NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

" You Are My Sunshine " is a popular folk song copyrighted and recorded by American singer-songwriter Jimmie Davis in 1939, though its authorship is disputed. Davis later became the governor of Louisiana, and "You Are My Sunshine" became the state's official song. Davis's recorded versions are not the definitive version of the song, though. M any artists have covered the song, such as Johnny Cash , Christina Perri , and  Zach Bryan . Each time the song is covered, the artist brings an emotional layer to the beautiful song. Cash anthologizes the song in the American songbook and Perri emphasizes the lullaby-like qualities of the song.  THE OTHER NIGHT DEAR, AS I LAY SLEEPING. “You Are My Sunshine” is a   cradle song many mothers sing to their children. It’s a bright love song with a twinge of melancholy that grows upon examination. It’s a song full of longing and desire with the full knowledge that the sun may be covered by the clouds. The speaker hopes th

It was a rainy summer break during my Freshman year of college. I was still driving my '91 Toyota Corolla, and that was the summer that I binged the first three  Copeland  albums. It started with 2003's  Beneath Medicine Tree ,  the indie/rock concept album about love and loss. About a month later I bought, 2005's  In Motion ,  which was a little more musically diverse. The next year's  Eat, Sleep, Repeat ,  was closer to musical theater than rock. Each Copeland album had its own unique mood. Today's song, " Coffee ," comes from  Beneath Medicine Tree,  which is the most immature of the Copeland albums. Lyricist and singer  Aaron Marsh  was fine-tuning his craft at writing sappy love songs, and this album's lyrics tended to be a little too over the top. The song " Coffee " appears as track 9, with a story as cliche as they get--two small-town kids falling in love while talking all night at the diner. The brief brush drum solo toward the end s

  It was a rainy summer break during my Freshman year of college. I was still driving my '91 Toyota Corolla, and that was the summer that I binged the first three  Copeland  albums. It started with 2003's  Beneath Medicine Tree ,  the indie/rock concept album about love and loss. About a month later I bought, 2005's  In Motion ,  which was a little more musically diverse. The next year's  Eat, Sleep, Repeat ,  was closer to musical theater than rock. Each Copeland album had its own unique mood. Today's song, " Coffee ," comes from  Beneath Medicine Tree,  which is the most immature of the Copeland albums. Lyricist and singer  Aaron Marsh  was fine-tuning his craft at writing sappy love songs, and this album's lyrics tended to be a little too over the top. The song " Coffee " appears as track 9, with a story as cliche as they get--two small-town kids falling in love while talking all night at the diner. The brief brush drum solo toward the end

Let's take a look at one of my favorite fall albums, Copeland 's 2005 sophomore record In Motion . I consumed the first three Copeland albums around the spring and summer between senior year and college.  I think that Beneath Medicine Tree was on sale at Best Buy  so I picked it up maybe around April. Then I picked up In Motion in the summer and Eat, Sleep, Repeat in the late autumn. I always associate Copeland albums with the seasons in which I listened to them. And like the brown leaves on the album cover of In Motion, I'd like to talk about a short memory with each song.   1. " No One Really Wins ." The album opens with grungy guitars, a sound that Copeland would soon abandon in later albums. The song also sets the album up with a spiritual theme--the fight between "heart and mind" and "grace and pride." The message of the song is to "change if you want, but don't . . . change for me" which was something very different fro

From the band's heaviest album,  In Motion ,   Copeland   released songs that bore some similarities to mid-to-late '90s rock. The sound of  In Motion  is a natural progression from their first album  Beneath Medicine Tree .  However, Copeland's sound changed drastically after  In Motion . Starting with a bonus EP recorded prior to but released with their third album,  Eat, Sleep, Repeat ,  exclusively at Best Buy , the band reworked three of their songs from  In Motion,  slowing them down and using a string section rather than guitars. The three songs from this release would be included on the band's  B Sides  record,  Dressed Up & In Line .  The band would continue to experiment instruments, synthesizers, and non-traditional rock arrangements.  NOT BECAUSE YOU LOVE THE SONG, BECAUSE YOU LOVE TO SING. Between the two versions of " You Love to Sing " the original is my favorite. It's a great road trip song on a great road trip album. Grungy guitars, p