand Old Opry. Now I am not a country music fan. But when I saw the first track with Charlie Daniels Band together with Mac Powell of Third Day on a rendition of "I'll Fly Away", I was eager to have a listen. I played the song more than once before moving on. I listened to ten more tracks for less than thirty seconds each, including old hymns sung by Ronnie Milsap, Brad Paisley, Loretta Lynn, and Vince Gill, among others. Then I got to the last track and listened to the entire track of Carrie Underwood belting out on "How Great Thou Art." I wondered whether or not Mac Powell and Carrie Underwood were added to the roster just to appeal to a larger crowd. But in these days when folks can buy one or two songs rather than a whole album, I wondered how much of that would happen here.

Fervent Records duo CADIA put out their debut album late last year. When it came in the mail, I saw pop/rock and female, and set it aside, where it promptly got buried. But that Saturday, I found it in the pile and decided to give the music a chance. I agree with the press material that the melodic piano pop is sure to appeal to fans of ZOEgirl and Krystal Meyers. The songs grapple issues of young teens. The music and vocals are not bad, despite that I am not a fan of the genre. But to me, it sounded like nothing different than I music had already heard.

I was surprised to see that Stellar Kart was releasing a third album. It seemed like yesterday that I had heard of them for the first time. Expect the Impossible was released on February 26th. My history with Stellar Kart's music has mainly been in the car with my youth group girls. They love the sing-along appeal of the music. It's catchy. But this album struck me as different than the first two. It seems less catchy and less punk pop than I remember from Stellar Kart. When I came home from the errands, I read the promo material and it read, "This album will please the band's die-hard punk fans while offering something to straight-up pop and rock lovers as well." Hmmm...

Olivia the Band moved to Up At Nite Records and released Where We Come From It Never Snows on January 8th. (You might recall that these guys are from Hawaii.) When this one came in the mail, I was surprised. I had heard so little about the band since their 2005 debut release, that I figured they were a one-album band. Maybe they don't make it much to the East Coast, but in my circles of working and attending all sorts of concerts and festivals, I don't recall ever seeing them once live. Sometimes seeing a band live will make or break my desire to listen to the recorded stuff. What I heard on this disc musically was nothing new. But it intrigued me enough to wonder what I would think about the music once I had seen Olivia the Band in concert.