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Salamander
Fire Walking

Songs 1-6
Wed Nov 11 2009

Unlike later updates to The List, there is a common theme with these songs - they got me through some bad times. These are the songs that hit my list first, not necessarily because they were the most important to me (though some do hit me powerfully) but because they are all tied to periods of my life when I used music heavily for solace or reassurance. I almost didn't post the list in the order that I created it because it is heavy with Dar Williams and Christine Lavin in the beginning. But in the end I decided to update the list in the order it developed; if you can find any insights based on that feel free.


1. Spring Street – Dar Williams

2. Happy Divorce Day – Christine Lavin

3. Better Things – Dar Williams (by Ray Davies of The Kinks)
Apologies to you Kinks fans. This song never really appeared on my radar until I was waiting for my liver transplant and I was listening to old Dar CD's. This is the version I sang to in the car while going to and from doctors' appointments.

4. As Bad as it Gets – Christine Lavin

5. The Moon and St. Christopher – Mary Chapin Carpenter
She wrote it. She sings it best.

6. Off The Rails – Garnet Rogers
I'm sorry there are no links on the web to Garnet Rogers.

4 Comments
  • From:
    SitsWithAnAddingMachine (Legacy)
    On:
    Wed Nov 11 2009
    Oh, I am so glad you decided to do this.

    Now I'm in a quandary, though. I would like at some point to create such a list of my own, but I worry your list may influence mine. Do I read your list now? Who knows when I may get around to my own list! Hmm.

    Well, I will certainly wait at least until tonight when I have time to give each item you've listed the time and consideration it deserves.
  • From:
    Welshamethyst (Legacy)
    On:
    Thu Nov 12 2009
    very nifty little project you've got going on here! I'm interested to listen to the songs but it'll have to wait until my caramel apple pie comes out of the oven, lol. The scent wafting from the kitchen is about to kill me.
  • From:
    SitsWithAnAddingMachine (Legacy)
    On:
    Sat Nov 14 2009
    I decided to go ahead and listen because I know myself too well to believe I'll get my list done any time soon. ;o)

    How do you embed these things? I'd like to do that on my project, as long as it doesn't cost anything. ;o)

    I think I messed up my chance to hear "Better Things". I had just run an update on Norton Antivirus, and I think Norton was trying to install or run something. Whatever was going on in my computer made that song skip insufferably, even when I stopped and re-started it. So I rebooted and that solved the skipping problem, but then lala or whatever would only let me listen to a thirty-second clip of that song, maybe because I had already accessed it multiple times.

    I like "Spring Street". As with many of Dar's songs, I have trouble relating to the lyrics; however, the music and her beautiful voice and phrasing keep me coming back to her CDs time after time.

    I've now discovered that I like Mary Chapin Carpenter's voice. I used to get her mixed up with Christine Lavin, but now I think I've absorbed the difference.
  • From:
    SitsWithAnAddingMachine (Legacy)
    On:
    Sat Nov 14 2009
    I should have written, "...as long as it doesn't cost anything or is illegal," but I imagine that goes without saying if you're doing it.