Hootie

I hardly listen to the radio in the car anymore. In the mornings it is mostly talk anyway and that's a frustrating thing when all I really want to do is listen to music and sing. So I pop in a CD and take off and daughter sits beside me and puts in her IPod because she doesn't want to listen to what I'm listening to - she wants to hear Jesse McCartney these days since she's discovered the wonderful world of teen love. I listen to what I want because I figure it's my car and I make the car payments - so there. My son believes me to be behind the times because I don't have an IPod - it's easier Momma... it makes more sense Momma... you don't have to keep burning CDs because all your music is right there Momma. He fails to see, however, that an IPod is an extravagance I can not afford myself right now. "Santa" brought him a Nano several years ago and daughter bought a video one last year after requesting money for her birthday from everyone. I don't receive extravagant gifts anymore (not that I ever really received a lot of them to begin with), so until the time my sugar daddy arrives I'm just shit out of luck. I'm wary of extravagance though - every time my ex would go overboard it was because he was feeling guilty. I didn't know at the time but looking back now it all kinda correlates. Our last Christmas together he gave me diamond earrings - a carats worth - and now I know he'd been seeing someone else the whole time. Don't think I don't wear the earrings though, cause I do, but they are nice little reminders. Thanks honey.

The latest CD rotation has Hootie and the Blowfish currently on my play list. Lots of people 'dis on ol' Hootie these days and I just don't get that. Some folks are just fair weather fans I suppose. When I was at Carolina (THE USC for those who don't know) the Hootie members where students there too... they started playing in bars around campus and then years later hit it big. Ex and I saw them in concert probably eleven years ago - we went with another couple and I had the greatest time. The concert was outside, another local grown band was there. The music was great, the atmosphere was great, the company was great and ex looked like he'd rather have been in a prison camp at the Hanoi Hilton. Oh well... I have fond memories of it. Hootie doesn't play a lot of concerts these days but I'd love to go see them again sometime... they really are great in concert - take a listen: Goodbye. Darius Rucker has a fantastic voice - and once again I will say it's my ball, I make the rules, and if I say so then it's true.

But I was thinking back while listening to Hootie to the time after the ex left during the first affair - I did something for myself... an indulgence of sorts. I bought two Hootie and the Blowfish CDs - ones I didn't have because I'd let a lot of what I liked fall by the wayside. A tiny indulgence I know but for me an indulgence none the less. I bought them on the Internet and when I would drive I would listen to them and just get lost in the songs. When he left the second time I did the same thing - I bought two more I didn't have. One was a CD of newly recorded stuff and one was from a live concert they did in Charleston... Live in Charleston is a great CD... if people don't know Hootie that's a definite one to check out - it's a mix of their stuff and the covers they used to do while singing in bars around USC. The energy in the music is fun and funky - it always makes me feel good - even the more mellow, soft, heartache stuff.

There's not a whole lot of great Hootie to link to on YouTube but their website is playing the Live in Charleston CD....