Lovin’ Mat Kearney’s Music

Posted on 12.03.06 in Music General and there are 9 comments.

I’ve had a song by Mat Kearney (that his label gave away for free on their website this past summer) in my iTunes for awhile now. I’ve always liked it, but I just now decided to check out his website and listen to more of his music. I’ve been listening for about an hour now and I’m about to go buy his album. It’s awesome.

It reminds me of walking on a quiet night through the downtown streets of a big city during the late fall, coat wrapped around me and breathing in the cold crisp air.

I live in Waco. I have no idea what it’s like to walk through the downtown streets of a big city during the late fall. But I read somewhere that great music reminds you of a place you’ve never been.

Check out Mat Kearney then let me know what you think. (I particularly liked the song Girl America.)

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I haven’t heard “Girl America”, but I’ve been listening to his music for a while now.  I have the same free song that you have, Chicago, and I’ve heard “Nothing Left to Lose” get some air-play.  Pretty good stuff.  Its on my music wishlist for Christmas (it, and 24 other CDs that I have been wanting for a while now).

BTW, I see you broke down and added the Magic Word for comments.  Unfortunate that it comes to that.

I like it.  I REALLY like the singing and songwriting.  I don’t get into too much white-boy rap.  He does it extremely well but its just not my thing. I can only even take about 5 minutes of rap genius like Biggie, Tupac or Eminem. 

Probably because we always did puppet shows to rap songs.  So now when I hear Undeniable I just see these two puppets doing a duet.

Euphrony,
So what are your other 24?

Yes, I was getting hit by comment spam, so I enabled captchas. Bummer, I know.

Seth,
I actually like the rap/spoken word thing. His version of it, particularly. He’s much more lyrically eloquent than..um...most rappers. It almost seems more like poetry/spoken word than rap per se.

You did puppet shows to rap music? Interesting.

Um… well, I kinda think most people actually would consider rap to be “poetry/spoken word music.”

I agree, his is much more easy on the ears than say, Snoop, Lil Srappy or Lil Kim or any of those ‘lils’ for that matter, (although I sorta like a lil Snoop), but rap is rap.  I also like the way Beck raps.  However when Beck does it it always sounds like he is sort of weilding it like a weapon in his huge arsenal of creative tools rather than submitting to it as a vehichle of expression. 

And yes, yes I am afraid that I did puppet shows to rap music.  We did this whole backyard bible club thing in the 80’s and the whole show was around DC talk and Run DMC.  It was pretty funny.  Probably why I still love the muppets so much today.  However, I will NEVER tell that to a children’s pastor at a church again. 

But again, I say, I REALLY like Matt’s music. I think he as a friggin cool voice and is a terrific poet and craftsman. Especially track no. 1.  I’m just NOT the biggest fan of that music that “occupies a gray area between speech, poetry, prose, and song. Derived from African and Jamaican roots” i.e. rap.

Personally, my favorite rap is from Blondie

Now, my favorite wrap is a gyro: a good pita, lamb and beef, cucumbers, and tzatziki.  You can’t beat it

On Brand New Day, Sting has some French rap - definitely not my style.

The other 24?  They are on my Amazon.com Wishlist.  Mostly stuff that I’ve been meaning to get for a while, but just haven’t, or stuff that I’m trying to build a small collection from that artist.

Actually, another example where I like the artist but still can’t get into the rap.  Sting.  Amazing album.  The French rapping, my wife loves it.  I can’t get into it.

I don’t know, just one of those things like Sushi or Scrabble.  Not my thing.

I used to work with a guy who was Irish, married to a French woman, who spoke French and visited there often.  He talked about the French rap and how bizarre it is to hear them gripe about the tough life in the suburbs.  Completely different from American rap.

Anyway, Kat, back to Mat Kearney.  Good stuff.  Did I already say that?

Euphrony,
Great list...but....
You don’t have Kansas???????? That’s definitely one of my all time favorite cds. I listened to it for almost a year straight in my car (and I had a 45 minute commute). Perhaps I’ll just have to have a chat with Santa on your behalf to make sure you get that. It’s definitely a must have…

Seth,
True, rap technically is “poetry/spoken word” I suppose I was just thinking that Matt’s version is just so much more eloquent and....well..poetic than a lot of rap I’ve heard (which frankly isn’t much.)

You don’t like Scrabble?!

Okay, lets get this clear.  I love Kansas, and I have several of their albums - including a box set.  However, it’s true that I do not have Kansas from Jennifer Knapp. I have several songs from her, as individual downloads, but no complete album.  A striking lack, considering how much I like her music.  I’ve heard and like every song on Kansas but somehow, when I get around to buying a CD, I seem to have something come up that I end up getting first.  Same with Shaun Groves; I own several individual songs, but none of his CDs.

I really love to get the CD, rather than download the whole thing off of iTunes.  Otherwise I would have had all of Kansas by now.

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