photo by bashed

Grumpy. Cranky. Should not have been allowed to open my mouth.

That was me this morning. For no particular reason.

By the grace of God, I was able to get my kids to school without much damage. Much.

After dropping the last one off, I grumpily got in the car, grumpily started it and with every bit of grumpiness and cynicism in my body, I turned on the radio.

Grumpily. 

Turning on the radio could have been DANGEROUS this morning. Because, really? If Big, Big House by Audio Adrenaline was playing ONE. MORE. TIME…

As I pushed the button, I thought doubtfully (and grumpily), “Hmm…I wonder if there’s ANYTHING playing that could kick me out of my moooood.”

“….When my world is shaking, Heaven stands. When my heart is breaking, I never leave Your Hands.”

I instantly smiled, giggled and, if I can be embarrassingly honest, I shouted with glee.

Yes, glee.

Jimmy told me that JJ Heller’s song was on KLOVE, but this was the first time I heard it.

My Late Night Surfing – Justified

One of my absolute most very, especially, favoritest things to do – ever – is to listen to new music on YouTube. I just love watching artists perform and hearing it live.

One way or another, that’s how I happened upon JJ Heller. I loved the sound of her voice, the sound of her music and the deep yet accessible lyrics.

I asked her to be a part of the Bloggable Music Network, a blog which I never had as much time for as I wanted. I also raved about her and gave a copy of her CD to my sister in law, Diana.

Diana then chose the song for her try out dance at SYTYCD. The show that one of my old co-workers at KSBJ (one of the biggest CCM stations in the coutry) watched. He loved the song and played it on the air.

KSBJ got such a great response that they added it to their rotation. I heard it was only the 2nd time they’ve added a song from an independent artist to their rotation in 20 years!

Now KLOVE is playing JJ’s music and I’m sure many smaller stations will follow.

For Your Reference

If you haven’t seen these, here is Diana’s segment from SYTYCD and JJ’s video from the Bloggable Music Network:

Now You’ll Probably Think I’m Weird

This is one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me! I’ve worked at radio stations and venues most of my adult life. I’ve been around lots and lots of music, but oddly enough, playing this miniscule part in JJ gaining a bigger audience is the most amazing music thing I’ve been a part of.

Granted, I could never replicate it. I didn’t really do anything. But, just knowing that all this happened partly as a result of my music nerdery… Well, that’s just fun.

I have no desire to be a musician or to be famous, but the idea of connecting incredible lesser known artists with all the other music geeks out there – thrills me to no end.

I have this sneaking feeling that this isn’t going to make much sense to anybody, but it’s just been SO incredibly exciting to me that I had to write about it…

And the icing on my musical nerd cake? There is a 90% chance that JJ is going to play a concert AT. MY. HOUSE!!!! I love live music, but to have it playing in my own house is just crazy amazing.

Hmmmm….I can’t believe I was grumpy this morning.

So, if you could have any musician perform at your house, who would it be?