Not Everyone's Mama

I am loving Andrew Johnston’s new song/video, Something You Already Know.

Take a peak:

This week ANDREW JOHNSTON is making waves with a stellar video premiere on RELIX for “Something You Already Know;” the first single off of his debut album, The Wake of the Wonder Years. The stunning black and white video takes you on a journey, led by Johnston, in Montreal. Directed / Edited by Derek Dugas and co-Director Mike Paterson, the heartfelt video was shot over a freezing cold February weekend, with great friends in tow.

ANDREW JOHNSTON says about the piece:

“The Something You Already Know,” video showcases a side of Montreal that most tourists and people that idealize the Montreal cultural scene aren’t necessarily exposed to. In the video you can see the crumbling infrastructure, wide spread condo development, and bumper-to-bumper traffic that characterize the Montreal I know. The song is about the work a day world many of us inhabit and our efforts to remain hopeful in the face of our daily routine. Incidentally, the footage was shot near my place of work, and features many of the landmarks that make up my daily experience.”

“Something You Already Know,” is an infectious track that will leave you wanting more of what ANDREW JOHNSTON has to offer. With carefully strummed guitars starting off the track, as a strong piano makes an entrance, the song picks up with perfect harmonies, which is a little reminiscent of Sloan’s Between the Bridges. Take a peek at this gorgeous new video, and be prepared to discover your favorite new artist.

This is one of those songs that you will sit and sing with while nodding your head in agreement. I love it. He is going directly on my iPhone.

I honestly cannot wait to hear the rest of his album!

To my Canadian friends, you are lucky enough to have tour dates in your country!

Thursday, April 19th – Jackie and Judy’s – Montreal

Sunday, April 22nd- The Elmdale Tavern w/ Eric Passmore – Ottawa

Thursday, May 17th – The Central Bar – Toronto

Find Andrew Johnston:

Official Website
Facebook
Twitter

Popularity: 4% [?]

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I reviewed Jennifer Shaw’s CD a couple of months ago.  I loved her voice!  She is an extremely talented singer with a very strong voice.  Love love love her!

She is debuting her new music video today, and to celebrate the premiere, Jennifer is giving the song away as a free MP3 download 8/30 ONLY!

The video is produced and directed by Jeffrey Kubach whose resume’ includes the hit TV show Survivor as well as a nomination for Best Pop Music Video from Gospel Music Channel!  The video will premiere on www.Godbeat.tv today.

Get your free MP3 of the song God Loved The World here. (http://jennifershaw.com/godloved)

Popularity: 2% [?]

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• Jennifer Shaw Review/Giveaway **CLOSED**
• Artscow Free Memo Pad alert
• **CLOSED** La-La Lisa Review & Giveaway

Sex and the City 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Original soundtrack to the 2010 motion picture. Sex And The City 2 is the sequel to the box office smash hit, which generated a hit soundtrack. Includes musical performances by the four leading ladies as well as Liza Minnelli and others.

I received the Sex and the City 2 Soundtrack a couple of weeks ago and I loved it then.  I decided to wait to do my review until I had actually seen the movie.  The Saturday after it opened, I went with my mom, and I don’t care what the critics say, I loved it.  We were rolling.  And I love Carrie’s clothes as usually.

Back to the soundtrack though, having seen the movie totally enhanced listening to the music.  I could see the scenes in my head as each song played.  I don’t think there is one song on here that I don’t like.  My favorites (and my girls’ favorites) are Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down, the Sex and The City ladies’ karaoke version of I Am Woman, and Lord help me if I don’t love love love Liza Minnelli’s version of All the Single Ladies.

Those are the ones my daughters always say “play it again!  play it again!” to.

My son rolls his eyes when we replay I Am Woman over and over and over again.  Seriously, we listened to it 7 times on the way to his out of town soccer game.

Here’s the tracks that are on it -

1. 1. Alicia Keys “Rapture”
   2. Dido “Everything to Lose”
   3. Cee Lo “Language of Love”
   4. Erykah Badu “Window Seat”
   5. Natacha Atlas “Kidda”
   6. Michael McGregor “Euphrates Dream”
   7. Liza Minnelli “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
   8. Ricki-Lee “Can’t Touch It”
   9. Alicia Keys “Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down”
   10. Jennifer Hudson and Leona Lewis “Love Is Your Color”
   11. Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon “I Am Woman”
   12. Sex and the City Men’s Choir “If Ever I Would Leave You”
   13. Sex and the City Men’s Choir “Sunrise, Sunset”
   14. Sex and the City Men’s Choir “Till There Was You”
   15. Shayna Steele, Jordan Ballard, Kamilah Marshall “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”
   16. Liza Minnelli with Billy Stritch “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye”
   17. Cyndi Lauper “True Colors”
   18. Aaron Zigman “Divas and Dunes”

To be perfectly honest, I have to say that I have to be in the right mood to listen to 12, 13, and 14, but I do love those when I’m in the mood for something mellow.  Usually when the kids are with me, I skip over those. Number 10, Jennifer Hudson and Leona Lewis’s brand new duet “Love Is Your Color” is an absolutely gorgeous song!

This cd has been on permanent rotation in my car since I got it, so thumbs up from us!

While your checking out the soundtrack, go try to win a call from Sarah Jessica Parker!

Purchase the Sex and the City 2 soundtrack on Amazon

Check Out The Soundtrack Website

Head to the Facebook page

If you’re a fan of any of those artists or the movie, you won’t regret it!

Thank you to One2One network for providing me with a copy of the Sex and the City 2 Soundtrack to review!

Popularity: 2% [?]

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Michael Bolton – One World, One Love

I have a confession.  I like Michael Bolton.  I always have.  His voice is beautiful and his songs so romantic.  My sister-in-law and I call his music baby makin’ music.  If you’re my age, tell me you didn’t slow dance with that special guy at one of your high school dances to his version of When A Man Loves A Woman on his Time, Love & Tenderness, or at least wish you had.

Well, Michael Bolton has released his 18th studio album – 18.  That’s a lot of music.  And with this album he can now say he has worked with Lady Gaga and Ne-Yo.  Lady Gaga.  Michael Bolton.  I wouldn’t have thought to mix the two.  Ever.  I have to say though, Murder My Heart is my favorite track on the CD.  I’d like to here more Gaga in it (she sings back up) because their voices sound awesome together.  Who would have thought?

With this album, Michael said -

“Every song had to make you feel good, because people have enough hardships to think about right now. They need to feel good. ‘No heartbreak songs’ became our mantra.”

And he did it.  He has some up tempo songs on this plus the ones I think of as classic Michael Bolton, but they are all positive and beautiful songs.  There’s some reggae sound to the second track (which I LOVE) and even a little latin flair to Terence Trent D’Arby’s song Sign Your Name – (that’s probably my least favorite song, but I wasn’t a big fan of it the first time around.)

I’m sitting here browsing through the tracks at Amazon (easier than going out to the car to get the CD which has been living in my car cd player) so I can really tell you my favorite favorite favorite again and honestly, I like them all.  I know Murder My Heart is my top fave but the rest of them are right after that.  Ok, second fave is a tie between Hope It’s Too Late and You Comfort Me.  I’m telling you, they are all fabulous.

I have really enjoyed this CD and I’m so glad I have gotten a chance to review it.  I want to thank Team Mom for sending me a copy to review.  It hasn’t left my car stereo since I got it, which makes it hard because I have other CDs I need to listen to, but I like this one so much, I just want to hear it some more!

Popularity: 1% [?]

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Green Golly & Her Golden Flute by Flute Sweet & Tickletoon

All mommies to little princesses and princes, you must read this review.  I’ve listen to a lot of children’s music in my 11 years as a mommy.  A lot.  I’ve enjoyed a lot of it.  I’ve been annoyed by a lot of it. 

Green Golly & Her Golden Flute is by far my favorite.  I adored it! 

Rapunzel may have been horrified to spend her days trapped in that big old tower but not Green Golly – she  was delighted! So inspired by all that whizzed past her window she couldn’t help but make music. Herein lies the charm of “Green Golly & Her Golden Flute” – this funny and extraordinarily musical event, featuring the music of Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Gossec, Elgar, Bizet, Chopin and Copland, introduces children to the art of flute and the magic of classical music.“Green Golly” is also available in a version for flute, narrator and full orchestra.

The music is gorgeous!  The flute is such a beautiful instrument when in the hands of someone better than me, ie: Barbara Siesel.  I play a lot of instruments, but the flute is not one that my band instructor thrust into my heads.  I’ve always loved the sound that it makes though.  She is an absolutely amazing flutist.

The story is absolutely hilarious.  We were driving the first time we listened to it and I was cracking up.  Rolling.  It’s a good thing that Pato was driving.  I kept asking the girls, did you hear that?  Did you hear that part?  Keith Torgan is so wonderful as the story teller.  His voice, his expressions, absolutely perfect!  Let’s not leave out Jessica Krash, the pianist.  She add so much with her playing.

You’ll be surprised to.  It’s been a long time since I’ve played classical music and I am embarrassed to say that with my music background I couldn’t always put the song name to the tune until it started playing.  Then you have that ah ha! moment.  Once a song started playing, I immediately knew what it was and I bet you will too!

You probably wanted to know what my kids thought don’t you?  Here I am rambling on and on about how much I liked it.  My girls loved it.  They love any fairy tale.  If it has a prince or princess in it, they are all ears.  Alyce kept asking me to turn it up.  Turn it up mom!  We’ve listened to it quite a few times since I received it and we haven’t tired of the story yet.

I think music is so important to a child’s development.  I try to surround my kids with many many different types of music.  I personally listen to everything.  Well, except for maybe death metal.  To each their own I say.  I want my kids to be like me.  I want them to enjoy popular music because it’s so much fun but I also want them to enjoy classical, broadway, jazz, blues, latin, country, R&B, etc. 

This CD is an awesome way to introduce children to classical music without them saying, mom!  Turn on Hannah Montana.  This is boring.  I promise, I didn’t hear that once!

You can listen to track 1 here.  This page has a couple of other tracks that you can listen to before you buy Green Golly & Her Golden Flute.

One other thing I totally loved about this CD was that at the end, each of the songs that is used for the story line is played on it’s own.  I’ll admit it.  I’ve totally popped that in at night when I’m sitting here and listened to it on my own.  They are gorgeous classics that you will know and love. 

I have got one copy of Green Golly & Her Golden Flute for one of my readers to win!

Are you ready to enter?

MAIN ENTRY:

Tell me either what your favorite fairy tale is or your favorite classical music piece

MAKE SURE YOU DO THE MAIN ENTRY BEFORE ANY OF THE EXTRA ENTRIES! THANKS!

EXTRA ENTRIES:

This CD doesn’t have social networking info that I can find.

Because I add things to the extra entries every once in and awhile and I want them to be consistent, the extra entries relating to me now have their own page.  You can also do any of those things to enter this giveaway AFTER you do the mandatory entry.  (That link will open in a separate window/tab for you so you don’t have to use the back button.)

Here’s a tweet you can use –

- Win the beautiful cd, Green Golly & Her Golden Flute from #HeatherM74 http://bit.ly/aocJXQ ends 5/30 please RT #Giveaway! US only

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

Giveaway ends on 5/30/10 at 11:59 PM CST. ETA  – WORLDWIDE! – Winners will be chosen by random number generator. Winners will be emailed and must respond within 48 hours or an alternate winner will be chosen.

Popularity: 2% [?]

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Congratulations to Diane and thank you to everyone who entered!

Love Broke Through by Jennifer Shaw

Can I start this out by saying, it takes a lot to impress me musically.  I’ve mentioned before that I started out as a vocal performance major myself but never finished due to my need to continuously have children.  No, for real, I was going to go back after Jordan was in school, but, then I had more.  Back to my point, I am so picky and I am completely amazed sometimes at what becomes popular.  I have lots of music that I enjoy, that I like to sing a long to, but it takes a lot for me to say wow.  Jennifer Shaw – WOW.  I love her voice.  She hits these high notes that you would expect out of a soprano, but she has such a gorgeous lower range too that would be suited to an alto.  Her tone is so rich and just beautiful!

She actually started out playing the piano.  At the urging of a choral director she auditioned for a vocal scholarship also and received one.  She has a Master’s Degree in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music.  The Lord led her many places including performing with the Columbus Symphony and later appeared at Carnegie Hall. She became a Professor of Music for Cedarville University as well as the music director for her church.

Take a listen to her.  Her voice is just so beautiful.

I could listen to this CD over and over and over again.  In fact, I have.  It’s been in my car CD player and in my computer non-stop.  I need to just put it on my iPod.  On my list of things to do.  If you go to her website, you’ll hear a few samples of her songs.  The very first one that you hear is my absolute most favorite one on the album.  It’s just beautiful.  The message, the notes she hits, her tone.  Absolutely gorgeous!

I am so happy that I get to share this CD with one of my readers!  One of you will win Love Broke Through by Jennifer Shaw.

MAIN ENTRY:

Tell me what your favorite worship song is.

MAKE SURE YOU DO THE MAIN ENTRY BEFORE ANY OF THE EXTRA ENTRIES! THANKS!

EXTRA ENTRIES:

• - Like Jennifer Shaw on Facebook
• - Sign up for Jennifer Shaw’s Newsletter
• - Subscribe to my blog via email or reader
• - Follow @shawjennifer on Twitter
• - Follow me on Twitter (either @HeatherM74 or @GiveawayChick – you’ll get all the giveaways from other bloggers that I enter on @GiveawayChick, either one is fine.)
• - Tweet this giveaway (1X/day)

Enter to win the CD Love Broke Through by @shawjennifer from #HeatherM74 http://bit.ly/cI3Kwe ends 5/29 *US Only please RT #Giveaway!

• - Follow me via Google Friend connect
• - add my button to your blog (the 24/7 mom one on the right side)
• - comment on one of my other posts
• - blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post.
• - Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social networking bookmark this giveaway.  (Not my site, the post.) There are links after each post.
• - NEW! Add this giveaway to ANY giveaway site (prizey, online sweeps, a Mr linky) where you are allowed to 3 entries! (Enter each separately! IE: Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3)
• - NEW! Enter any of my other giveaways! (1 extra entry total for this giveaway)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

EXTENDED DUE TO DOWNTIME!  Giveaway ends on 5/29/10 at 11:59 PM CST. ETA  – WORLDWIDE NOW! – Winners will be chosen by random number generator. Winners will be emailed and must respond within 48 hours or an alternate winner will be chosen.

Thank you so much to Gina Adams and La-La-Lisa for sending me a copy of Big Green Alligator to review.  So much fun to listen to!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Read these too:

• Free Jennifer Shaw MP3
• **CLOSED** La-La Lisa Review & Giveaway

Congratulations to Charlene and thank you to everyone who entered!

Big Green Alligator by La-La-Lisa

This has got to be one of the cutest kids’ cds that I have heard.  No annoying voices, just a lot of fun songs from a lady with a beautiful voice.

I got this CD the other day, popped it in the CD player in the car when we left to go out and, seriously, you should have seen Alyce bopping a long with it.  Right in time with the music.  The next day, I popped it in when Pato was in the car.  He kept saying, look at Alyce.  Look at her!  Honey, I know.  She did it the whole time we had it on the other day.  She loves it.

Katiana has now been requesting the “Big Green Alligator” CD while she’s picking up her room.  She loves it too.  Jordan hasn’t had the privilege of listening to it yet as he was at his dad’s this weekend.  He’ll get his turn I’m sure.  The title song is actually my favorite on the album.  Lisa Weyerhaeuser made up that song 15 years ago on a road trip and here she is today with it on her album.

I love this about her music -

“I put a lot of questions into the lyrics of Big Green Alligator – ‘Where did we come
from, where are we going, and how did you find your way to me?’ – because I wanted
kids to feel like they could ask this character anything. I believe it is essential for kids to
learn to express their feelings at early ages. I want them to know that if they are shy,
it’s ok. If they feel sad about something, it’s ok. There is a freedom in learning to
correctly express emotions. If kids can learn how to do that when they are young, it
will be more natural for them to do as they get older.”

It’s nice to have a kids’ cd that my kids want to listen to that isn’t full of just plain silly songs with no meaning.  Her songs had meaning.  Another favorite of mine on the album is My Little Brother.  I think it’s so neat.  And I think she wrote it just for Jordan.  (Except you can insert sisters for brother, at least until Christiano is a little older.  Unless of course Jordan wakes up on the couch and catches Christiano in his room right at this moment.)

If you go here, you can listen to her music before you buy the CD.

You can buy the CD on Amazon here on Amazon here. You can also snag the MP3 album for $8.99 on Amazon here.

I have been given the opportunity to give one of my readers a copy of Big Green Alligator by La-La-Lisa

MAIN ENTRY:

Tell me your favorite kids’ song!

MAKE SURE YOU DO THE MAIN ENTRY BEFORE ANY OF THE EXTRA ENTRIES! THANKS!

EXTRA ENTRIES:

• - Join La-La-Lisa on Facebook
• - Subscribe to my blog via email or reader
• - Become a fan of La-La-Lisa on Reverbnation
• - Follow me on Twitter (either @HeatherM74 or @GiveawayChick – you’ll get all the giveaways from other bloggers that I enter on @GiveawayChick, either one is fine.)
• - Tweet this giveaway (1X/day)

Enter to win the CD, Big Green Alligator by La-La-Lisa from #HeatherM74 http://bit.ly/bREEeb ends 5/24 *US Only please RT #Giveaway!

• - Follow me via Google Friend connect
• - add my button to your blog (the 24/7 mom one on the right side)
• - comment on one of my other posts
• - blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post.
• - Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social networking bookmark this giveaway.  (Not my site, the post.) There are links after each post.
• - NEW! Add this giveaway to ANY giveaway site (prizey, online sweeps, a Mr linky) where you are allowed to 3 entries! (Enter each separately! IE: Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3)
• - NEW! Enter any of my other giveaways! (1 extra entry total for this giveaway)

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

EXTENDED DUE TO DOWNTIME! Giveaway ends on 5/24/10 at 11:59 PM CST. ETA  – US Only – Winners will be chosen by random number generator. Winners will be emailed and must respond within 48 hours or an alternate winner will be chosen.

Thank you so much to Gina Adams and La-La-Lisa for sending me a copy of Big Green Alligator to review.  So much fun to listen to!

Popularity: 7% [?]

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• Free Jennifer Shaw MP3
• Jennifer Shaw Review/Giveaway **CLOSED**
• Good Cop/Bad Cop – Delivery Men?

As a member of ReverbNation I get to check out some awesome new artists and I thought I’d share a new favorite of mine with you!  Alyssa Jacey!  I love her voice.  Her voice is just so smooth and pretty.  Very talented!  Check her out on the music player.

I’ve been playing her nonstop through the ReverbNation website.  I can’t even say who her style reminds me of.  It’s someone, but I can’t put my finger on it.  Maybe that’s a good thing.  It means she has her own original style.

I am receiving 2 songs to download for posting this, but I would post it even without those. She’s fabulous!

Popularity: 1% [?]

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