Due to the fact that I am tremendously nerdy, I have compiled a list of the 25 songs that have had the greatest impact on my music. There are so many great songs out there and so many influences and, though I'm sure this list will probably change next week, I spent some time on it and it's currently pretty acurate. Though the following may appear to be merely self-indulgent drivel, I hope that it will serve as a valid recommendation list for some. Here they are in alphabetical order:

Black Bird-The Beatles

Chelsea Hotel-Leonard Cohen

Cold Water-Damien Rice

Corrina Corrina-Bob Dylan

Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town-Pearl Jam

Empty-Ray Lamontagne

Follow-Richie Havens

Folsom Prison Blues-Johnny Cash

Glory Bound-Martin Sexton

Hurricane-Bob Dylan

I Know a Place-The Staples Singers

Jolene-Ray Lamontagne

Long Way-Antje Duvekot

Love and Happiness-Al Green

Miss Misery-Elliot Smith

Painter Song-Norah Jones

Sexy Plexi-Jack Johnson

(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay-Ottis Redding

Soul Power-James Brown

Soul to Squeeze-Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Sun's Gonna Rise-Citizen Cope

Sweet Thing-Van Morrison

Treehouse-Kara-Lynn Petrucci

The World Aint Slowin' Down-Ellis Paul

What's Going On?-Marvin Gaye

The world of jazz, though a more subtle voice has been really influential on my music as well. Here are five numbers that have had an especially profound impact:

Blue in Green-Miles Davis

Chameleon-Herbie Hancock

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy-Cannonball Adderly

Pursuance/Psalm-John Coltrane

Sag Shooting his Arrow-Jimmy Smith

And that's that. Thank you for reading my list, check out any of the ones you haven't heard.

-Jeff

 

I'm on a bar stool, my ignored Guiness is getting warm, the band's cover of "Papa was a Rolling Stone" is shaking me up and slapping me around, and I'm going cross-eyed staring down at a 10,000-word crossword puzzle. I'm asking myself, "Who would do a crossword puzzle in a setting like this?" I tell myself to quit, to lay it to rest even if just for now, but I can not. For the moment, this puzzle means the world to me, it haunts me, intrigues me, befriends me; each of it's tiny squares stare back at me, begging to be filled in, begging for some sense of purpose... The seemingly unsolvable banner-sized game has been in my life for as long as I can remember, initially folded up and tucked away in the attic to await a rainy day. For years it stayed there, ignored, neglected. From time to time, I would take it out, stare at it for a while and read a few of it's clues, each of which were pertaining to music, none of which I knew the answer to. I would wonder who would waste their time with such a project, who would give themselves to such a ridiculous mind-bender, only to inevitably find it's completion impossible.... It sat in the attic, gathering dust as the years went by, as Van Morrison echoed from the other side of the walls, as U2 woke me up in the morning and James Taylor lullabyed me to sleep at night. It stayed tucked away for my discovery of folk and jazz, stayed there as sad notes were sustained from Miles Davis' trumpet to echo throughout the house. And again, on occasion, on the days when the weather kept me inside, I'd visit it again, I'd stare at it in awe, but I would take no action. I would stare at it blankly while strumming a guitar, daydreaming about being smart enough to pull it off, all the while fearing all of that which would overtake me if I even began...... One day last year, I caught some kind of fever, some kind of illness that made me crazy enough to stand in front of a group of people at a cafe open mic and play my guitar; play my guitar and sing. I made an attempt to tell a story, one about Buddha resting easy on a hammock, my voice, all the while out of key, my fingers too sweaty to pick properly, my demeanor, one projecting a man on the brink of sheer terror. But I stepped into it. I made the choice. Some strange disease filtered out the rational side. I stepped in and I decided to stay for a while...... It was the first word that I had filled in in that bitch of a crossword puzzle. It was a small word, it was "it" or possibly "or," but it was a WORD nonetheless. I had started....... From there, I walked in through the doors that lead to more brief public performances, eventually stumbled into a few gigs, and I'm finding myself coming back to the big puzzle, coming back to fill in words. I'm at the beginning, I've still got thousands and thousands of tiny squares to fill in, and maybe someday, I'll decide this whole thing is not for me. But for now, I'm keeping cross-eyed, keeping obsessive, filling in squares, filling in squares, filling in squares. The band in the bar picks up the tempo, I'm still here, filling in squares.