“Music Box” by Ian Mahan, Monday, December 27, 2021

Ian Mahan grew up in Illinois taking piano lessons and taekwondo. Of the two, he preferred taekwondo, practicing to become a Junior Olympian and a regional champion. However, at the age of 16, Mahan injured his knee, and his doctor told him he had "degenerative arthritis." In his latter years of high school, Ian turned to music and writing songs. Learning guitar at the age of 18 helped the singer discover "his true instrumental passion," according to his Spotify biography. The singer moved to Colorado where he plays music in the local scene.

YOU HATE WHEN I WRITE LOVE SONGS. Mahan played in several bands in college. According to an interview with Voyage Denver, in high school the singer was dating an athlete who didn't believe in his music career. In college, the singer says that girlfriend "shattered his heart into a million pieces." In 2008, Mahan recorded his first solo work, though it is not available on streaming services. Today's song comes from the singer's sophomore EP, Tiger Lily. Mahan is still an up-in-coming artist. He's shared the stage with several famous acts, such as Lisa Loeb, Christina Perri, The Rocket Summer, and Vanessa Carlton; he has a song that featured Aaron Marsh of Copeland; and he contributed a song called "Forever in Your Heart" to a Hallmark movie, which is his most streamed song on Spotify.  He released several singles this year, an EP titled Some Sad Songs and a remix EP of some of his older songs.  Since I wrote about him in June, his monthly listeners on Spotify have increased from 45 to 131. I hope that as I develop my blog, my eventual readers will follow great obscure artists. 

TURN AND TWIRL LIKE A MUSIC BOX. While Tiger Lily  was released in April of 2017, there's something about today's simple acoustic ballad that makes me think about Christmas. The delicate notes of this song mimic the notes played after winding up a music box. I think about the music box that we unpacked with the Christmas decorations. The same model is pictured to the left. The cute mice ice skated to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," a song that almost made my song of the day as I listened to Emery's version, but then I remembered the Paper Route song "City Trucks" that says, "By the 27th day, I'll have put the tree away." And honestly, I'm kind of over Christmas this year and dwelling on it makes me feel depressed. Still, I couldn't help but be taken by the imagery of a ballet dancer, dancing in the lights, dancing forever until she is old and grey. And I thought about the mice lovers, skating on the ice, fast at first and then slowing down with the music until I wound it up again, repeating that process until the Christmas decorations were packed up and repeating again the next year. I wonder if we still have the music box. I wonder if Kimberly from the song is still dancing? I hope that Ian Mahan keeps making awesome music.

 

Read “Music Box” by Ian Mahan on Genius