Four Dollars Well Spent

Apologies for the hiatus, 'tis winter and between illness and the general malaise of January, writing has been a low priority. But alas, I am back, and to help me along, I have invited my friend and muse, Maria, to be a guest blogger. (The pressure is on dearest Maria! LOL!)

Living in Minnesota I am blessed to have a public radio station that introduces me to music I may not have heard otherwise. Today's post will be one of many posts, I am certain, influenced by The Current's staff. And now, without further delay, I bring you Mumford & Sons.

I have heard Mumford & Sons' song, Little Lion Man, play a couple times on The Current while driving. Far be it for me to remember the name of the band long enough to get home and research it, but tonight I heard Little Lion Man while at home. I pulled up itunes and then lala.com and dug in. For only having one studio album and a couple live songs available on itunes, I was impressed and bought 4 of the 8 available songs on itunes:
The Cave
Awake My Soul
Thistle & Weeds
Little Lion Man

I will probably purchase the rest of their album and live songs later, but I can only be expected to process so much emotion in one sitting. These songs are rife with emotion, very heartfelt and dramatic emotion. Thistle & Weeds is enough to move me to dance in agony while crying with despair. It is an extremely intense song and, as much as a song can be, cinematic. It evokes memories of a recent loss and pounds out the emotions and grief I still haven't come to terms with. It is beautiful, but you have been warned.

Countering the pain evoked by Thistle & Weeds, The Cave is a rip-roaring romp of positivity, but it doesn't let you forget that others suffer pain that you can never heal. There is some truth in the Johnny Cash lyric "get a rhythm when you get the blues" and this song delivers a blues-busting rhythm complete with banjo. Yes, banjo! I can't think of many sad songs that have a banjo in the arrangement, but if you don't think a modern band can rock a banjo, then you really should give this a listen. My neighbors will surely be happy when I quit pounding along with this song.

I will save the other two songs for another post as now I plan to turn the lights down and listen to some Mumford & Sons on the hi-fi with the lights down low.

Go forth and enjoy!