Gratitude Day 17 - Brandi and Melissa

Back when regular people could get up close.

So this is maybe more obvious than the fact that I love Amanda Hollander.  Y'all.  I love Brandi Carlile and Melissa Ferrick.  But that wasn't always the case...

I was never really into music when I was younger.  I got my first two CDs for my 10th birthday in 5th grade.  Jeremy Hobson bought me Kenny G's Forever in Love and Liz Chubbuck bought me the soundtrack to The Bodyguard.  I thought I was so modern and sophisticated because Jeremy and I finally stopped having sleepovers and listening to Oldies 92 all night long.  Musically, I had arrived.

Then middle school happened, and all the kids started listening to cool music.  They were the original hipsters!  Liz would go to shows up near Chicago and come back with concert t-shirts.  She just kept getting cooler and cooler!  Meanwhile, I wasn't even close to knowing about random bands.  I didn't even get what was so great about Nirvana.  And Smashing Pumpkins?  What were they so upset about?

The only hipster I ever loved.

I kind of coasted through the first few years of high school, nodding ambiguously when people were talking about bands.  Katy Love kept writing "Kurt Lives!" on everything, and I couldn't figure out why she was talking about our classmate Kurt.

But I went to summer camp before junior year and finally understood why people liked music so much!  It was as though I had finally glimpsed a sight of the magic that drove my friends' epic CD collections.  And the magic was The Indigo Girls.

Thus began my love affair with female singer-songwriters. Meeting Amanda helped broaden my musical taste to such disparate artists as Ani DiFranco, Dar Williams, and Patty Griffin.  I mean, talk about RANGE!   Gradually I stopped pretending like I had a varied musical taste, and just listened.

It's cool.  I know I'm a groupie.

Then one day I was visiting Amanda in Maine, and she put on some Brandi Carlile.  My life was changed forever that day.  That voice!  Sometimes she sounds like a cello, sometimes her country roots come out, and the result is always incredible.

A few months later I caught the gay, and went to a Melissa Ferrick concert at Pride.  Mind.  Blown.  Her stage presence and sheer level of inappropriateness and hilarity made me a believer in lesbian folk singers once and for all.

Besties.  Obvi.

I have been to 15 Brandi or Melissa shows since I learned about them both in 2008.  Each one is a gift, unlike the one before.  The only thing better would be seeing them together.  But I think there's an awkward "You stole my drummer" thing that they still need to work out.

No matter my mood, turning on Give up the Ghost or Goodbye Youth adjusts my emotional thermostat to a pleasant 72 degrees.  And if they heard me harmonizing in the living room, I'm pretty sure they would fight over who got to add me to their band.

So tonight I am thankful for Brandi Carlile and Melissa Ferrick.  The beauty of their music, the courage of their out-ness, and their sheer hotness make me happy to be alive.