GLORIA ROUBAL'S DAILY HAND GENERATED TYPE PHRASE #185

Listening to Neko Case as I write this. I became a real fan of her at a live concert several years ago at the Canopy Club in Urbana, IL. I had several of her CDs before that, and I did like her a lot, but the show was to promote the CD "Middle Cyclone," which has SO many amazing songs that truly move me. Then I continued to discover songs of hers that I already had that touched me differently from that point on. Some of her songs are more upbeat than others (I tend to be drawn to the more melancholy ones, but love the uptempo, "happier" songs too).

This song is on her CD "Blacklisted," which happens to be the first CD of hers I purchased. So much of what I love is her voice and delivery. I love the instrumentation (and her musicians are always stellar on her recordings and her live shows). She always has a specific amount and type of reverb on her voice, which works exceptionally well for her. I love her style. I can't even really describe it. There's some country, folk, roots rock, Americana, "cowboy music,"...and more influences, but she really has a style all her own. Many of her songs' lyrics are cryptic (at least to me), which I like. It's like she's telling a story but not telling everything, so you wonder...

"Stinging Velvet" is a song that has an upbeat, toe-tapping feel, yet the lyrics are so sad!

Listen here (pay no attention to the video that is with it...)

Lyrics:

Rain falls, I fix my eyes
Let go of the focus and I blur out all the lines
Just to remember, remember

Crying 'cause it's not my fault
Water through my lashes look just like Christmas lights
And I still remember, remember

Cold and shivering
Cold and shivering
Cold and shivering warm

Sing please, rock me to sleep
Quiet as a canyon up under heaven's eaves
I surrender, surrender

Downstairs the furnace swells
Safe from all the horrors in your stinging velvet arms
And I surrender, surrender

Cold and shivering
Cold and shivering
Cold and shivering warm