Braveyoung – Brett Dennen

First let me say sorry for missing on Friday… It was my mother’s wedding day. Insanely busy and everything including my mind was lost in the shuffle. Luckily, what I found in the process, was a renewed sense of family. I have always been part of what I consider to be a close knit family full of quirks and idiosyncrasies that make me who I am each and every day. Sadly, all of that sometimes gets lost and forgotten in the daily shuffle of our lives. The joy of sitting around a table and laughing with those who know you more than anyone and still manage to love you for it is unlike any other food for the soul. I feel nothing short of inspired by watching my mother take another chance on love… because, as someone taking their first chance on it currently, I can say it’s deathly terrifying.

Today’s late blog is due to my close contact with my adorable nephew over the weekend, who seemed to be transporting the black plague to each one of us… yesterday, it got me, just in time for an 11 hour trip home involving boats and cars with dead batteries. Ugh. So again, sorry for the miss and the lateness. It won’t happen again (ok, it might, but not without a damn good excuse)

Also, before I talk about the joys of finding new and rediscovering old music, can I just say how awesome it is to imagine that 50 people in Iceland read even one word of something I wrote?! Google analytics makes me feel like the world is so much smaller, I adore it.

Ok, ok … music goodness for the day. I have one new and unexpected for me, and one old and beloved.

Braveyoung are catergorized as classical… I hear much more than that when I listen. I tend to stray from strictly instrumental unless it is exactly that, classical. But this instrumental foursome make a sound so emotionally evoking that I had no choice but to fall in love at first listen. The track below builds perfectly upon itself until it unfolds to a place where anyone listening can take it to somewhere meaningful in their brainbox and play out the imaginary lyrics as they may. They are instrumental at its best. Listen and try to refute me… I dare you.

Oh Brett Dennen…. This guy. What is there to say, he plays songs that lyrically make you wish you were a happier person. For the 3-4 minutes he sings about making the most out of life or enjoying a day for it simply existing, you hold out hope that you are that exact kind of person… and then someone cuts you off in traffic and you scream 800 obscenities and remember you don’t live on a beach in Costa Rica while renting out surfboards. He is pop-folk. He lives and breathes the positive and easily read messages and he does it well… if you took away the red hair and added a few more instruments, you might confuse him with John Mayer. I am totally ok with that. Yes, I enjoy John Mayer damn it. Take away my indie scout badge.

I saw him back in 06′ at a totally crap venue here in Tampa and his peace sign stickered guitar stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the sticky beer covered dance floor and angry bar staff. He is optimism personified… Listen and tell me you aren’t at least a little jealous.

Happy Monday kiddos!