Let’s face it – The stress of these super-close World Series games is a lot to handle this week. Wouldn’t it feel good to get out on Friday night for some good, hard, live rock music? If I still lived in Missouri, I’d be at Off Broadway on Friday night to see Kentucky Knife Fight.

I saw the band for the first time at Off Broadway on New Year’s Eve 2010, and I was impressed enough that I immediately emailed friends in Brooklyn and San Francisco, both of whom work professionally in the music industry, to share Kentucky Knife Fight with them.

So…On our off-night from World Series excitement, go check out some local music at a local venue. Namely, check out Kentucky Knife Fight at Off Broadway. While you’re at it, have a Schlafly for me. I’m feeling mighty homesick for the home state this week, and nothing cures the blues like some good live music.

***

Who: Kentucky Knife Fight w/the Upright Animals and John Paul Keith & the One, Four, Fives (from Memphis)

When: Friday, October 21,

What Time: Show starts at 9 p.m.

Where: Off Broadway – STL

I’m moving away.

I’ll have 15+ hours in a U-Haul to listen to music while my loyal sidekick (Rosie) sleeps beside me.

I need music for the drive.

This is where you can help.

Leave me a comment with the song or songs that you think I need to have on my playlist for driving across Kansas, starting a new step in my career, leaving family (again), chasing my dreams, facing my fears, and embracing new opportunities.

I’m  sad about leaving ‘home’, excited about my next steps, and nervous about so many changes in my life. Help me build an incredible playlist to capture these moments, these feels, these fears and these dreams.

The tears are welling up as a write this. Make a small town girl smile and leave a comment with a song, will you?

When I was invited by Eddie Silva, the Publications Manager for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, to attend a “Bloggers’ Night” at the Symphony the music nerd in me nearly burst from my tape-nosed, coke-bottle glasses.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade, Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony, and a 2005 violin concerto titled Concentric Paths by Thomas Ades were to be performed, so I immediately pulled out my music history books to brush up on my Russian music history and literature.

I finished work on Friday and drove the 1.5 hours to St. Louis to meet my “+1″ at Foam coffee and beer bar on Cherokee Street. Properly caffeinated, we drove to Powell Symphony Hall, where our tickets were being held at will call. We made our way from will call, through the ornate Powell Hall lobby, and to the second floor, where the orchestra’s administrative staff had organized free drink tickets for bloggers and their guests.

I finally met Dale Fisher, the Symphony’s Web and Multimedia Manager, who I’ve chatted with on Twitter for months. Eddie Silva was also there to talk with bloggers. I never expected that the President and CEO of the Orchestra would make an appearance, so when he showed up at the Met Bar to give us a personal welcome to Powell Hall, I was honestly impressed. The concert was good. Although I’d studied Scheherazade in school, I’d never seen it performed live. In fact, I’ve not seen as much Russian orchestral music performed as I should, so the concert was a good reminder for me to make a more focused effort to frequent the SLSO.

Powell Symphony Hall, photo (taken at intermission) by MilliGFunk

Thank you so much to Eddie Silva and Dale Fisher for organizing the SLSO’s Bloggers’ Night, and for extending an invitation to me to attend. St. Louis has many great things to offer, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ranks high among them. For more information about the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, visit their website.

***

Disclosure: I was not compensated in cash for attending this concert. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra did, however, provide me with a comp ticket and a free drink in the Met Bar. My complete disclosure statement can be found here.

Tonight a friend in New York sent me this link to a live streamed album by a Brooklyn-based band called The National. I happen to be a big fan of The National, and have listened to two of their previous albums (Boxer and Alligator) countless times. I suppose there’s something about this group of NYC-transplanted Ohioans that I can relate to. And their music, well…it just moves me.

This newest album, High Violet, managed in its first two songs to bring me to tears.

“Terrible Love”, the fist song on the album, has background vocals reminiscent of Bon Iver, with grungy, industrial percussion that makes me think of Godspeedyoublackemperor. By the end of that song, The National had my full attention, and my mind had wandered to my ex. He and I split up in January of 2009, but he was my best friend in New York.

As if it had read my mind, the album goes on to a second track called “Sorrow”. With lyrics including, “It’s in my honey it’s in my milk. It’s only about half a heart alone. On the water, Cover me in rag and bones, sympathy. Cause I don’t wanna get over you. I don’t wanna get over you.”

As if their new album weren’t killing me already, The National had to tear my heart out a little bit more with its fourth track, “Little Faith”:

Now I’m stuck in New York
And the rain’s coming down
I don’t feel like we’ll go anywhere
Stuck in New York
And the rain’s coming down
Still in line for the vanity fair

Leave our excellent souls
Head for the coast
Leave our excellent souls
Everything goes

All our lonely kicks are getting harder to find
We’ll play nuns versus priests until somebody cries

So that’s that. I’ve not made it through the rest of the album yet, but so far it’s done exactly what music – in my opinion- is there to do; it’s made me feel. It’s stirred things, raised questions, unearthed emotions, and made me feel, well…alive.

By the 6th grade, when other girls were listening to New Kids on the Block, I had decorated my locker with Def Leppard posters. Since my brother and I were always really close (Garth Brooks album incident notwithstanding), his leaving home for the Air Force Academy in 1994 was especially hard on me. I took comfort in going to his room to raid his cassette collection. That’s when I fell in love with Dream Theater, Savatage and Queensryche.  By the 8th grade, I was a progressive rock girl, through and through.

Over the years, my taste in music has become much more varied than the short list of black t-shirt bands I grew up on. I’m a fan of indie artists like Will Oldham, sing-songwriters like David Gray, and secular bands with heavy Christian roots like RED and Skillet. Of course, there are a handful of obscure artists like Emily Wells on my ipod. My favorite album right now is Peter Gabriel’s “Scratch My Back”, consisting entirely of love songs written by outstanding lyricists, many of whom I also listen to.

I don’t like classifying music by genre, since I can hear so many cross-genre influences in most of the music I listen to. For the sake of brevity though, my music collection contains artists ranging from metal to pop, jazz to orchestral. And now, just over a year after moving back to small town, Missouri, it’s begun containing country.

I never thought I’d see the day that I’d say this, but I really like a lot of the country music on the radio now. I can relate to songs about heartbreak and simple life in the country. I find my head bobbing along almost involuntarily as I drive down the road tuned in to 92.3 WIL, and I think it goes without saying that I’m a total road trip rock star, since most country songs are written in a simple vocal range that even altos like me can handle.

My interest in country music hasn’t stopped with the radio though. This year I purchased my second country music album (remember the Garth Brooks incident) Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now”, and you know what? It’s flipping fantastic. I challenge any of you country music haters out there to find a non-country album released this year (aforementioned Peter Gabriel album doesn’t count) that has songwriting that’s as touching, with harmonies that as fantastic, as “Need You Now”.

Make no mistake, I still rock out to hard rock on an almost-daily basis, but this small town girl genuinely appreciates modern country music, too.

Vintage Vinyl, photo by smalltowngirl

In the days before the internet, when a small town girl was forced to drive 70 miles to buy any album that wasn’t mainstream, Vintage Vinyl was where I went.

In 2009, when a small town girl who’s heart is a Brooklynite is aching for a sense of connection to St. Louis and is longing for some new music, Vintage Vinyl is still where I go.

Listening Station CD Stack, photo by smalltowngirl

I sat at a listening station in Vintage Vinyl, and an employee brought me stacks of CDs to listen to. I came away with a long list of bands to remember on my next trip to a record store. I also left with two new CDs; one by the Fleet Foxes and one by The Felice Brothers.

Vintage Vinyl is proof that you don’t have to be in New York or San Francisco to find great, locally owned independent businesses staffed with people who truly know and love what it is that they sell. I love Vintage Vinyl.

Black rod-iron railings line the second and third floor balconies of buildings, and gardens and courtyards hide quietly between houses. Soulard is one of the only neighborhoods in St. Louis where you can truly park your car and hop between restaurants, galleries, venues and bars. 

Lunch was at McGurk’s. 

Before I go any further, I need to say how much I wish I hadn’t chickened out on taking my camera out with me yesterday. Pictures would really help in capturing the feel of Soulard.

We sat on the back patio at McGurck’s. The Patio was large, with a fountain in the center that’s turned to a fire ring when the weather is cooler. This photo belongs to Metromix St. Louis, and is actually taken the table we sat at during lunch.

Photo Credit Metromix St. Louis

After lunch, we headed to Washington Street for an emerging musicians street festival, but the music wasn’t playing and the crowd wasn’t hoppin’ when we arrived. On a whim, we headed to City Museum instead, and had what was probably the most fun I’ve had in years. Stay tuned for a full blog about that.

After the museum, we found ourselves back in Soulard at a street festival/block party that seemed to be sponsored by The Riverfont Times. $20 at the door bought live music until midnight and all the cajun food and Budweiser Select you could eat/drink. 

Soulard had an energy and a self-pride that made me think of neighborhoods I’ve lived in in other cities. It felt great to get out of small town, MO for the day and hang out in urbanland. For another nice blog on Soulard, go here.

I’ve been home for several hours now, and except for a really productive discussion with my roommates and making myself dinner, I’ve been entirely unproductive. But off with the television and back to the Panamanian drum and bugle corps.

I left my office at around six, and heard drums playing in the park. A percussionist myself, I couldn’t resist checking it out to see what it was. What I found was approximately forty percussionists and bugle players. I stood watching them for what seemed like fifteen minutes but was actually an hour and fifteen minutes. I think I smiled the entire time, and before I left, I was invited to come back to Tuesday’s rehearsal. Forty some-odd players from all over NYC, technically not amazing players, but they knew what drumming in a group was really about.

On my way home, I stopped into Guitar Center and bought a pair of sticks and a practice pad. I hadn’t played in nearly two years, but after watching that rehearsal, I knew what I had to do.