AND SO IT BEGINS! Countdown – 55 Days to Memorial Day Weekend!

You may have been keeping track of my yearly countdowns that started SIX YEARS AGO as a lark to count down to my fiftieth birthday, and if you are, I applaud, thank, and celebrate you! This year’s list will include songs by artists whom you’ve heard about perhaps multiple times in my lists. What can I say about that but that I am loyal and, since the first year was intended to be a one-and-done thing, I didn’t think I should just do retrospectives on the artists instead of trying to apple-pick favorites, which clearly is an impossible task for me.

What you’ll also notice, as usual, is the list is ballad-heavy, with disco jangles and pop songs as typical runners up. I am nothing if not a predictable creature of habit. This, too, you also know if you’ve been reading my countdown blogs, and again I must thank you for finding me and my musical opinions even the least bit interesting.

Quiet Your Mind/ Loving You Easy (Zac Brown Band) - day 55

Just when you thought you knew me, I throw a wrench into your face and destroy your confidence by posting about a Country band! But since I discovered the Zac Brown Band early last year during the pandemic, I realized how special and amazing their music is. I haven’t really delved too deeply into their entire catalog, but there is one very special song that has come to mean a lot to me and my soul.

Quiet Your Mind. This is a blend of masterful lyrics, perfect harmonies, fiddles blazing with comforting charm and a stance that insists you heed the words as you actually quiet your mind and listen:

If you’re too busy talkin’ you’re not busy listenin’ to hear what the land has to say…

This song will always bring me back to focusing on finding peace in the upheaval and uncertainty of 2020 when it appeared the world might actually end in my lifetime. I recall vividly sitting, alone, by the fire pit at Lukan’s, just before the dinner bell while the young ones were playing ball and the older ones were having disco time, I played this song on repeat (as I am inclined to do) and looked up at the sky, the perfectly blue sky. I allowed this song to mesmerize me into believing that the end is not near and that there’s still so much life to be lived.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syTVW8n5Cy0