Falling in Love (Again) with Counting Crows & Dave Matthews Band 🎶💚
Welcome to Nostalgia Town, won't you stay awhile?
My first favorite band was Counting Crows, and was trailed very closely by Dave Matthews Band. Both of these bands totally helped form me into the musician I now I am, as well as the writing style which I employ. I'm feeling pretty nostalgic lately, and feel like waxing on some of my all-time faves.
1996-2002
From the time I was about 12 until I was 25, every mixtape or mix cd I made for people had to have a Counting Crows on it. I truly was able to make A Long December apply to anything. (I was only slightly obsessed with that song...and its music video...and the sordid love affair between Adam Duritz and Courtney Cox. So late-nineties...
Most of those mixtapes had a DMB song on them, as well. I dedicated Crash Into Me to every one of my middle and high school crushes. 😂
I wanted to learn how to play the saxophone after listening to DMB's #41 a million times and decided that I needed to play the saxophone or I might die (No, I wasn't dramatic in high school at all...). This tenor sax solo at 05:44 on this video from their Listener Supported album completely slays.
I spent a lot of time during my high school years driving my 1992 Toyota Tercel around Sonic Drive-In in Mountain View, Missouri blaring songs like Ants Marching and Mr. Jones. No shame in my game.
Ants Marching by Dave Matthews Band
Mr. Jones by Counting Crows
2002-2006
When in college, there were a bunch of Counting Crows and DMB songs that took on a whole new meaning to me. Anna Begins is an incredibly intense song that I don't feel I truly understood until I went through some life in my early twenties.
Similarly, the song Say Goodbye overwhelmed me my senior year of college, and this was a song on which I obsessed for a few months. My favorite version of this song is on the incredible dual-disc release Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Luther College.
After college, a lot of these songs were just too hard to listen to. I don't know how you guys listen to music, but if you listen to it at all like I do, a song can kill you and bring you to life in an instant. It can take you back to amazing memories, as well as memories that hurt. These songs, and all of those damn mixtapes, just left me feeling like I could throw up...so I just kinda put it all away and listened to other music.
How sad is that? I mean, these are my favorite songs of all time!
Recently, however, I have played a few shows with a couple of musicians who have really served to remind me of the core elements of why I fell in love with these bands in the first place...so I've been listening again. This time with "fresh" 33-year-old ears and heart. It's beautiful, guys. I highly recommend revisiting your first favorites. If you do, please let me know what you think about it after a re-listen.
One thing I love about both of these bands is they both sound incredible LIVE. I'm super fortunate to have seen both DMB and Counting Crows multiple times and can attest to this fact both through their live concert albums, as well as my own experience with them live. It's a new and different experience with every concert season with these guys, and I love that so much.
LIVE AT WOODSTOCK '99
Today I was watching YouTube and stumbled upon these sets from each band at Woodstock '99. Each band was really at what I would consider to be high points when this took place. They're all on top of their game. Adam's songs hadn't become so cheesy they turned orange, and Dave hadn't swelled up yet. It was a good year.
Counting Crows
Dave Matthews Band
Discovering new music is awesome, but so is rediscovering music you used to love and realizing that you still do, and you always will. That music is like your family and old friends. Maybe you haven't seen em in a while, but you know they're there and you know they care.
Check out @virtualgrowth's post about my Steemit musical history HERE.
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I have always loved DMB. My older brother actually turned me to them when I was a bratty teenager. I still have their music on my playlist on Spotify. It never gets old.
Mr. Jones! Omg, LOVE that joint. And Crash? Ya doll...that one has some memories attached.
Oh man, that was a walk down memory lane! I wasn't nearly as into DMB as I was Counting Crows, but still love them both! Actually, it wasn't too long ago that I revisited August and Everything After. @hethur240 and I have a little game of sorts that we do via text messages. She sends me an old song quote and I have to guess the song and artist without cheating. CC came up during ones of these convos, so I just had to pull it up on Spotify for old times sake. Hell, I think I'll listen to it again now. Awesome article @jessamynorchard!
Wonderful selection. I have now music to listen to for at least 1 hour. :)
@trolio! Awesome! This music should keep you busy for a few hours if you listen all the way through. ;) Glad you dig the selections! Music of the soul, right here.
Hi friend! 😘 I see you are working on the musical education of your followers! 😁 It's cool, thank you! Music will save the world! Please come to me for a minute. I prepared a report on a visit to the free jam session in Berlin. Photo and video. Maybe it will entertain you. 😗😙😚🤗
Cool music. Thank you!
Omg thank you so much for the trip down memory lane! Boyd Tinsley is one of my favourite musicians, he kicks SO MUCH ASS! As far as the Woodstock show goes, it just blew me away! I was working for a cable company at the time, so got to get the whole thing for free, I was GLUED to my tv set haha, they would play one stage during the day, and then the other stage at night. Those were some good times for music.
Counting Crows were a huge part of my life too!! The song Anna Begins...F~! I can't even tell you how many times I had that one on repeat, so emotional!! His voice is just so tragic and tortured...
<3 <3 Thanks for this post, it's really got me smiling. Glad we share some musical favourites xo!
Support from #25_Votes_Plus . Check out this post I came across @jessamynorchard
https://steemit.com/testimony/@michaelcj/tricycle-adventure-on-steemit-com-my-testimony-2017811t45931752z
Seeing Counting Crows perform their 12+ minute long rendition of "Round Here" was one of the most haunting live performances I've ever seen.