Cincinnati’s Own Playlist

Great music can come from anywhere … even Philadelphia. Here in Cincinnati though, we are inevitable. I say that, tongue and cheek … you get it. Anyway, this is a playlist of artists hailing from Cincinnati. Great artists if you ask me. Most of them I’ve seen live, at one point or another, and I dig their recorded work a great deal also.

This playlist is carefully curated (big ups to myself) and moves on a journey from your car in the garage, to straightforward Rock on the radio to, picking up speed, a little Punk to a flow-state of Hip/Hop and R&B. Hard left turn to Americana and Folk …

Keep going straight to what I might call (overly simplified though it is) “Singer/Songwriter.” Once on the freeway, put down your windows to some Dreamgaze – hypnotism. Indie Pop and 80s synth is the next exit. Once down the off ramp, wave to the folks juking and jiving on the Riverboat. You might, if you listen carefully, hear some carefree, almost Reggae tunes, down on the banks.

Back on the highway, Indie Rock is on the dial and it’s smooth sailing back home. Car back in the garage, comfy clothes on in the living room – and the record player spins some softer stylings.

Take the journey with me! Hear the great sounds coming out of our city! People joke at the quality of our music scene … but those cynics don’t know the treasure lying within the I-275 loop.

If you would like to nominate a band you love, please leave a comment or a message. Cheers!

When you took her keys

She wants the music back
You took what you wanted for decades,
now she wants it back

A loan – That’s what she considered it,
and now you have to pay the piper (she’s more like a pipe)
She’s vital like an organ

She’ll accept payment in these forms:

– notes
– chords
– scales
– melodies

She watched you write the music down,
and draw it out of her like blood
Now you will become the donor

I suggest you do what she says –
The last time she felt as vindictive as this
was the last time you played a show

without her.

She Used to Be Mine – Sara Bareilles

I have listened to this song 3 times so far. Every time it has brought me to tears.

Edit: make that 4.

Goldmund

Some sound to inspire you.

Chad Lawson

Something to inspire you.

Beautiful Eulogy

With a little luck

A continuous piano melody is playing in the background.
He sits down to write. Everything is in order,
in that, everything’s a mess. Pens are strewn
about. Post it notes liter the wall adjacent.
3 x 5 index cards are folded with notes
written in the upper corner. 3 pocket size
notebooks sit atop 3 full sized notebooks; each
a different color. Piles of mail. Bills, unpaid. Checks
waiting to be cashed. A guitar capo is enclosed
around leaflets. Various business cards. A candle.
Mugs with loose change and a new idea.
Perhaps, he thinks, this one will be it.
The piano music swells.
He gives chase as he has done many times before,
and, with a little luck,
a new poem is born.