Re-love and Remember

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my newly rekindled love affair with Toad the Wet Sprocket. They are not the only act I’m re-loving these days. You can read about my past, present, and future love of Toad here: Feeling Toady.

When I loaded all of my Toad stuff onto my iPod, I loaded several other old CDs. I’m beginning to re-love these artists as well. Here is a list of a few you need to hear or re-hear.

Artists to Re-Love

· REM – REM is another band I discovered in high school and grew to love in college. I’ve got to find the rest of my REM CDs. I had Murmur, Out of Time, and New Adventures in Hi-Fi in my CD case, so they are on the iPod. 3 CDs from 3 different stages of their career. Good stuff.

· Sixpence None the Richer – If you’ve only heard Kiss Me or There She Goes (their only hits) you’ve missed this band. Leigh Nash and Matt Slocum have made a lot of really good music over the last 10-15 years. You should give it a listen. Sixpence NTR.

· Jennifer Knapp – Unlike the others, this rediscovery didn’t happen by loading old CDs onto the iPod. If you’re unfamiliar, I’ll give you a short intro. Around 1998, Jennifer burst onto the Christian music scene with her first album, Kansas. Great songwriting, a huge voice. She was a hit in the Jesus Music world. After 5 years and a few albums she disappeared. A couple of months ago Jennifer resurfaced on the music scene after a 6-7 year absence. A few weeks ago she came out as a lesbian, which, needless to say, sent some ripples through the Christian music world. Now she has a new CD, Letting Go. I’ve heard a couple of songs; she sounds as good as ever. You can get 2 free downloads and listen to some samples of the new stuff on her website. And here is a great bio. Don’t let the (former) Christian label scare you off. This is good music. Period. I’ve got to find my copy of Kansas.

· Elvis Presley – I love Elvis. I’ve loved Elvis for a long, long time. Now it’s time to re-love Elvis. You should too. So much talent.

If you’re unfamiliar with any of these artists, check them out. You may not love them as I do. But you might.

Thinking about Elvis carried me back a few years to a funny, funny place. I don’t think I’ve ever written about this, but in high school I did many impressions.

My friend Drew Spry and I took several road trips together. We went to several road football games; we went to Nashville a few times. On every trip we would spend hours going back and forth from character to character in mock conversations and interviews. The miles flew by on those trips.

Elvis was one of my favorite voices to do. Drew would do Howard Cosell to my Muhammad Ali. I did Jerry Duncan (Alabama’s sideline reporter in the 90s) to his Eli Gold. There were many, many voices in between. Mr. T, Rocky… I wish I could remember more of them. I’m sure most of them were culturally relevant in the 90s.

Good times.

I’ll tell a quick “impression” story then I’m done.

Every year our drama department competed in the Trumbauer Festival, which is the state drama competition. The competition consisted of individual and duet acting categories and a One Act play competition.

My senior year the Bradshaw drama department put on a production of “the Highway” (at least I think that was the title). The play revolved around two elderly women whose homes sat in the proposed path of a new highway and their efforts to keep the houses in place.

I played the mailman. It was a small part. I had 2-3 scenes. 6-8 lines at the most.

As part of our preparation for district competition we spent an entire school day performing the play every hour. Every student attended one of the performances with their English class. After our second performance I was bored with my part.

I came up with a plan. I told the two leads to be ready to improvise and try their best to get rid of me. That’s all I told them. The show started and after a couple of scenes I went on for my first scene. I walked out and delivered my first line… in the voice of Cliff Clavin, the know-it-all postman from TV’s Cheers. After my scripted lines, I began to, Cliff Clavin style, rattle off questionable facts about most anything.

I exited the stage after my scene. All of the crew and other actors backstage were in stitches. They loved it. I knew it was a one shot deal. My drama teacher, our director, would be backstage after the performance. I was prepared to get an earful and to go on with my ho-hum part for the rest of the day.

After the show, Mrs. Thornton came back to give us notes. Everyone held back snickers as we awaited my tongue-lashing.

After a few notes, she said sharply, “Scott!”

I was ready to defend my decision, and eventually concede defeat. I steeled myself for the onslaught.

She continued, “What were you doing?”

“It was Cliff Clavin. I figured since he was a mailman, I would do him as Cliff. It gives him a little more life.” (I though it was pretty good for a completely made up answer.)

She glowered at me. Finally she said, “That was great! Do that every time!”

I continued the Cliff impression for every performance. At district one of the judges commented on how authentic my mailman was. “My postman is exactly like that.”

That’s when I learned how much fun a small part can be.

Elvis, Cliff Clavin, Mr. T, Rocky… I miss you guys.