Monday Music II

Yes, I know. I promised weekly music. Well, I lied. Be happy for the music I do provide. =)

I know songwriters are influenced by their backgrounds and their environments. But I think music has a way of carrying all that with it to the listener. Like how the smell of turnip greens cooking reminds me of my grandmother's house. Or how a R.L. Burnside song reminds me somehow of northeast Mississippi. Or how a Charlie Mars song soars to the top of the iPod's most-played list.

I'm sure someone (probably Joe) has heard of Mr. Mars, but he's new to me. I got his song, "Try So Hard" from my favorite source, Filter Magazine.. It actually came off their winter compilation CD and has sat in our iPod for months. For some reason the Pod decided to play it for me the other day and it stuck.

Why did it stick? Well, it's a catchy tune. Kind of Bruce Springsteen meets Goo Goo Dolls. Maybe not Springsteen (odd, just now checked out the ITMS page on Mars and it too compares him with The Boss). But the lyrics are somewhat philosophical with the opening line, "Bless me father I have sinned and I will sin again. For the weight of this unholy ghost I'm living in." And my favorite line is, "I've been thinking you've been thinking you want to hear some truth. The truth is I'm so damn good at lying... here with you."

So, good backup band, well-written lyrics add up to a song good enough to recommend here to my bestest friends. But I figured I should get to know the artist a bit better before I write about him. Googling sends me to his website where his bio states, "Charlie currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi, and motels across America."

And somehow Charlie Mars' song has travelled from Oxford, Miss. to a Los Angeles magazine, to Birmingham, Ala. then through me to Mississippi.

(Editor's note: Christina reminded me Charlie Mars used to play around Jackson all the time while we were there. So maybe it's not such a cosmic connection after all. Oh well. Faulty memory is always providing little surprises like that.)