This is where I show up every week—unfiltered, half-awake, and usually a little wrecked—to answer Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday challenge. No pretense. Just me, a lyric that hits somewhere deep, and whatever comes out when I sit down to write.
What you’ll find here:
- Lyric-fueled reflections—not reviews, not critiques, just gut reactions to songs that won’t let me go.
- Unpolished honesty—I’m not trying to sound smart; I’m trying to tell the truth. Some posts rant, some spiral, some land softly. All of them are real.
- A messy mix of genres—from Iron Maiden to Shuggie Otis, I go where the challenge takes me. If it stirs something, I’m in.
- No distance, no disguise—these aren’t academic takes. They’re what happens when I let music speak straight to whatever part of me is still awake at 2 a.m.
If you’ve ever heard a lyric and felt it pull something loose inside you—that sudden sting of recognition—then you already get it. That’s what this page is about. Welcome to the noise inside my head.
Latest posts
That Grown Folk Shit
Song Lyric Sunday • Theme: Rivers, Streams, Creeks, Brooks We got those Sunday Jazz Vibes going. It’s never intentional, but it’s always right. The slow grooves of Grover Washington Jr. set the tone before the coffee even cools. The things…
The Other Woman Was My Wife
What I Learned Too Late and the Two Songs That Explained It Song Lyric Sunday – Nina Simone, “The Other Woman” My wife knew more about music than any woman I’ve ever met outside my mother. She couldn’t name artists,…
Cigarettes and Coffee: The Sound of Staying Awake
“It’s early in the morning / About a quarter to three…” — Otis Redding Nicotine stains my fingers, and there’s a coffee ring bleeding through the corner of my notebook. My shoulders ache — that familiar, loyal pain that’s been…
The Moment Was Fluid, Until It Wasn’t
What one Sabbath song taught me about adrenaline, fear, and the silence that follows the hit. I wasn’t planning to write about Ozzy Osbourne — I had a ticket in hand to see Earth, Wind & Fire. My mind was…
Stripped Down and Soul-Deep: Ray LaMontagne’s Take on ‘Crazy’
TUNAGE – SLS How an acoustic guitar and a raspy voice turned a genre-bending hit into something quietly devastating. I’ve always been a fan of the acoustic guitar. In fact, it’s my favorite style. I’ve always felt that if an…
Shuggie’s Boogie: The Kind of Guitar Playing That Makes You Question Your Life Choices
TUNAGE – SLS In the endless debate about great guitarists, you know the names. They’re on every list. Hendrix. Clapton. Page. Santana. Occasionally, a few lesser-knowns sneak in—someone you maybe don’t know, so you check them out, nod, and go,…
Blues from the Shadows: Chuck Norris and In the Evening
TUNAGE – SLS First, a quick word on the man behind the madness: Chuck Norris (no, not the roundhouse legend—the blues Chuck Norris) was an American blues guitarist born on August 11, 1921, in Kansas City, Missouri. A fixture in…
F**k Top 40: The Mixtape Rebellion
TUNAGE – THROWBACK THURSDAY Author’s Note: This article was originally written for Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday, but I forgot to post it… oops. Greatest hits albums fed us what we already knew. Mixtapes fed us what we didn’t even…
The Albums You Forgot — From the Artists You Can’t
TUNAGE – SLS I almost gave up on this week’s challenge. Every artist that came to mind? Still dropping new music. I listened through track after track of so-called final albums, but nothing really moved me. I opened my tunage…
What Elegant Gypsy Taught Me About Sound
TUNAGE – SLS I never understood what people meant by a “breakout album.” It always sounded like marketing speak, like some suit in a record label office decided a release would be a moment before the music even had a…
Built on Fault Lines
TUNAGE – SLS The Hidden Band Origins of Today’s Boldest Solo Artists The low-key origin stories behind music’s most defining solo careers. This challenge was tough because I know too many artists to choose from. I didn’t want to go…
Skunk Anansie: The Band That Kicked Down the Britpop Door
TUNAGE – SLS I wasn’t looking for a new band. I was elbow-deep in grease, rebuilding an engine, when Skunk Anansie hit my ears — completely by accident. They were playing in the background, and something about the sound stopped…
Maggot Brain: Where Beauty and Despair Collide (and Punch You in the Gut)
TUNAGE – SLS Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain isn’t just a record — it’s a reckoning. Released in 1971, it captured the psychic temperature of a country unraveling. War abroad, decay at home, distrust in the air, and the so-called counterculture burning…
Song Lyric Sunday – 011152025
MINI BIO – SLS Immersing myself in the musical offerings of my fellow melody enthusiasts has been an absolute delight. Each shared track opened new doors, introducing me to artists I’d never encountered and fresh interpretations of beloved classics. The…
Mixed Music Bag and Song Lyric Sunday
TUNAGE ARTICLE After reading some music posts this morning, I realized I have the opportunity to combine Glyn’s and Jim’s challenges. Let’s get at it… Here is my response to Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag In 1998, I was on assignment…
Song Lyric Sunday – King Diamond’s Abigail
TUNAGE – SLS This post has been over 30 years in the making. Let me explain with a little back story. So, in 1987, a guy I knew in high school suggested three albums. Over a period of several months,…
Song Lyric Sunday – Whistling Dixie
TUNAGE – SLS As a child, I had the hardest time learning to whistle. So, when I saw the theme for this week, I had a nice flashback to that time. Oh yeah, this week’s theme is songs with whistling…
Song Lyric Sunday – The Ohio Players – 04/14/2024
TUNAGE – SLS I got excited when I saw the prompt for this post. There are so many songs I love that fit the category. I could go on a rant about these songs, but I will behave. Tonight, I…
Song Lyric Sunday – The Time
TUNAGE – SLS When I think about songs with cold in the title, two come to mind immediately: Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice” and Rainbow’s “Stone Cold.” However, I decided to take things in a different direction for this post. I…
Song Lyric Sunday – Gladys Knight
TUNAGE – SLS This week’s challenge is a particular favorite of mine. I’m a bit of a soundtrack junkie, so I can ramble all day about the different tracks written for motion pictures. However, I’ll try my best to contain…
Song Lyric Sunday – Going Biblical
CHALLENGE RESPONSE – SLS Typically, I roll my eyes when I hear the term Christian Rock. It’s not because I don’t believe there could be such a thing, but when I first heard of the genre, the selected tracks presented…
Song Lyric Sunday – Children and Families
CHALLENGE RESPONSE – SLS Nothing More “Fade In, Fade Out” by Nothing More is a deeply emotional and introspective song that explores the universal themes of time, legacy, and the cyclical nature of life. Released as part of their album…
Song Lyric Sunday – War and Peace
CHALLENGE RESPONSE – SLS Here is my response to SLS, hosted by Jim Adams “Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden is a powerful track from their 1982 album, “The Number of the Beast.” The song is renowned for its…
Song Lyric Sunday: God – 03102024
CHALLENGE RESPONSE – SLS This challenge was tough for me, not because I didn’t know a song that fit the parameters, but because I knew too many to choose one. So, I decided to cheat a little, just a tad.…
Song Lyric Sunday – Singled Out
Here is my response to Jim Adams’ SLS This prompt was a little difficult for me, because I grew up during the time when we collected 12 inch singles. So, after a bit of research, I was surprised to find…
SLS – 03032024 – Bye, Bye Miss American Pie
CHALLENGE RESPONSE – SONG LYRIC SUNDAY Here is my response to Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday As a child, I can hardly remember when I listened to the radio and didn’t hear this song at least once. I heard so…
Memoirs of Madness 