Mark your calendars — The Grammy Awards are coming up on February 8! This is always an interesting time to reflect on the state of music. What are we listening to these days? How are we currently defining pop music? But it can also be a good time to look back and rediscover the course that pop music has taken in its recent past.
So I decided to celebrate and re-record the last 10 years of songs that won the Grammy for "Song Of The Year". I wasn’t sure exactly what I would do with them when I started the project, but I found myself trying to personalize my relationship with each song — listening to them with fresh ears, spinning them around, trying to appreciate and perform them from new angles. If these songs are three dimensional beings (I like to think they are), how have they evolved since the day they won the Grammy? Have they grown up? Do they represent something different now than they did then? Musically? Lyrically? Rhythmically?
When you dig in to well crafted songs, they sort of speak to you; as long as you don’t impose any preconceived notion or irony about what it’s supposed to represent, you come out the other side with something fresh. This is the way these songs sound in my head, at this moment in time.
Above, you have the first of 10 tracks that I'm going to release, back to back, until Grammy weekend.
Daughters. A beautiful track by a truly great musician. I think I can remember the exact moment I first heard this song, and maybe I'll blog about that at another time, but for now I'd just like you to enjoy the music.
Stream away! Share with your pals! Happy Monday!
Talk Soon,
Kyle