Ok, so I'm repeating my earlier idea of blogging about a concert on the premise that her words were the driving force behind my desire to see Sara Bareilles in concert (again). The woman is an amazing writer. Really.
I started listening to Sara a few years ago when her first album Little Voice came out, and I've been rather obsessed ever since. During my first summer in the apartment, I'd turn on her album around 10 AM when I started working on lesson plans and just let it play in the background on repeat all day, sometimes late into the night as I stayed up facebooking and IMing. Some of the songs still conjure up very specific memories of that summer, certain conversations, certain places (including, but not limited to, a flight to WA state), certain people. I still love how she sings about finding her identity and finding love (or, let's be honest, maybe just chasing a little lust), dealing with hope and loss and confusion and pride, all with equal portions of sassy attitude and vulnerability that we'd usually rather keep hidden. And yes, I meant to say "we" and not "she" -- because that's how she writes her songs, in some magical way that makes me feel like I wrote the words when I'm belting them out at the top of my lungs in the car. I feel like her lyrics are strong, inspiring -- like "I'm aiming to be somebody this somebody trusts...there's only one thing worth trying to be, and it's love..." (from "Bottle It Up" -- check out the lyrics, it's chocked full of great lines). So it was awesome Tuesday night to hear her sing more of those songs that pulled me back two summers and reminded me, then and now, that somebody out there might feel something like I do (which, if you haven't noticed, is what I look most for in great writing).
So then last summer when I found out she was playing for free in St. Louis, I nearly fainted. Tina and Em and I arrived freakishly early and got the best seats possible, and I was completely entranced the entire time she was on stage. The whole concert was like a conversation; somehow I felt like we were all sharing something with her instead of simply listening to what she had to say.
When her second album Kaleidoscope Heart came out last fall, I stayed up late (on a school night) to buy it on iTunes and then listen to the whole album while reading along in the booklet. Obsessed, right? The songs were very different from the first album, and yet I felt like she finally put to words what I'd been feeling for weeks, months perhaps. It was like the stars aligned, and the fates said, "Having trouble finding the right words? Here you go -- hers might do the job, and she even put them to a nice little tune." I listened to her album day after day on my commute home -- even on the way to work every now and then, which is usually a treasured, silent 45 minutes of my day. At Tuesday's concert, I got goosebumps when she (we -- all of Kirkland, really) sang "Uncharted" and "Let the Rain." I loved hearing the background stories for songs, especially one that I only halfheartedly connected with before. She sang one song that I often skipped on the album, and I realized two things: first, that I started skipping it because it hit too close to home, and second, that it no longer did (yeah!).
Now, switch gears for a minute with me. I'm totally impressed with Ms. Sara because she writes her own songs, which isn't always the case in the music industry, and that makes it feel like the songs are that much more powerful. With that said, she also covered other people's songs -- including "Little Lion Man" by Mumford and Sons, which I love, again at least partially because of the lyrics. Realizing that this wonderful wordsmith likes a song that I like, well, that was just the icing on the cake. (Side note on this song -- she wasn't "allowed" to curse during the show, so she had some audience participation to determine what words she would use as substitutes in that song. Fun little activity, but it royally pissed me off that she was censored. That's a topic for another Words blog, though.)
I feel like this blog is particularly rambly and a bit cheesy (I feel a little like a little kid who met her idol, running back to her family saying, "Did you see her?! She was right there!"), but I'm just not sure how to convey how awesome it is to hear someone else say exactly what I've been thinking. I'm all about being unique individuals, but connecting with others like that is sometimes the only way I feel like this life has any focus. So check her out, listen to some of her music and see if she resonates with you, too. Or, if you know she doesn't already, spend the afternoon listening to someone who does, and tell me who it is. Maybe I'll find a new obsession.
"I made up my mind when I was a young girl, that I've been given this one world, and I won't worry it away..." from "Many the Miles"
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