What Are You Listening to Wednesday - Week 8

I am a bit late getting this post up, but I had a busier day than expected. Do you know what is a bad part of the day? When you go to pay a bill and it comes up declined. It doesn't matter that you know there is money in your account; it still freaks you out. That has happened to me 3 times now and every time it has just turned out to be the chip malfunctioning on my debit card. I tell you, whoever came up with chip technology needs a good crack in the head. You know that old technology where you swiped your card? My card would last years. With the new fancy technology I can't keep a debit card for more than a few months. And, there are some places that if your chip won't work you are out of luck because they refuse to enter it manually. Can you tell what was a part of my day today? On top of that my cell phone broke. I have the worst luck with cell phones. So, I had that fun stuff to take care of and since it was so annoying I decided to treat myself to a book. Wal-Mart had Cinder by Marissa Meyer and now I have a copy. I am well aware I do not need any more books, but moving on.

My project for the week was to explore Josh Groban's music. As many of you know, Suey and Deanna are HUGE fans. They get really excited about his music and post about it constantly. I have known Suey for a while, but when I saw 'know' I mean I was always aware of how she likes Josh Groban so much and every time I hear something about him I think of her. The thing is I had never really listened to a lot of his music before. I knew who he was and randomly owned his Christmas CD, but that was about as far as it went.

If you asked me to name a Josh Groban song before I would only easily be able to think of 'Believe' because it was on the Polar Express soundtrack. I think it is a great song so I have no idea why I didn't look into other things by him in more detail.





It is a bit of a sad song, but that's okay. That is why there is a next generation; so you can recapture the magic of Christmas through them. This post actually is taking a long time because I find myself watching the videos I am posting instead of typing up a post! Anyway, moving on... I decided that it was about time that I listened to more from Josh Groban and I told Suey that I was going to make it a future project. I decided it was a great way to start out new year, though, because I was listening to his Christmas music during the holidays and now I can follow it with his other music. I have come to the conclusion that I actually rather enjoy Josh's music. I am planning to put together some play lists for my car and background noise in the house. I think I have been missing out by now listening to him before now. And now, for some videos...

While looking for something else, I found this really fun video from the Ellen Show. I loved it and had to share:

One of the few songs by Josh that I always enjoyed, but was never sure which song it was, is 'When You Say You Love Me'. I think it is a very nice song!

Then, on Twitter the other night I was having a Josh related conversation with Suey and she shared this video with me. I also think it is a lot of fun and had to share. I also really should try some Michael Buble music... He is widely famous and I have no idea what he even sings...

All in all, this was a successful week of music listening! Thanks Suey!

Music Munday: Josh Groban

I had my Music Munday post all ready to go and was in the very act of posting it for Kailana's blog, when I suddenly realized that last week's guest post, which I somehow missed (not that surprising actually since it was a crazy week for me and I didn't get much blog hopping done,) was on the very same band, Muse! So I threw my post out the window and started over again.

Way back, when Kailana first asked me to do a Music Munday guest post, I teased her about gushing on my favorite musician, Josh Groban. But I decided no, I won't because I really should do something a little more unexpected. However, after I had to scrap that plan, I thought, hmmm.... maybe this is a sign I'm supposed to talk about Josh after all! Just know that I really did try to resist this inclination of mine spread the Josh joy. But then, of course, I gave in very easily!

Once upon a time, my sister said to me, "You should listen to this kid I've been hearing about. He is so young, but his voice is amazing!" I probably heard only one song or something, and I remember thinking, whatever... yeah... he sounds okay, but kind of opera-ish, and he's probably just getting attention because he's so young, and he won't last. Then, over that next year, I started seeing his CD every where. It was his second CD at the time. And after a year or so of resisting the curiosity I was feeling, I finally gave in bought it. As I listened to it on the way home, I thought... wow! I'm LOVING this! And so it began.

My fanaticism grew slowly over the next year or so after that, and by the time his next album came out, I was crazy excited. Then, another year went by, and I found out he was coming to my city for a concert, so I turned into Major Fangirl, and spent unheard of amounts of money to make sure I was there. That concert was two years ago, and since that time, I've truly given up the fight and have totally embraced the Josh love. When the audience heard that he was making his concert CD at OUR city, we went crazy, so here is the opening number, You Are Loved, filmed at "my" concert:


So what is it about him that I love so much? Firstly, that amazing voice. Yes, he did start at 17 years old. He was discovered by David Foster, and sang for the Grammy rehearsal with Celine Deon after Andrea Bocelli couldn't make it. But most people heard him for the first time when he appeared on Ally McBeal right after 9/11 singing a song that I guarantee if you listen to it while you think about someone you've lost, you WILL tear up and get chills. He was only about 18 or 19 at the time of this clip:


Secondly, his songs. Yes, many of them are in Italian, or Spanish, or even French, but the meaning comes through loud and clear. They are all uplifting, inspirational, and all happy-making. I listen to his songs often to pull myself out of a bad mood day, they never fail to make me feel better about life.

Thirdly, his personality. Once the obsession got going for real, of course I learned more and more about him, watched all his "making of" cd's, and saw that he is quite the character. He is funny, silly, goofy, smart, happy, friendly, a little irreverent, and he is so not afraid to make fun of himself as was proven in that recent Glee episode he was on and in this, one of my favorite clips EVER of him showing up at Michael Buble's concert.

Fourthly, he's stinkin' cute too! And he has the best smile that crinkles his eyes all up. Oh, yeah and he's a smokin' hot drummer besides. (I couldn't find the good clip of him drumming, but here's one that will give you an idea. He starts out on the synthesizer, and ends on the drums. Cool.)

There's so many songs I wish I could share. It's funny because I have a playlist on my Ipod labled "Josh's Best" which includes about half of his songs... then I made another list called "Josh's Second Best "which includes the other half. So yeah. They're ALL good. But just so I can share another one, here's one I love and it's actually a pretty good quality video too, filmed once again at "my" concert:


Josh has three main albums: Josh Groban, Closer and Awake, a Christmas album called Noel (which was the top selling album for 2007), and enough miscellaneous songs from movies and bonus tracks, etc. to make a playlist long enough for a whole other album. He is currently working on his next album, due out next spring. (Ah, what a long wait it's been!) You can learn tons about him here at his official site, or here at the best fan site, or here at a wonderful blog I follow, or here where he vlogs now and then, or here where he Twitters! Whew! So anyway, take a listen, especially if you only know him for You Raise Me Up.... there's so much more than just that song!

And since it's just about time for Christmas music (it's legal as soon as Halloween comes, right?) here's one to get you in the mood (besides, Kailana made a special request for it!)