Write Anyway

Hello and welcome to another Musical Monday here on Write Anyway!

As you may have guessed, I’m feeling a bit perky this week, so I decided to have a bit of fun. I want to start this week off with a bit of rock and roll, a bit of weird, a bit of…

Meatloaf

What I think is the best part about Meatloaf is that his voice (which, admittedly, hasn’t changed a whole lot) has only gotten better over the years. These videos are more recent, but it’s very easy to find his older stuff on YouTube.

I am disappointed, though, because try as I might, I just could not find the Eddie scene from Rocky Horror Picture Show. And here I was looking forward to enjoying that again… So it goes!

Enjoy!

And there you have it! Your musical inspiration for the week.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look. Besides, I’m always open to falling in love with a new band or singer and adding more music to my massive collection.

Have an excellent week filled with inspiration, time to write and a very generous muse.

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Write Anyway for Musical Monday.

Well, I don’t know about you, but my weekend definitely didn’t go as planned. Between mystery pains and heaps of rain, it was a lot easier to just go with the flow and enjoy than to try to fight against the current.

But that’s okay. I did enjoy myself and I even got a fair bit of writing done on my novel. Woo hoo!

Today it’s my pleasure to introduce to you a group that you likely already know… but their music reminds me so much of ‘going with the flow’ and one of their songs is the absolute perfect song to write to for another story I have on the back burner.

Here’s to Five for Fighting.

My eldest brother inadvertently introduced me to Five for Fighting. He was selling one of their CDs at our family garage sale and I bought it from him. Yet another one of my very lucky buys…

Enjoy the sweet music…

And there you have it! Your musical inspiration for the week.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look. Besides, I’m always open to falling in love with a new band or singer and adding more music to my massive collection.

Have an excellent week filled with inspiration, time to write and a very generous muse.

Hello and welcome to Musical Monday!

Today I have decided to do something just a little different. Instead of featuring just one singer or group, I’m going to feature a category: classical music.

Classical music may be considered ’stuffy’ but many, but to me, it can be inspirational, passionate, and very enjoyable. Today I’ll feature a few of my favourite pieces. Feel free to let me know some of your classical favourites in the comments.

Enjoy…

And there you have it! Your musical inspiration for the week.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look. Besides, I’m always open to falling in love with a new band or singer and adding more music to my massive collection.

Have an excellent week filled with inspiration, time to write and a very generous muse.

Another Monday, another musical group to pay tribute to!

I discovered The Fray not long after I moved to Australia. They quickly became a regular addition to my mp3 player as a pleasurable group to listen to as well as an inspiration for my creative writing.

According to wikipedia: “The Fray is a Grammy Award-nominated four-piece piano rock band. Formed in 2002 by schoolmates Isaac Slade and Joe King, the Greeley-based group released their debut album How to Save a Life in 2005. The band is best known for the song “How to Save a Life”, which charted in the top three of the Billboard Hot 100 and was also a top 5 single in Canada, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The Fray also found national success with the song “Over My Head (Cable Car)”, which became a top ten hit in the United States and Canada. How to Save a Life was certified double platinum by the RIAA and was also certified platinum in Australia and New Zealand.”

You can check out their official website here.

Enjoy the music.

And there you have it! Your musical inspiration for the week.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

Have an excellent week filled with inspiration, time to write and a very generous muse.

Is it Monday already? Oy. I want another day of the weekend!

Hello everyone! Welcome to your weekly dose of musical inspiration for whatever creative projects you’re working on.

This week I’m featuring another old favourite from my files: Rascall Flatts. I have been listening to this group for years. (Way to make myself feel old…) Straddling the genres of both country and pop in their cowboy boots, Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, vocals) have been hitting up the music seen with their albums since 2000.

These good ol’ country boys from Ohio have been a smash hit from the beginning and are still going strong.

I have the pleasure of saying that I have seen these guys perform live more than once. I have found and continue to find their music very inspiring, as they have a large repertoire of both feel-good music as well as music that moves you.

Enjoy the videos…

And there you have it! Your musical inspiration for the week.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

Have an excellent week filled with inspiration, time to write and a very generous muse.

Hello, hello and welcome back to a beautiful Musical Monday here on Write Anyway.

The skies are blue, the sun is shining and it is Labor Day for those Australians who are living in Victoria! Unfortunately, both the husband and I are sick, so we’re stuck indoors… Poo.

On to better things! Jason Mraz has been a musical love of mine since I discovered a biology professor’s stash of his music on the computer I was working on. It’s been a wonderful love ever since and Mraz’s music never fails to make me feel better.

If you’d like to know more about Jason Mraz (as in, relevant facts instead me just blathering on about how much I like his music), you can check out his awesome website: JasonMraz.com (Warning: I’d probably not try it if you have a slow connection.)

Enjoy…

And there you have it! Your musical inspiration for the week.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

Have an excellent week filled with inspiration, time to write and a very generous muse.

Hello everyone!

Did you all have a wonderful weekend? A good one? A reasonable one? A weekend at all worth mentioning? Well, hopefully it went well and you did… whatever it is you wanted to do.

For this week’s musical inspiration, I’m featuring a somewhat ‘oldie’ but a goodie, definitely. I have “Brick” in my play list, but funnily enough, I couldn’t find an embeddable video of it. Admittedly, I had a quicker than usual perusal of YouTube, so that could have something to do with it…

A bit about Ben Folds Five according to Wikipedia:

“Ben Folds Five was an alternative rock trio formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The group comprised Ben Folds on vocals, piano, and principal songwriting; Robert Sledge played bass and provided backing vocals; and Darren Jessee played drums, sang backing vocals and co-wrote some of the songs. The group achieved modest success in the alternative, indie and pop music scenes. The band is best known for the hit single “Brick” from their 1997 album Whatever and Ever Amen, which gained airplay on many mainstream radio stations.”

Enjoy…

And there you have it! Your musical inspiration for the week.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

Have an excellent week filled with inspiration, time to write and a very generous muse.

Hello and welcome to another Musical Monday here on Write Anyway.

I’m (still) a little under the weather, so I’ve decided to open Write Anyway up to guests! You can host a week (or a day) here with links to your site(s). You can do things the traditional way (aka: how I do them) or do whatever you like. Your choice.

You can get in contact with me via the ‘contact me’ button on the right.

This week’s feature band was a suggestion by the lovely Moira. Definitely check out her group blog for book reviews, author interview and more.

The funny thing is, I went to YouTube to search for videos and found one of my favourite songs - Mr. Brightside - is one of The Killers songs! -1 for me not paying attention, that’s for sure. I don’t know how I could have missed that one.

From Wikipedia: “The Killers are an American rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada, formed in 2002. The group consists of Brandon Flowers (lead vocals, keyboards), Dave Keuning (guitar, vocals), Mark Stoermer (bass guitar, vocals) and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. (percussion, drums).

“Part of the post-punk revival movement, The Killers draw influence from music styles of the 1980s and 1990s.”

Anyway… If you’d like more information on The Killers, you can check them out here at their website.

Enjoy.

And there you have it! Your musical inspiration for the week.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

Have an excellent week filled with inspiration, time to write and a very generous muse.

Hello everyone! Happy Monday and all that fun stuff.

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day weekend. The husband and I had a nice overnight, but it was sobered both in going there and coming back by seeing some of the areas that were affected by the bushfires. It was heartening to see that so many people had lucky experiences in that the fires went around their houses.

Anywho, today I’m featuring an artist I grew up listening to. I was quite the country girl when I was little (with other likes too, of course) and this particular artist inspired many scenes I have written over my time. Even as I searched for videos to feature today, I found that his music still doesn’t fail to make me feel good.

Of course, I think pretty much everyone (with the exception of my husband) knows a thing or two about Garth Brooks, so no other introduction needed.

Enjoy the music!

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

I’d like to just take a moment to thank everyone who contacted me to make sure I am okay during the Victoria bushfires. It is a wonderful feeling to know how many people care.

Have an excellent week.

Hello readers!

It’s time once again to get to it, get it down, get it right, get it musical… Yeah, I’m in a good mood this Musical Monday. I have no idea why, but this is one of those sorts of things you don’t question, you just enjoy. Which works fine for me…

Another random pick from my iTunes shuffling around my music files this week has landed on Coldplay.

For once, I’m not featuring a band I randomly came across or one I grew up with; a dear friend in Canada was lovely enough to introduce me to the music of Coldplay and I have been tuning in ever since. Admittedly, I did have a time when they drifted out of my immediate inspiration sphere, but they were welcomed back with open arms with their single Viva la Vida.

If you would like to know more about them, here is their official website where you can find all sorts of interesting things. (For example, I hate no idea they were coming here to Melbourne this year. Woohoo!)

Enjoy!

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

Have an excellent week filled with inspiration, time to write and a very generous muse.

Ah, the start of another week.

I no longer dread Mondays - not that I really ‘dreaded’ them so much as just regretted that the weekend was over - because I have declared Mondays as my Artist Dates. Every Monday I leave behind my laptop and connection to the internet and I go to the library to work on my creative writing. It has done wonderful things for my writing, that’s for certain. Plus, it’s a great way to ease into the work week.

I know that’s not possible for everyone, and I do feel fortunate for being able to do so, but if you can do it give it a try!

That being said, it’s time to move on to the musical inspiration for this week!

I set my iTunes on random so I could actually do a little planning ahead for MMs. So the order of musicians for the next few weeks - and the bands picked - was determined completely at random by my player. Fun stuff, huh?

I have exactly one song by the Fugees and the random picked that, so that’s what I will go with.

If you’d like more information on the Fugees, here is their Wikipedia page. Enjoy the music!

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

Have an excellent week.

Hello everyone and welcome to a gorgeous Australia Day Musical Monday.

That’s right; it’s Australia Day over here and I am personally celebrating by… being sick. Bah! However, I am also celebrating by featuring Australian musicians/singers for today’s Musical Monday. I am also throwing in a beer commercial just for kicks because, well, what’s Australia Day without a stubbie or two?

From Wikipedia (just because I’m lazy like that):

“Australia Day, also known as Anniversary Day and Foundation Day, is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, the day commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the unfurling of the British flag at Sydney Cove and the proclamation of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia.

Australia Day is an official public holiday in every state and territory of Australia, and is marked by the Order of Australia and Australian of the Year awards, along with an address from the Prime Minister.

Records of the celebration of Australia Day date back to 1808, with Governor Lachlan Macquarie having held the first official celebration of Australia Day in 1818. In 2004, an estimated 7.5 million people attended Australia Day celebrations and functions across the country.”

Enjoy!

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

Have an excellent week.

Hello and welcome back to Write Anyway!

It is yet another beautiful Monday morning around Melbourne and I am heading out and about to take advantage of the gorgeous weather. But first, of course, it’s time to start the week with some music.

I listened to all sorts of music when I was younger, but I do have to confess that country music started becoming the majority in my music collection. That’s certainly not a bad thing, though, because there is a quality to (some) country music that you won’t find in any other genre.

So it’s with pleasure that I feature a country artist from my personal music listening past: Kenny Chesney

There aren’t a lot of artists out there who are better at helping me relax when I need my characters (or just me!) to relax and have a little fun. He has some serious songs, of course, but a lot of his music is about enjoying life, relaxing and having fun.

I hope you enjoy his music as much as I have over the years.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

Have an excellent week.

Hello and welcome to another beautiful Musical Monday here on Write Anyway.

Well, it’s a beautiful day around Melbourne, anyway. I hope it’s beautiful wherever you are.

I let my iTunes ‘random’ function pick the artist for Musical Monday. It’s my pleasure to introduce (or reintroduce, as the case may be) the music of Rob Thomas.

According to Rob’s official website:

“As the driving force of matchbox twenty, Rob Thomas is widely acknowledged as one of the most distinctive vocalists and gifted songwriters in contemporary music. Since making their debut in 1996, matchbox has evolved into one of the most admired and consistently successful rock bands in recent history, with over 25 million albums sold worldwide.”

*It’s an excellent website to check out - if you have the browser speed. There is a lot of animation and such, so I don’t recommend going there if you have a dial-up connection.

Without further ado… the music!

I like all these songs, but ‘Time After Time’ is definitely my favourite. I was listening to that repeatedly back when I had it on cassette tape being performed by Cyndi Lauper. Talk about a walk down memory lane with that one.

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

Have an excellent week.

Welcome back to Musical Monday and happy 2009!

I decided to start off this year with something different. Amy Winehouse hasn’t been a big influence on me or my writing, but I enjoy most of her music. So here’s to music that we like - even if it doesn’t always inspire us.

Don’t worry - I’m not into celebrity gossip or any other such stuff. I’m just here to feature music I like.

According to Wikipedia:

“Amy Jade Winehouse (born 14 September 1983) is an English singer-songwriter, known for her eclectic mix of various musical genres including soul, jazz, rock & roll and R&B. Winehouse is best known for her soulful, powerful contralto vocals.

Winehouse’s 2003 debut album Frank did well, both commercially and critically, in her native Britain. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her 2006 follow-up album Back to Black led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British singer to win five Grammys, including three of the “Big Four”: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.”

Enjoy!

There are a lot more songs out there, so do some hunting! I hope you find this music inspirational.

If you have any suggestions for singers or bands you’d like to see featured, let me know in the comments. I won’t promise to put all selections up, but I do promise to take a look.

Have an excellent week.