BOTB January 2025 - Smiling through

 

Hey, hi! Glad you stopped by ;-)

The Battle of The Bands (BOTB) is your basic Which-do-you-like-best contest where the one that gets the most votes wins. All you have to do is show up (the 1^st and/or 15^th of every month) give a listen and cast your vote in the comment section. Next, hop on over to see what battles other participants (links located top right column of this page) have posted for us to vote on! Votes will be tallied and the winner revealed on or about 8 days later.

Happy New Year, everyone! I’m getting my year-end party started early (see below), but I’ve set the alarm for midnight so I can witness everyone else’s ;-) I’m looking forward to your battles! It will be interesting to see how everyone throws out the old while embracing the new. Some years are just hard to let go of, kind of like Sweet Caroline. (Other years you just want to drop-kick off a cliff – but that’s for another post – ha!). Still others, according to the Black-eyed Peas, you find yourself infused with such feelings of hope and positivity that you might be as catchy as the song itself!

With that, I present two different songs by two different artists who are sure to have you singing along. But which one keeps you smiling the longest? I’m so determined to smile more this year; it might be my new theme!

 First up:

Next Up:

 

 

Have a wonderful January!

BOTB December 2024 - Results

 

 

Many thanks to everyone who stopped by to listen and cast a vote on my latest Battle of the Bands! I also appreciate how you all voted when you didn’t have to – especially since I posted one of my most favorite Christmas songs for the second time in as many years – you guys are the best!  

Contenders                                       Song(s)                                Votes

Ben Rector                         Thanksgiving Song                              4  (Including  my Sister, Dana E.)

Chris Rea                    Driving home for Christmas                    6 (including me)

 

So, there ya have it, folks! Best wishes for a wonderful holiday! I’ll leave you with one last favorite Christmas song to lift the spirit and warm the heart J

 

 

 See you all soon after the first of the year! Be happy, safe, and well.

BOTB December 1, 2024

 

Hey, hi! Glad you stopped by ;-)

The Battle of The Bands (BOTB) is your basic Which-do-you-like-best contest where the one that gets the most votes wins. All you have to do is show up (the 1^st and/or 15^th of every month) give a listen and cast your vote in the comment section. Next, hop on over to see what battles other participants (links located top right column of this page) have posted for us to vote on! Votes will be tallied and the winner revealed on or about 8 days later.

I hope your holiday season is off to a peaceful, happy start.  Thanksgiving here was very enjoyable with good food and great people.  We should have dragged everything outside to enjoy the southern Arizona weather, but there was such a lot of food and at 80 degrees, the weather already had folks shedding outer layers of clothing so we turned the cooler back on and stayed inside ;-)

As I watched the last ones drive away to destinations far and near, I realized how thankful I was for the wonderful time we’d all had together. Since I’m so late getting this out, I’ll not ask you all to vote; just listen. But be on the lookout for my vote on your battle!

And one more of my favorites - for the road!

 

 

Be safe out there, folks! Happy Holidays!

Battle of the Bands - Results and such

 

Many thanks to everyone who stopped by to listen and cast a vote on my latest Battle of the Bands!  Just when I thought it couldn’t be done, two different icons laid claim (and accrued acclaim) for outstanding covers of a legendary train song; proving it can so be done.       

Contenders                                       Song(s)                                Votes

John Denver                         City of New Orleans                           7  (Including me and Anon.)

Johnny Cash                         City of New Orleans                          2   

 

Since the holidays are fast upon us, I won’t fret too much about what happened here ;-)  Suffice it to say one John won, and one Johnny didn’t. With that in mind, I present an artist who appeared in my search for songs about trains that might just hold his own – were he to compete against the winner.

Please let me know what you think in the comment section.  

I encourage you to stop by and see how the other battles went (participant links in the upper right sidebar)

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Battle of The Bands - November 1st, 2024

 

Hey, hi! Glad you stopped by ;-)

The Battle of The Bands (BOTB) is your basic Which-do-you-like-best contest, where the one that gets the most votes wins. All you have to do is show up (the 1^st and/or 15^th of every month), give a listen, and cast your vote in the comment section. Votes will be tallied, and the winner revealed on or about 8 days later.

I hope your November is off to a good start. My area of Arizona has finally turned down the heat, so we won’t mind turning the oven on in a few short weeks ;-) I wait all year to have turkey on Thanksgiving, though I’m willing to eat Pumpkin pie anytime. As far as music for the occasion, besides Nat King Cole, and any of those old favorites, a song that comes to mind (because we play it every year) is one by Arlo Guthrie about an unforgettable Thanksgiving, which I’ll just leave a link to, since it’s nearly 20 minutes long.  Instead, here are a couple versions of another song written by Steve Goodman (1970) but made famous by Arlo Guthrie in 1972.  You may be surprised (I know I was) by who else covered this song about riding on a train. 

There you have it, folks. Which do you like best?

Be safe if you're traveling, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Battle of the Bands October 15th results

 

Many Thanks to everyone who stopped by to listen and cast a vote on my latest Battle of the Bands! Boris, the battle-winning spider song was written by John Entwistle, (of the iconic band, The Who) about one of his least-favorite things; spiders. As he so eloquently illustrated in the lyrics, the tragic demise of one such dreaded insect occurred beneath a (no doubt behemoth) book, which, incidentally, reminds me of myself ;-)  In fact those who know me also know that if they ever come to my house and see a book on the floor – for no apparent reason – there actually is a reason. But it might not be a spider. We have scorpions here in the desert…big ones. 

Contenders                                  Song(s)                                      Votes

The Who                                Boris The Spider                        7  (Including me and Anon.)

Tom Waits                           What’s He Building?                     2

If the song itself doesn’t raise those little hairs on the back of your neck, check out what Tom Waits had to say about “What’s He Building?”: In April 1999, when asked about this song by Mojo, Waits replied, "We seem to be compelled to perceive our neighbors through the keyhole. There's always someone in the neighborhood – the Boo Radley, the village idiot – and you see that he drives this yellow station wagon without a windshield, and he has chickens in the backyard and doesn't get home till 3 a.m., and he says he's from Florida but the license plate says Indiana... so, you know, 'I don't trust him.' It's really a disturbed creative process."  ~ Songfacts.com

 

On a lighter note:

See ya soon!

Battle Of The Bands - October 15th 2024 Don't Look Now

 

 

Hey, hi! Glad you stopped by ;-)

The Battle of The Bands (BOTB) is your basic Which-do-you-like-best contest where the one that gets the most votes wins. All you have to do is show up (the 1^st and/or 15^th of every month) give a listen and cast your vote in the comment section. Votes will be tallied and the winner revealed on or about 8 days later.

I wasn’t going to post this time; you know, holidays coming, candy to buy, meals to plan... but who can resist the hijinks of Halloween?  Do any of you decorate for the Holidays? How about scary movies? Have you watched any yet? I’ve seen at least one a day for the last week or so. Well, if not seen then at least I listened while doing something else. There are some outstanding soundtracks attached to those movies!  Though, as far as I know, I’m not using any ;-) Enjoy!

I sure hope I'm not taking someone's idea with this next one...

Hope to see you all soon, but if I don't make it back in a few days as planned, I'll see ya on Nov 1st with a new battle - AND the results of this one. Have a spooky Halloween!