- Awards
- 12
After Timeless is Emotion--which is one of my favorite Martina albums.
Wait . . . scratch that. I think I might be getting Emotion mixed up with Wild Angels.
After Timeless is Emotion--which is one of my favorite Martina albums.
I love this and now I want to pay attention to songs that become shrinkers.
cancer, abuse, alchoholism . . . it's the country music version of Emmerdale.
Martina
Almost every song had really beautiful moments and her vocals are pretty amazing on this one and I really like the arrangements of nearly every song--the vocals and arrangements take some songs that might be mediocre and really elevate them.
How had I managed to forget about How Far. I love that song so much and really love singing along.
I honestly can't remember hearing God's Will before. What a heartbreakingly beautiful song. It made me cry. I really like the chorus. It will reside with Concrete Angel though and be one I won't listen to very often.
I'm going to say something that maybe won't make me seem like a very nice person: I was instantly turned off by Reluctant Daughter when she started singing about Jesus.
I find myself singing along with and hating This One's for the Girls at the same time. It's not that bad of the song. I don't know why I find it difficult to embrace.
then it's her first four albums--all of which are unknown to me, except for the singles that made it onto the greatest hits and maybe a song or two that have come to my attention thanks to the Martina thread.
Reckless and I had a moment yesterday. It came on when I was cleaning and I found myself belting it out and then playing it a few more times.
I hear the second one as "for giving me" with a space between "for" and "give" because it matches with the first line but then it goes on to "when I didn't deserve it" and for some reason that just tickles me that she pulled a little fast one on my brain.
Also--I LOVE the way she sings "deserve" in that section.
I also love the couple of parts where she repeats words three times--"cryin, cryin, cryin" "run, run, run" "done, done, done."
I know it's silly to break a love for a song down to such little things but that's only a part of it. The message--feeling broken and damaged and being loved in spite of it or maybe because of it--it feels good and cathartic.
It helps that like with lots of Martina songs, it falls right in my singing range, so I feel like I can sing it kind of decently.
I'm stuck on this song and Reckless and I have date in the shower this morning.![]()

Something I really love about Reckless is the feeling of it building. It starts off quietly and adds more and more until it gets huge.
The part I can't get enough of is the first chorus from around the 26 second mark (the first time she says "I'm reckless...") when this electric guitar thing comes in and it feels like it's driving the song forward. It's almost like stepping from a serene lake to a river with a strong flow. Then at 45 seconds those tribal, primal drum sounds come in and it's like they're felt rather than heard. I love how sometimes they come in twos and sometimes in threes, and ever after all this time I'm still never sure which it's going to be. Then there's the dropout just after the minute mark at the end of the first chorus before it comes in all guns blazing for the second verse. And still keeps building until by the time we get to the "run, run, run"s, the energy is so high. So we've gone from a lake to a river to the raging sea. And then things get calm again.
Just saw u do Anyway on @NBCTheVoice and it BLEW ME AWAY.
Holy...!!!!
Martina McBride
Damn - why isn't this on UK iTunes? Or Amazon? Or a CD single?!
His cover of Celine's I Surrender is awesome
as is his cover of Queen's (and also Celine's) The Show Must Go On.
I'm sure he will get a record deal in spite of not winning. I'm looking forward to it.
I don't know Céline's version too well.
His version of My Way is great fun too.
Not having watched, I'm a little confused with how The Voice works, as I've heard of several well-known professional singers taking part - Billy being one of them. Alison Jiear was in the British version a year or two ago. But then some contestants seem to be members of the public.
I think Celine's version is breathtaking. It's one of my favorites by her.
few times people who were part of the recording industry in the past but have seen the industry move beyond them, like Billy, have auditioned in hopes of getting a recording contract. People like Billy and (I'm assuming) Alison may have some celebrity cache, but can't get a recording company to give them a contract.
I don't have high hopes that this will play
here is Billy's blind audition. (He got the best coach)
This is the little emotional snippet they play about the contenders before the audition
This was an interview Billy did a few years back right after he came out:
I think it's really cool that Martina tweeted that comment to him about his Voice performance. It doesn't surprise me that she is supportive of young artists (and a young gay artist even) but it's really nice.
It would be interesting at some point to make a list of all the songs we think are story songs and examine the themes and story points in each of them.
We should definitely do that.
It's struck me that there are a few different styles of story song Martina does.
I'd find it challenging to say whether certain songs are "story songs" or not.
So with these comments in mind I've made a start to this little project. In putting the first batch of songs together, I set myself just one rule: the song must use third-person narrative.
Then I broke those songs down into three categories...
Wow, amazing! I like the categories you've chosen too.
Looking through the lists, there's quite a variation in tone and subject matter across the songs. It really would make for a fun, dramatic, romantic story all linked together somehow.
There are enough common themes to have a few stories interwoven. How they'd link up I don't know, but off the top of my head I think the background would be two contrasting relationships. One happy and one not. Maybe they'd be different couples; the same couple at different stages or a fantasy world vs. reality thing. Or a bit of all three.
It's quite easy to imagine characters from one song stepping into another. Is the alcoholic in I'm Tryin' the same guy from Cheap Whiskey and Independence Day? Perhaps even It's My Time (a song I'm adding to the list as I forgot it before). It's easy to imagine he is. The challenge comes from deciding which order the story goes.
I think there's even enough material for it to be three or four couples--sort of Scenes From a Marriage or Knots Landing the Musical. (I can think of season one and two Knots Landing stories that would lend themselves to a few songs.)
That's the fun part. And because I'm only marginally creative I like projects like these were you have sort of a framework, provided by the songs, to work within.

My enjoyment of Anyway has been enhanced by the addition of some different versions on CD:
I love instrumentals.
I still can't get enough of Billy Gilman's version and watch it on YouTube almost every day. Someone needs to tell The Voice US to make their iTunes or Amazon MP3s available internationally.
I didn't even know such a thing existed.
I was just thinking about how enjoyable instrumentals are, yesterday when I was watching that Tina Arena video you posted. I was enjoying the band playing You Set Fire to My Life at the end of the performance.
It comes up every so often in shuffle now and I really enjoy singing along. After knowing Martina's version so well, it's fun to sing along to Billy's take on the song.
Where Would You Be - 703