Category: Music

My other love… :)

Music on a Monday – My Christmas Top Ten

On By auntyamoIn MusicLeave a comment

10. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting) – I love this cos it reminde me of my Mammy. She sang this every Christmas. She had such a great singing voice. Precious memories 🙂 I sang it on the Christmas CD that our family made last year. A little tribute to her… but nowhere near as good.

9. Joy (Joy, God’s Great Joy) – Whitney Houston and the Georgia Mass Choir. Just FAB!!!

8. Sleigh Ride – Not the the rubbish version by the Spice Girls. Or any other sung version for that matter! The orchestral version by Leon Anderson. I have hilarious memories of playing along with this using key’s, pencils and a ruler for the ‘crack’ of the whip; and no I wasn’t 6. This was quite recently with a workmate. Her daughter is a percussionist…. we knew what we were doing you know….!!!

7. All I Want for Christmas is You – Now I’m not a big fan of Mariah Carey, but she landed on a winner with this one! The ultimate feel good Christmas song. And you quite forget that she’s actually sad cos she doesn’t have the one she loves with her but we’re all bopping around to it anyway. Brillo.

6. Driving Home for Christmas – I lived in the UK for 8 years and was homesick pretty much most of the time but going home for Christmas was just the best. This song, even now, makes me smile. It just reminds me of the journey and the excitement of travelling towards home.

5. Sans Day Carol – and old Cornish tune. Never have I heard it sung better than my brother’s recording of it on the family Christmas CD. The refrain is, “And Mary bore Jesus, our Saviour for to be”.
That’s Christmas in a nutshell my friends 😉

4. Infant Holy, Infant Lowly – the tune of this is so moving. And the way the lyrics and tune build up in the second half of the verse… magical. Only 2 verses but what a finish….”Thus rejoicing, free from sorrow, praises voicing, greet the morrow: Christ the babe was born for you, Christ the babe was born for you.”

3. Must Be Santa, Bob Dylan – This Song is so much fun!!! Best Audience Participation Christmas song since The 12 Days! If you haven’t heard it find it on You Tube. It’s the craic! 😀

2. Hark!, the Herald Angels Sing – The best real Carol. It’s a little too high for me in places so I have to SING IT to hit the notes. So triumphant. Love it!

1. Silent Night – This is my fave. always makes me cry. It reminds me of Christmas as a kid. I remember going to midnight Mass and up until then the AMAZING life size crib didn’t have the baby Jesus in it. And on Christmas Eve they would put the little statue of the baby in the crib. And we’d all queue up to kneel in front of the crib to say a prayer. And i always associate that memory with Silent Night.
I rememeber even at a very young age knowing that this was something very very special. And I’m grateful to my parents that in our house the crib was as important as the tree.

Music on a Monday – One last push for sales of my Charity CD

On By auntyamoIn Music1 Comment

I’m delighted that over 100 copies of ‘Music for India’ have been sold. Thanks SO MUCH to all of you who bought one (and more than one!!!)

The feedback has been great and Psalm 84 seems to be a ‘hit’ 🙂 I’ve really appreciated the encouragement.

I seem to be at my best writing wise when I’m at my worst emotionally. I’m sure that says a lot about my bizarre mind!!!
But my songs have definitely been written from a position of sadness and struggle.

I have the beginnings of lots of songs that roll around my brain for ages then when I’m crying out to God, (or giving out to God) something happens and they turn into a song.

Music is a big part of my life and a big part of my family. There aren’t many professionaly trained musicians in the family. But that hasn’t stopped us 🙂 When I started to follow God and realised what a big part music plays in the Christian faith, it felt like a bonus!!! And all those songs of misery in my teen years that cried out to emptiness turned into songs that cry out to God and aim, in some way to give Him glory in everything.

Some of you have been kind enough to ask for more of my songs. And I have already decided to make another CD next year to raise month for another charity. So watch this space…

If you haven’t yet bought a copy of ‘Music for India’ and would like to then please get in touch. I’d be delighted to send one to you. It doesn’t matter where you are… they’ve gone to the UK, the US and Australia. Nowhere is too far, as long as you’re wiling to part with a few sheckles… for a very good cause!

My FB page is http://www.facebook.com/auntyamo or you can leave a comment on the blog

Thanks again 🙂

Music on a Monday — Oh Carol!

On By auntyamoIn Getting to grips with God stuff, MusicLeave a comment

Are you ready?!

Have you prepared your vocal chords?

Are you all tuned up?

Cos it’s that time of year…..

If you’re someone who goes to church then you’re about to enter the ‘Hark! the Herald Angels Sing’ zone never to escape from it (well… until January!)

But I have to say I wouldn’t have it any other way. I totally love that carol. And the fact that it is a smidge too high for my grizzly alto means I have to MEAN it to be able to sing it.

As someone who loves Christmas and bans humbugs from her presence….! (be warned) the carols mean so much to me.

I’ve always loved Christmas. It’s a huge deal in my family. And I’m grateful to my parents that the crib was as important as the tree when I was a kid. Christmas Mass was important too so I learned that carol at a young age and still love it!

There’s so much GREAT Chistmas music. ReligIous and non religious. And I’ve even written my own Christmas song….

But for me, nothing comes near Hark! the herald angels sing.

And by the way…. if you’ve never actually thought about it, or investigated what it is they sing and why… Ask me, it could lead to a Christmas you’ll never forget!

Music on a Monday — The Cousins CD

On By auntyamoIn Family, MusicLeave a comment

I’m in the middle of a really fun music project at the mo.

Last year one of my nieces was away and another niece wanted to send her a CD with some of us singing Christmas songs on it. – so she wouldn’t feel so homesick.
That turned into a Double CD with lots of the family singing Christmas songs with backing tracks, and a bonus track of practiaclly the whole family doing “Do They Know it’s Christmas”

It was hard work but the finished product is brilliant, If I do say so……

Some of the family are experienced GREAT singers, others are singers and others still are… well… not. But this was a free for all.
Anyone who wanted to do a song did one.
It was a whole lot of work but twice that in fun 🙂

This year we’re making another one.
It will just have as many of my 27 nicece and nephews as can/will be on it.
Solo spots are only for the more confident singers and then all 27 (hopeuflly) will feature in some way on the final track ‘We are the World’

I heard some of the stuff that’s already been recorded. From Beatles to Kelly Clarkson to Norman Wisdom — so far the songs are amazing.
Coming up there’s an acoustic version of a Beyonce song and a bit of Randy Crawford too….!

We’ve got some real talent in the family. A few X Factor hopefuls that didn’t get anywhere near as far as they should have. Singers that would knock your socks off and at least one guitar player that, as me da would say, “could make the thing talk””.

But FAR bigger that the talent is the love for music in the family. Which seems to be across the board regardless of the actual abibitly.

My brother Christopher is (as usual) doing all the hard work on this CD project. I’m sure everyone on the ‘Cousins CD’ will agree he’s a legend… in his own music room!

Oh by the way…If you come to one of our family parties you’ll be very welcome, but you better bring a song with you 🙂

Music on a Monday — This blog??? oohhhh… about Seventeen Seconds!

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I bought Seventeen Seconds by the The Cure again. I couldn’t help myself.

A few months ago I had the immense priv of meeting a band member from those days. The splendid Matthieu Hartley (keyboard player on SS). Standing outside the Bad Ass Café (where once I had hung out, mohican, doc boots, white face and all), I was v nervous waiting for him to arrive. But Matt (I can call him Matt you know) and his lovely wife and two of his mates (I’ve met his wife and two of his mates you know) were really great! They didn’t mind the weird stalker type person who just wanted to sit near a bit of Cure history 🙂

Seventeen Seconds was an important buy the first time around. I was into The Cure from just after Love Cats but EVERYONE loved The Cure after Love Cats. But to prove yourself as a real fan you had to go back! So I bought Seventeen Seconds and learned every word off by heart. Then I learned the words of 10:15 on a Saturday Night. Cos as a Cure fan you had to know the B Sides as well.

It’s the music of my formative years. We were never happier than when we were depressed listening to the Cure 🙂 I had lots of younger nieces and nephews and was the ‘cool’ aunty. But I didn’t want to be cool. I just wanted to be Robert Smith!

I look back on those days and remember loving my identity. And to this day regret giving it up for a guy who didn’t like girls with mohicans! Inside I’m still a Curehead really!

btw Mattieu Hartley music is still great! His band Icicle Thieves are playing in the Albert in Brighton this coming Friday.

Music on a Monday — Zschech it out!

On By auntyamoIn Getting to grips with God stuff, MusicLeave a comment

 (I know… I know…the title only works if Darlene’s surname is actually prounounced Check…)
 
I thought maybe on Monday’s I’d waffle about music. Some church, some not! Maybe comment on how the previouse days songs had affected me… or not….I WAS wondering if I’d have anything to say (quite likely most of the time….)
 
But tis a feast today….
 
I was going to talk about our church’s live Radio broadcast on RTE 1 LW and online yesterday morning.
 
But then the news came to me that Darlene Unprouncable is leaving Hillsongs to take up a joint pastorate with her husband in a Pente church in Sydney.
 
It brought back a flood of memories. ‘Shout to the Lord’ was in the 90s and some of the Noughties what In Christ Alone  became in the rest of the Noughties and continues in to the…. Tennies???
 
We sang ‘Shout to the Lord’ was at every wedding I went to , including my own. We sang it most sunday mornings. at every Bible college chapel service and evertwhere else.
 
It blew other emotive worship songs out of the water for me. And (when playing it in G) that F chord came in it just lifted the whole song. Then a key chnge in the MIDDLE of the chorus. What an effect it had on the mood of the song.
 
it was as if we couldn’t hang on til the end of the chorus to go up a key. 
 
We’re worship leaders and WE CAN’T WAIT TO MODULATE!!!
To this day listening to it brings me to another time and place in my Christian life. I don’t know whether I’ve grown that much or just swapped a bunch of insecurites for different ones. But its about 15 yeats since I heard the song first and the words are as true to me now as they were then. So I can’t be doing that bad eh?
 
If you would like to hear the broadcast of our service yesterday you can go to this link. http://www.rte.ie/radio1/player_av.html?0%2Cnull%2C200,http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-r1-reflectiveservice.smil It’s me leading the singing for the the group songs (as opposed to the hymns with the organ).
 
I’m no Darlene; but zschech me out and let me know what you think!