Aah…Valentines’ day. A sanctioned day for an outpouring of loving sentiment, a day to make any self respecting flower judder at the thought of being cut. Commercialism! And, anyway, there are 364 other days each year (365 in a leap year) each perfectly as well formed for the declaration or confirmation of love. You may be expecting a “bah” or even an “humbug!”
Well…whilst all the above may well be true, there is, on the other hand, the equally valid argument that love is…really cool, Yes, goddamn it, we dig love. Who wouldn’t? So, very much in the spirit of the day we offer up some of the different multi-faceted shades of love, in no way doing so as a shameless attempt to shorten the list of unused Track Feature songs . No. Not at all. And there’s no truth in the rumour that we’re currently lining up ‘Jingle Pans Pancake Day‘…although….hmm…
There are, of course, many shades of love – it’s not all happy hand holding and gazing into each others eyes (although that’s nice). There can be an instantaneous attraction linked with an overwhelming passion – and that’s the kind of love that Emily Irene Glazener sings about on ‘The Fire.‘ You’ll recall that Emily Glazener is a Houston resident whose philosophy is “ … I believe if you share a smile most people will smile back …”
Then again love can be an inspiration to go that extra mile – to prove one’s devotion. And that’s the kind of love that we find on Michael Cleveland’s ‘For Your Love‘ which also demonstrates another very special love, the love for the banjo, the fiddle, guitar and mandolin. Ah…is there a finer love than bluegrass love? This song features, by the way, Billy Strings and Jeff White.
So instant attraction, and a sense of devotion can hit suddenly – but will it last? That’s a question that Coyle Girelli tackles on ‘True Love Forever.‘ The New York based British singer songwriter has some thoughts on the subject saying that it represents the feelings of a couple just when they “first fall in love, that euphoria and the feeling that everything is wonderful. Of course, this may not be how the story ends, so it is tinged with a slight melancholy, but right then they are thinking ‘is this it? Is it true love forever?”
Zoe Ackah however has a different issue with love, and it’s basically that she’s noticed that “you love shiny things, lost my lustre I guess“. Or to put it slightly more plainly – the dump seems to be approaching, and she’d probably prefer to be the dumper. But here’s the problem: “I’ve gotta stop loving you / But I can’t oh no I can’t / … / How I wish that I could understand that you can’t be my man.” We’ve all been there. Well, maybe not exactly there, but we can relate.
But if one can survive that bump in the road of love, then maybe things will pan out ok. It certainly feels that way for Adrian Sutherland on his song ‘Better.‘ He says “This song is about the people in our lives that make us want to be better. For me, it’s my wife and family. I live in a remote community in Canada’s Far North. When I travel for music, I have to be away from them for multiple days – even when it’s just one show! But, as the song goes… if I had two wings, I would learn to fly… then I would be able to fly home to them sooner.”
And the great thing about love is that there’s no reason why it can’t just go on and on and get better with time: “watching years pass us by it’s still you….you.” And, since this is such a special day, and we’re already breaking the Track rules wholesale…here’s a final contribution. Not a brand new song and it’s a full video. And, yeah, there’s only really one listener required for this one.
