Head(phones) In The Cloud

I resisted the Amazon Cloud Player. Somehow it seemed risky having music I paid good money for just floating around out there in the ether, but I realized that I don’t know how my computer or my phone work either, digitally speaking, so the music on them is just as mysterious and far away.

Now I can’t get enough of it. The downloads are shockingly fast. I’ve had no trouble with the player, and no problem streaming the audio. It’s been perfect. Plus, all the MP3 music I ever downloaded from Amazon transferred right back up to the cloud, poof, one click, no questions asked.

Listening to it now, I have the music listed by song title, rather than by album or artist, so I could hear all 414 songs in alphabetical order, were I so inclined. Cool.

Not counting 20 Years by The Civil Wars, I have All Of Me (The Piano Guys), All The Roadrunning (Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris), All Summer Long (The Beach Boys), American Girl (Tom Petty), An Empty Cup And A Broken Date (Buddy Holly), And I Love Her (Paul McCartney Unplugged), Angel (Simply Red), Angelina (Bacon Brothers), Another Guitar (The Rainmakers), and Anywhere Anytime (Sara Melson).

And that’s just the As….

My Favorite Female Singers Are Extras On Frasier

I don’t like women singers, really. Linda Ronstadt, I like, and Stevie Nicks, and Tracy Ullman. So what are the odds that my two favorite female singers both played one-episode bit parts on Frasier?

Sara Melson I checked out after watching the rerun with her appearance as Carrie, the men’s store clerk.

Last night I saw the Zooey Deschanel episode where she plays a childhood friend of Roz. Like a lot of people, I liked Zooey in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Elf and Failure to Launch. There’s just something about her, you know.

A year or so ago I was surprised to come across videos of hers on YouTube. Her singing was delightful, soulful and, well, perky. You know, one of those perky soul singers. I listened to her Hawaiian version of I Should Have Known Better and knew I had to have more.

A quick search on Amazon revealed not only an album of her songs, but an album of her songs for only $5. I immediately downloaded Volume One and listened to it nonstop for days. Then I downloaded Volume Two, still just $5, and liked it even better.

Then there was a Christmas album, too.

If you’ve not heard She & Him, head over to YouTube and give it a listen. Let me know what you think.

Sara Melson's Dirty Mind

Watching Frasier reruns on Netflix late last night, I caught one of my favorite episodes, the one where Frasier is tempted to date an adorable sales clerk who is 20 years his younger (Season 1: Episode 20 Fortysomething, if you want to watch it).

The character, Carrie, is cute as can be: pert, intelligent, friendly, talkative, happy, flirty, charming. No wonder Frasier was attracted to her.

I wondered whether I could see this actress anywhere else, so I noted her name as the credits rolled. Turning to my trusty search engine, Swagbucks, I looked for Sara Melson and there she was, not only an accomplished actress, but a singer.

On her web site, I played about half of the songs listed, and liked them right away. The piano and guitar seem to swell in my headphones. Her voice is bright and textured, filled with emotion and power and honesty. I learned that she writes her own tunes, and the lyrics are interesting and personal. I especially like the one about deciding to love like you’ve never been hurt.

So I whipped open my Amazon account and found her Dirty Mind album as an MP3 download, and now, for a mere $8.99, it is in my iTunes. I don’t know enough about music to express how good these songs are, but if you take the best parts of all your favorite singers and songwriters and piano players and guitar players and roll them into one great big talented ball, this is what you would get. Sara Melson.

Take a listen here and tell us what you think.