Music – Scannerbrain

Sound Bytes #3….”The Wright Sound (Lizz Wright)”

April 23, 2019

When I conceived the idea for this Sound Bytes Series, I started thinking about all the songs Lizz Wright sings and which ones I would choose to pair up with the video clips of the Puget Sound.

Lizz has eclectic taste in music and sings all genres equally well.

I mentioned this in a few previous posts called, “How Do You Spell Eclectic?”, “Favorite Means Favorite!”, “LiZ2: That Certain Something”, and “Heartless In Seattle”.

She chooses a wide variety of songs to sing and she sings them in different styles too.

She does Gospel, rhythm and blues, pop, soul, and folk. She covers artists who sing entirely different styles – including Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Tina Turner, Patsy Cline, just to mention a few.

I think that’s another reason why I like her music so much. Because I like variety in everything too.

So when I think of all her songs, I see each song fitting into one or more categories that I made up in my own mind. The categories describe the nature of the song as well as how she sings it.

Note: There is some overlap. Some of the songs can fit into more than one category.

Health and Wellness, Music, Photography, Travel/Adventure

Sound Bytes #2….”Sound Views from Anacortes”

April 14, 2019

(Photo taken from Mt. Erie lookout point.)

In “Sound Bytes (Intro)”, I explained how the idea for this Sound Byte Series was spawned.

I wanted to pair together and share the beauty of the Puget Sound, my favorite place, and the beauty of the musical sound of Lizz Wright, my favorite singer.

In the previous post, “Sound Bytes #1 (Seattle And The Sounds)”, I showcased the Puget Sound area around Seattle, and Lizz Wright singing “Reaching For The Moon”, (my favorite cover of all the covers that she does).

In this post, I share some views of the Puget Sound, from two mountain tops in the Anacortes area, where the Anacortes Ferry Terminal is located, and some views of the Puget Sound from aboard the ferry, while I was on my way to San Juan Island. It’s one of the ways to get to the San Juan Islands.

I also share the musical sound of Lizz Wright, singing ” I’m Confessin’ “, in “Sound Bytes #2”. I know you’re going to like it.

Health and Wellness, Music, Travel/Adventure

Sound Bytes #1….”SEATTLE AND THE SOUNDS”

April 6, 2019

Just hanging around the Space Needle…..levitating and stuff!

As promised in my introductory post called, “Sound Bytes (Intro)”,

here is “Sound Bytes #1”, the first in a series of posts, where I will share my enjoyment of, and fascination with, the beauty of the Puget Sound,

and the beauty of the musical sound of Lizz Wright.

Music

Seconds of Pleasure

March 26, 2019

In a previous post called, “Favorite Means Favorite”, I wrote this about Lizz Wright, my favorite singer:

“There are great singers everywhere, vying for my (or any potential fan’s) attention. They get my attention, sometimes, temporarily. But no one tugs at my heart strings or resonates with my musical taste and sensibility like Lizz Wright.

For example, she does a cover of Nina Simone’s song called, “Seems I’m Never Tired Loving You”. It’s my current favorite.

It’s a simple but beautiful song about unconditional love between two people. But in her arrangement, Lizz added church-style piano and a choir, which makes it sound like a Gospel song, adding a second underlying theme of unconditional love between God and humanity. The lyrics are neutral enough to easily be read or viewed either way.

I don’t know if she intended to create that effect or if I just see it that way. But, nevertheless, the arrangement adds an extra dimension to the feeling of the song, and I think that was intentional. And it’s congruent with something she said in an interview I heard once, where she was talking about the act of balancing between the sensual (our humanity) and the sacred (our spirituality). So I think she did manage to balance both, within the song, by conceiving and doing that arrangement.

To me, her music is the kind I don’t want to just play in the background. It’s the kind I want to just sit and listen to, closely, without any interruptions. That’s why traveling to see and hear her sing means so much to me. To just sit and listen to her is a privilege, joy and honor.

It’s all in the details. The song. The musicians. The mixing. The arrangement. Her inimitable style of singing. The way she crescendos or decrescendos. The way she holds a strong vibrant note and then turns it into a whisper. The way she breaks her voice at the right moment, etc. I could go on and on.

It’s discovering these little things that she does in the song, that always seems to fit perfectly at the right time and in the right place in the song, that bring moments of joy, pleasure and awe, to me. These moments only last for seconds, in the song, but they stand out and illuminate her genius.

There’s an artistic energy and restlessness inside her which produces these fabulous results.

All these things are why I prefer her over others.”

Health and Wellness, Music, Travel/Adventure

Let Them Talk in Vancouver, B.C.

February 3, 2019

(The photo above was taken in Vancouver, B.C., in front of the basketball courts at David Lam Park with a view toward False Creek.)

“Let Them Talk”

From the title of this post, you might have thought I was going to write about some juicy gossip or start a rumor. But I don’t do rumors or gossip.

This is about a weekend trip I took to Vancouver, British Columbia, and about a song called, “Let Them Talk”, which I heard for the first time about three weeks ago.

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