"Give Me Back My Hometown"

Happy 2014, SongBirds!  

This year is off to a crazy start and I know there are some magical things in store.  

This year is and will definitely be blog-worthy, in my life and musically. 

Now, I will be the first to admit...I am not the biggest Eric Church fan.  However, I am totally having a change of heart, and I know you will too.  This song restores my tested faith in Country Music.

I am over society's judgmental views of country music.  This song shatters those criticisms.  To the untrained ear, country music no longer sounds 'country' any more, and it doesn't have to!  From the structure, instrumentation, and choice of words, this song is propelling our genre into a new chapter.

Can I just talk about how brilliant these words are?  Like come on.  "All the colors of my youth/The red, the green, the hope, the truth/Are beatin’ me black and blue cause you’re in every scene"  The. Best.  My songwriting head is exploding, absolutely brilliant.  

This. Is. Country. Music.  

FM Radio:
Singer: Eric Church
Songwriters: Eric Church/Luke Laird
Song: "Give Me Back My Hometown"
Buy it here: iTunes

Damn, I used to love this view
Sit here and drink a few
Main street and the high school lit up on Friday night
Down there it’s another touchdown
Man, this year’s team is stout I can hear them goin’ crazy
And up here so am I

Thinkin’ about you sittin’ there sayin’ I hate this, I hate it
If you couldn’t stand livin’ here why’d you take it, take it

Give me back my hometown
‘Cause this is my hometown

All the colors of my youth
The red, the green, the hope, the truth
Are beatin’ me black and blue cause you’re in every scene
My friends try to cheer me up get together at the Pizza Hut
I didn’t have the heart to tell them that was our place
These sleepy streetlights on every sidewalk side street
Shed a light on everything that used to be

Give me back my hometown
‘Cause this is my hometown

You can have my grandma’s locket
The knife out of my grandpa’s pocket
Yeah my state champion jacket
I don’t care you can have it
 Every made memory
Every picture, every broken dream
Yeah everything, everything, everything

Give me back my hometown
‘Cause this is my hometown

"Church Clothes"

Credit: Kelleigh Bannen

Regardless of the words I write on this little blog, I don't think anything can do justice to the sound Kelleigh Bannen's voice.  I've seen more singers than I can remember live, and I've never heard a voice like this.  Her tone is so unique that their is no one is comparison.  As the opening act for Luke Bryan, Kelliegh had the audience in the palm of her hand.  I need at least 100 songs of her on my iPod, now.  Oh and on top of that voice, she is also an incredible songwriter in her own right.  I've been fascinated with this girl ever since I discovered her last year - "Why Now Why"  

Inevitably, I've followed everything she's ever done.  So to see her live...oh & meet her...beyond words, one of the best nights, ever.  This was by no means an "opening act."  As a singer/songwriter, watching Kelleigh's set was literally like seeing a little ray of God.  I feel nothing but inspired and know that my life will never be complete unless I can affect someone the way she touched me that night.  I feel ready to take on the world.

Every so often a song comes along that takes the breath out of you; this was that song for me.  This song speaks for itself but of course that will not stop me.  I have been singing this song ever since I heard the Opry performance, ahhmazing.  The verses hesitate in a way that makes the story come more to life.  The choruses have just a few simple lyric changes that propel the story yet relive the agonizing pain in this 'church' life.  In my opinion, it's the details like "curl in my hair," or "Slipped a five in the offering plate."  I can really lose my mind over this song.   The marriage of melody and lyrics in this song are the driving force for why I will spend forever trying to replicate the same.  Like they were just made for each other.  Although she didn't have a hand in writing this masterpiece of a song, her vulnerability makes her delivery feel as if she lived it.  Brilliant.  I promise you've never heard anything like this.  Country music needs Kelleigh Bannen.

Find Kelleigh Bannen:
www.kelleighbannen.com
www.twitter.com/kelleighbannen

My video, the beginning got cut off:

FM Radio:
Singer: Kelleigh Bannen
Song: "Church Clothes"

A pressed shirt, you tuck it in

You tie your tie, and tie it again

I put a little curl in my hair

Pink on my cheeks barely there

A proper skirt, hits at the knee

A good sweater in winter green

You shake the keys, downstairs

I hit the lights not a minute to spare

Slipped a five in the bible for the offering plate

What a beautiful picture we both made

            You drive, I look out the window

            It’s not right but nobody said so

            We walk in and head to the same pew

            And hold hands, just like we’re supposed to

            But last night you slept on the sofa

            And these days I don’t even know ya 

            We fight like hell but nobody knows

            When we’re wearing our church clothes

We stand up we sing a hymn

We say a prayer for other friends

We’re turning to the book of John

I’m thinking how I can’t go on

But we smile and we give it our Sunday best

If we’re lost couldn’t tell by the way we dressed

            You drive, I look out the window

            It’s not right but nobody said so

            We walk in, I head to the bedroom

            But you don’t, you do what you want to

            Like last week when you packed a suitcase

            And came close to getting your own place

            Oh that’s the stuff nobody knows

            When we’re wearing our church clothes

Oh we don’t speak

Don’t touch as if nobody’s watching us

Lord knows we got it down

What would they say if we gave up

            You drive, I look out the window

            It’s not right but nobody said so

            We walk in like we’ve never been so close

            Miles apart but careful that it don’t show

            When we’re wearing our church clothes

Dirt Road Diaries Tour/"Country Girl (Shake It For Me)"

Nothing like this song to make you wish you grew up on dirt roads.  I love within one line, a song can instantly transport you from your car, living room, wherever, right onto the exact location of the song.  

So amazing to watch Luke Bryan carve out a place for himself in country music. 

So unreal that here we are Labor Day weekend, which means that summer is officially over.  Crazy to think that I am a junior in college now.  Ridiculous.  Well, I feel like the pinnacle of my summer was 8/29 when we went to see Luke's Dirt Road Diaries tour at the NYS Fair, which featured Thompson Square and Kelleigh Bannen (My favorite person ever!)  Ever since that concert ended, all I want to do is go back.  Regardless of the overly-intoxicated and way too obnoxious people that obstructed my view, hands down, this is one of the best concerts I've ever been to.  Amazing, amazing, amazing!

For starters, although I love Luke, the second I saw Kelleigh's name on that bill, I bought the tickets.  This girl is too amazing for words...she's getting her own entry.  

I guess my seats were actually meant to be.  Although we've sat in the grandstand for almost every show we've seen at the fair (not intentionally), the one thing I've never realized until this time is that I first-handedly had the ability to witness the power of a song.  Literally.  Amazing how once you're older, you realize everything you knew all along.  Honestly, I don't know what was louder, Luke himself, or 17,000 people singing along.  Unreal, out of body experience.  

  

Country Girl (Shake It For Me) - Syracuse, NY

FM Radio:
Singer: Luke Bryan
Songwriters: Luke Bryan, Dallas Davidson
Song: "Country Girl (Shake It For Me)"

Got a little boom in my big truck

Gonna open up the doors and turn it up

Gonna stomp my boots in the Georgia mud,

Gonna watch you make me fall in love

Get up on the hood of my daddy's tractor,

up on the toolbox it don't matter

Down on the tailgate girl i can't wait

To watch you do your thing

Shake it for the young bucks sittin' in the honky-tonks

For the rednecks rockin' 'till the break of dawn

For the DJ spinning that country song

c'mon c'mon c'mon

Shake it for the birds

Shake it for the bees

Shake it for the catfish swimming down deep in the creek

For the crickets

and the critters

and the squirrels

Shake it for the moon

Shake it for me girl

Country girl shake it for me

girl shake it for me

girl shake it for me

Somebody's sweet little farmer child

She got it in her blood to get a little wild

Pony tail and a pretty smile

Roped me in from a country mile

So come on over here and get in my arms

Spin me around this big ol' barn

Tangle me up like grandma's yarn

yeah yeah yeah

Shake it for the young bucks sittin' in the honky-tonks

For the rednecks rockin' 'till the break of dawn

For the DJ spinning that country song

c'mon c'mon c'mon

Shake it for the birds

Shake it for the bees

Shake it for the catfish swimming down deep in the creek

For the crickets

And the critters

And the squirrels

Shake it for the moon

Shake it for me girl

Country girl shake it for me

girl shake it for me

girl shake it for me

Country girl shake it for me

girl shake it for me

girl shake it for me

Now dance like a dandelion

In the wind, on the hill underneath the pines

Yeah move like the river flow

Feel the kick drum down deep in your toes

All I wanna do is get to holdin' you

And get to knowin' you

And get to showin' you

And get to lovin' you 'fore the night is through

Baby you know what to do!

Shake it for the young bucks sittin' in the honky-tonks

For the rednecks rockin' 'till the break of dawn

For the DJ spinning that country song

c'mon c'mon c'mon

Shake it for the birds

Shake it for the bees

Shake it for the catfish swimming down deep in the creek

For the crickets

And the critters

And the squirrels

Shake it for the moon

Shake it for me girl

Country girl shake it for me

Girl shake it for me

Girl shake it for me

Country girl shake it for me

Girl shake it for me

Girl shake it for me