Prompt 13: My Favorite Musician and Why

This is pretty much of the worst genre of question.  "Your favorite" questions are evil because how many people are there out there who are so resolved and passionate and sure that they have one single favorite anything?  So I refuse.  And this is my blog, so I can do whatever I want.  So I'll give you a selection of artists that I like

I'll begin with the first musician I have any memory of loving...

Yes, when I was about 8 I was completely obsessed with Michael Crawford.  Specifically the soundtrack to Phantom of the Opera, but it wasn't limited to that.  I had these two CDs of him singing various famous Broadway hits and I loved them.  I listened to them all the time and could probably still sing them for you today.  And before you mock me, because I know you will, I just want to make it known that it was none other than my incredibly music-snobby uncle Jesse who introduced me to Crawford.  It was his enthusiastic teenage praise of those two high notes in this very song which converted me to my adoring status.  So Jesse, if you read this, feel free to judge, but know that you must also judge yourself.

Next is the second musician I feel in love with.  I believe I was 9 or 10.  And truly I still love her today.  She holds a place in my heart no one else could fill

I must begin with this song because it was my first love.  This is the song which converted me to Celine.  Also the song which granted her precedence over Michael, as he, too, sings a cover and I infinitely prefer Celine's version to his.  But I also must include two others.  When I asked Kara what song I should post of hers she said "'I Love You,' obviously."  And while I do adore that song, I instantly realized that, while I did always listen to that particular song, it was always on the way to the song that came right after.  So, just as it was on my CD so long ago I first give you "I Love You"

And then

No one can belt out love song like Celine.  And in case you don't believe me when I say that I still love her, this was a large part of the drive up to Union a few weeks back with Kara


Now, after Celine it gets a bit harder to pick my favorite musicians...I've typically tended more to specific songs than to all of any given musician's entire body of work.  I think that, post Celine, the first actual artist I really fell in love with was this guy...

It was the summer I worked at the Boise Cascade Particle Board plant.  I would have been around 19/20. I was working graveyard and that song came on the radio in one of the operator's shacks.  I fell head over heels in love with that voice (how can you not?) and as soon as my shift was over I headed straight over to Wal-Mart to buy the CD.  They weren't open yet (our Wal-Mart was not yet 24/7) so I actually sat in the parking lot and waited for thirty minutes for them to open so I could buy it.  And I have bought every CD since (though I think I've fallen behind and there's one I need to pick up).  Last summer I scored two free tickets; I took Kara and we listened to this song sung live

After my freshman year of college I went on a study abroad to London.  It was there that I met one of the greatest musical loves of my life.  I am speaking, of course, of none other than the legendary Mr. Freddy Mercury.  Broadly, I fell in love with the whole band (Roger Taylor, Brian May, and John Deacon) but most of all did I love Freddy.  It started with a show.  Before I saw We Will Rock You I was about as little  familiar with Queen as it is possible to be in this day and age.  That is to say...I knew "We Will Rock You" and "Another One Bites the Dust" and had a vague familiarity with "Bohemian Rhapsody" but I didn't even realize that all those songs were by the same band.  After We Will Rock You I came home and stayed up all night reading every Queen related wikipedia page I could find.  I discovered that somehow I owned to CDs of Queen's greatest hits (up till that point completely unappreciated and unlistened to).  For the rest of my study abroad and, indeed, the rest of that year I entered what can only be called a Queen coma.  I listened to nothing but Queen.  There was never a time when Queen wasn't playing in my head.  I remember I actually started getting worried about the length and intensity of my obsession.  Then I realized that there was a queen song called "I'm Going Slightly Mad" and just embraced the inevitable.  I eventually surfaced from complete immersion, but to this day they remain a true love.  If Queen comes on you sing.  At the top of your lungs.  Till your vocal chords give out.

This will forever be the anthem of my study abroad and my favorite Queen song.  

This post has turned ridiculously long.  If you're looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, there's only three more to go...that I'm aware of...

So the Queen mania lasted for over a year.  But all things must come to an end, even your obsessive repeat listening to your favorite band.  So eventually I began listening to other music.  I believe it was during my time in Glenwood that I discovered Mika.  Aside from my general love of him music, Mika holds special value to me because it was a long night of singing his music together driving back from Logan to Provo that Taka, aka my surrogate Japanese brother, and I became friends.  Mika writes the happiest, silliest, most brilliant music and I have loved all three of his albums.  This, however, is my absolute favorite of his songs.  It is literally impossible for me to listen to this song without feeling happier.  Ironically.  Because it's actually kind of sad lyrics.

About the same time I also discovered a completely different sounding band called Punch Brothers.

Now, specifically the artist in question here is Chris Thile.  It is possible that I have the kind of crush on him that it's only possible to get on famous people you know you'll never meet--you know, they're the perfect mixture of hopelessness and passion and conviction that if you were somehow ever to meet you would absolutely hit it off.  I have that kind of crush on Chris Thile.  And I love him in every different endeavor he has been involved with.  From his years with Nickel Creek to his absolutely phenomenal collaborations with people like Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer, to his recent covers of Bach on his mandolin.  But above all of those things I love Punch Brothers best.  I love them because every member of the band is just as talented as Thile, but they also haven't quite reached the level of someone like Yo-Yo Ma so they're interested in making music that sells.  The combination of those two factors means that you have absolutely majestic, sweeping pieces like the "Another New World" above or "The Blind Leaving the Blind" (a damn bluegrass concerto Thile wrote after his divorce...go find the 3rd movement and listen to it because it's amazing) and then you have songs like Alex

I've been listening to that song for six years now and I love it every bit as much as I did the first time I heard it.  Also, this is the video that made me fall in love with him.  He's so adorably nerdy!

And at last we make it to the final and most recent of my "favorite" musicians.  And if you've known me for the last several years then you know who I'm talking about and how much I love these guys...

And because they're probably the best contender for my current true favorite musicians, I'm just going to give you lots and lots of songs to listen to because there's no way I can just pick one

there are literally no words for how beautiful I find this song...

Just listen to their voices!!!!!!

Please forgive the ridiculousness of the video and just enjoy this song.  It's from their new album under their new name and it is just the best!

As many videos as I have posted they have so many more wonderful songs.  Go get on Spotify and look them up (Guggenheim Grotto and Storyman).  Listen to every single one of their songs.  They have the most beautiful voices and their songs are catchy and gorgeous and sometimes funny ("Her Beautiful Ideas" will make you laugh if you have any sense of humor at all).  Seriously, buy all their albums and listen to all of their music because it is so so good.

Next up for tomorrow we have: A TV Show You're Currently Addicted To