MARK NEVIN – Shining On The Hill
Oh, how easy it is to hate musicians, and, for that matter, artists of all types nowadays! It comes, especially easily, if the person doing the mud-slinging happens to live in a place where hard work, toil and stressing over problems is the norm.
How dare these musicians spend their days singing songs, the way that Mark Nevin does? Haven’t they heard that the world is getting warmer, that wars are raging, and that the price of things is going up? Why must they either be crazy or determined to laugh in the face of all the regular people barely getting by?
But maybe they ought to be studied. People who are content aren’t many after all. And if they happen to be happy with little, then, certainly, they’re exceptions in this world filled with excess. How do these musicians do it, and how can it be distributed?
Mark Nevin’s beautiful, retro jazz take on the simple pleasures of life, “Shining on the Hill,” has just the prescription for it. But you won’t like it! Not at first. And you’ll be left surprised by how little you have to pay for it.
Nevin talks about finding balance and sings like a man who wants listeners to know that he practices what he preaches. As for the wonderful, simple pleasures, be quick to add “Shining on the Hill” to that list right now.
Bicentennial Drug Lord – This Pabst Blue Ribbon
The only thing worse than having to drown your sorrows in a bottle is being forced to settle on a bottle filled with inferior content. You won’t find many people outside of the U.S. writing a song about a Pabst Blue Ribbon. But that may just be one more detail that adds to the misery described in this song. It’s enough to make a lonely soul want to scream out.
On the other hand, those who’ve truly faced disappointment straight on will remember every detail about the moment when they were ready to take life as it was. They’ll recall what was playing on the television set behind the bar, the stupid joke that the guy in the seat next to them had told them, and the way that the label stuck to the bottle felt like in their fingers.
Not everyone who’s been dealt a bad hand and who has nursed a broken heart will manage to accurately pour those feelings into powerful writing, or into a lovely song. Bicentennial Drug Lord’s “This Pabst Blue Ribbon” is a gorgeously bittersweet ode to losing the love of your life and finding companionship at the bottom of the bottle. What’s truly special about this, however, is the way that the singer’s voice trembles every step of the way, just as every word lines up perfectly. It doesn’t get much sadder than a Pabst Blue Ribbon, does it?
