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Monday, April 19, 2004 Late-night ramblings about music and melancholy. Sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy to be dreaming about this so-called musical career. I'm supposed to be finishing a review on the national tour of Chicago for the Michigan Daily (my deadline was unexpected), and I didn't get much sleep this weekend between the balboa workshops and swing dance events I went to at Central Michigan University. But it's late and prime time for melancholy. I don't even know why I did this tonight, but I took a writing break to wander around Keri Noble's website. Keri's a singer-songwriter originally from the Detroit area; she knew a bunch of kids from Wayne State University that I was also friends with and who subsequently introduced me to her music. Back then I was a dreamy high schooler who thought people would think I was ridiculous if I said I wanted to start a band. She was playing metro Detroit coffeeshops and Borders with her keyboard in tow. I got to know her a little primarily because I loved her songs--they had a huge musical influence on me at the time. It's sad, I used to have her excellent debut, Lullaby, an album now out of print (according to articles on the web, she decided the record was "too personal"), but someone borrowed it and I haven't seen it in years. Anyway, the point is that I take a look at her site from time to time, and reading her journals tonight I was struck by how different they--and her new songs--are from her earlier writing. Her songs feel too typical now, less original and emotional than they used to be. Perhaps they were too confessional before, but they feel too generic now. Keri's dad is a pastor at a Spanish-speaking church in Detroit, and a fair number of her early songs were about her relationship with God. They've moved away from that, as far as I can tell, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just a point I noted. As far as I can tell, she doesn't talk about God in any of her interviews either--again, not an indictment, but a change. But she's poised to "make it"--her new release is on a new division of EMI and she's been working with the people who masterminded Norah Jones's success. And her career seems to be taking off, slowly but surely. I'm not jealous in any way--she's a hardworking, talented musician, and I hope she does make a place for herself in mainstream radio--but watching this progression leaves me with questions, primarily for myself. How influenced am I going to allow myself to be by trends, philosophies, the screams of the world? If I were to have a voice, however large or small, what role would my faith play in my speech? What am I doing (or not, as is much of the case right now) with my music? I feel like I'm always being left behind, not just in this but in life. I need to start working on this career in earnest. ^ Top | 2:31 AM | | | 
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