Dahlia DeWinters - Author

Quirky Heroines, Happy Endings

Tuneful Tuesday – The Great American Songbook

New feature.  Every Tuesday I want to feature a song I’m listening to for the week.  It could be part of a playlist for a story I’m writing or it could be a random song that popped into my head. Whatever its origins, I’m going to share it with you!

Today’s Tuneful Tuesday is the song “Fever” as done by Michael Buble.  It’s on my playlist for Love Bytes, a previously published story that I’m revamping.  I personally think this is a great version of the song by a male, although Peggy Lee is the ultimate version.

And what, you may ask, is “the Great American Songbook”?  Well, let me allow Wikipedia to step in:

From Wikipedia:

The Great American Songbook, also known as “American Standards”, is the canon of the most important and influential American popular songs and jazz standards from the early 20th century. Although several collections of music have been published under the title, it does not refer to any actual book or specific list of songs, but to a loosely defined set including the most popular and enduring songs from the 1920s to the 1950s that were created for Broadway theatre, musical theatre, and Hollywood musical film. They have been recorded and performed by a large number and wide range of singers, instrumental bands, and jazz musicians. The Great American Songbook comprises standards by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin, and also Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Richard Rodgers, and others.[1][2][3][4][5] Although the songs have never gone out of style among traditional and jazz singers and musicians, a renewed popular interest in the Great American Songbook beginning in the 1970s has led a growing number of rock and pop singers to take an interest and issue recordings of them.

Some of the most famous singers of these “standards” are Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday and others.

Without further ado, “Fever” by Michael Buble.

 

If you have a favorite American Standard, leave it in the comments!

Blogtoberfest – Dark Country Songs

There’s no song like a country song.  Whether you’re into Charley Pride, Hank Williams, Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Patsy Cline or the “new school” of Garth Brooks, Trace Adkins, Miko Marks and a score of others, there’s not a doubt in my mind that country’s roots are entwined with the blues both musically and lyrically.  Some of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard were from either of these genres, usually by men, who’ve acted up so bad that they drove their woman, and sometimes their dog, away.

Today we’re going to look at and listen to some dark country songs that go even deeper into the human psyche, past crying into your beer or sittin on the porch weeping, into murder, mayhem and ghosts.

 

The first one is by a musician who performs one of my all time favorite country songs.  The Charlie Daniels Band is perhaps best known for its rollicking fiddle-fest “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, but they also did a mysterious song that tells of a swamp, an old man and a treasure.

It’s a song that tells a story and it starts off like this:

 

Well, if you ever go back into Wooley Swamp
Well, you better not go at night
There’s things out there in the middle of them woods
That make a strong man die from fright
Things that crawl and things that fly
And things that creep around on the ground
And they say the ghost of Lucius Clay
Gets up and he walks around

To say anything further would ruin the scarily told/sung story, so click here to listen for yourself:

 

As a child, Johnny Cash’s rumbling bass always used to scare me. It also didn’t help that he was called “The Man in Black” which rendered him as some sort of evil being floating around, scaring kids with his guitar and flashy country shirts.  As I grew older, however, I was more able to appreciate the music and I give you “Ghost Riders in the Sky”.  Can’t get much scarier than that.

Rachel Brooke – The Black Bird

This sparse arrangement leaves room for Rachel Brooke’s hauntingly innocent sounding voice to a story of illicit love…and that black bird always watching. Also, the video is pretty creepy too!

 

 

Comment below with your dark country artists!

 

Dahlia

 

5 Favorite Fun Christmas Songs

It’s getting closer!

Our tree is up and I have most of the presents I need to give.  Of course, I’ve got a ton of cooking to do, but, hey, I’ve got Saturday and Sunday.  No cooking, except for the turkey, I think, will be done on Christmas.  (Famous last words, right?)

I wanted to take this time to wish everyone a happy holiday and a restful one, too.  Having fun is part of the season, don’t let the mundane things drag you down.

Oh, yes, my list of my fun Christmas songs.  These are the songs that really pep me up – it’s not “officially” Christmas unless I can hear at least three out of these five songs.  Let’s begin, shall we?

If you missed my list of classic Christmas songs, do click here.

5.  Santa Claus is Coming to Town – Bruce Springsteen

I have to admit that this song makes me laugh every time I hear it.  It’s so ridiculous, with Bruce  yelling at the crowd and his band…honestly, he sounds as if he had a little too much “Christmas cheer”, but it’s definitely a fun song to listen to.

 

4.  All I Want for Christmas is You – Mariah Carey

I love Mariah.  She just doesn’t give a f*ck.  Diva was able to put a price on her time by getting a settlement from that millionaire fiance of hers.  Yes, she is a little loopy but I love her just the same. This is such a fun, bouncy, song that’s about loooooooove at Christmas.  It does a cold heart really good!

 

3.  Christmas Rap – The Waitresses

I am a child of the 80s, ’tis true. I didn’t really appreciate the song when it first came out – I thought it was kind of stupid.  But, as the years went by, it has grown on me and now I look forward to hearing it. Remember, they did the theme song for Square Pegs?

 

2.  Christmas in Hollis – Run DMC

Oh, yeah, did I mention I was a child of the 80s?  Here’s Run DMC’s version of a Christmas song.  And yes, I’ll be cooking collard greens.

 

1.  Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt

I grew up on Madonna and am so impressed at how long she was able to keep a career going, but her version is simply….not very good.  This is the unique Eartha Kitt (the best Catwoman), in a cute and sexy version of the song.

 

There you have it folks!

Have a lovely holiday!

1Love

Blogtoberfest – Classically Scary Music

Ah, it’s getting closer, isn’t it? It’s cloudy and raining outside. A chill is in the air and Blogtoberfest continues. Y’all still with me, I hope,.

I’ve got on my Sony bluetooth headphones, you know the ones, and I’m sending you some classically spooky tunes to create the perfect background for you and your Halloween celebrations. Whether it’s playing in the background or you are actively listening, these pieces are sure to raise the hair on the back of your neck. Plus, it’s good for the goth in you.

Shall we begin?

Franz Liszt: Fantasy and Fugue on “B-A-C-H”…..no not that Bach:

Heinrich August Marschner’s grand opera Der Vampyr (1828) is based on a fragment of a novel by Byron, which was completed by the poet’s doctor. Lord Ruthven Earl of Marsden, a newly created vampire, has asked the Vampire Master for another year on earth before being dragged into hell for eternity. This he is granted, provided he can sacrifice three young ladies by the following midnight. Marschner’s sinister chromatic writing and chorus of witches and hobgoblins is enough to put Twilight to shame.

GYÖRGY LIGETI – Volumina –  Pieces of his music were used in the film 2001:  A Space Odyssey.

This such a classic, I couldn’t ignore it.  You’ve heard it, I’m sure.

Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre

Oh, curse Disney and their creepy animations tho.

Another classic –

Mussorsky – Night on Bald Mountain

Last, but not least, one of my favorites…the trilling flutes, the ominous lower reeds and the muted brass give you the chill you desire…and don’t forget all those creepy broomsticks.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (HD)

Boo!

Dahlia

My Top 3 Favorite Versions of Danny Boy

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

 

In celebration of the day, I’d like to take a moment to wish you all the luck of the Irish and I tip my cap to you.

 

May you have warm words on a cold evening,
A full moon on a dark night,
And the road downhill all the way to your door.

 

There’s nothing I like more in classical/traditional music than a lovely Irish tenor.  Tenors in general are the neglected vocal part. It tears me apart when the altos are recruited to sing tenor.  The timbre can be so very different.

Well, before I have a flashback and lapse into musically technical terms, let me give you what you came here for.

 

Danny Boy:  Placido Domingo & Itzhak Perlman

Domingo has a pleasant timbre and his phrasing.  I feel that this version is a little rushed, as Danny Boy, to me was a song of mourning.  Domingo takes it a little too quickly and his phrasing is a little bumpy. However, he does make up for it by hitting “here” in “It’s I’ll be here”, without resorting to falsetto.  Not my super favorite, but doable.

 

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May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.

Danny Boy:  Mario Lanza

While not an “Irish Tenor”, Lanza was known as the “greatest tenor in the world” long after his death in 1959.  Many of his songs carry a tinge of an Italian accent, however his pitch and timbre, especially on such a sad song, give me the goosebumps.  Certainly, his version is a little rushed also, however, the singing is well worth it.  He also sings full voice on “It’s I’ll be here….” and  “For you will bend…..”  The strings give the arrangement an extra poignancy.

 

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Danny Boy: Finbar Wright

Perfect pace.  Perfect breath control.  The timbre is hair-raising (in a wonderful way). Get out your handkerchiefs, folks, this is the tear-jerker Danny Boy was meant to be.  One. Tiny. Thing.  Wright resorts to falsetto on “It’s I’ll be here.…” and  “For you will bend…..”  Yes, it’s a beautifully sweet falsetto, however, I wonder how it would have been had he full-voiced the note.  However, the rest of the performance is flawless.

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Honorable mention – Danny Boy – John McDermott

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I leave you with this

May your glass be ever full.
May the roof over your head be always strong.
And may you be in heaven
half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.