Friday Random Ten

I mentioned last week that I would use the Pandora website to come up with some different music to list on this site. You start with the name of a song or artist, and it generates a radio playlist for you based on stuff that is considered to be related. I thought I'd start this little game off with the groups I've seen live over time.

This first week, I thought I'd use the first concert I went to. The opening band was a new band in the music scene, one called Jars of Clay. You may have heard me mention them before. I was one of those obssessed fans who read everything I could find about them. When I heard they were doing a concert for about 300 people just 3 hours away, I suckered three of my friends into road-tripping with me. They were a small-time band, back then, with just one album, so it wasn't too tough to know all their songs. That tour, they traveled with most of a string section, and it was a great show, the best even. A year or two later, I saw them again at a much bigger venue, and a few years back at Stubbs in Austin. I'm a big fan of these guys, in case you couldn't tell. Here's the gratuitous YouTube video of their well-known mainstream song, to remind you how you do actually know who these guys are (and to remind you that 1995 was a really long time ago -- just look at those haircuts and outfits!):



And now, without further ado, here is what Pandora gave me to go with these guys.

"Worlds Apart" by Jars of Clay* on Jars of Clay
"My Savior My God" by Aaron Shust on Anything Worth Saying
"Indescribable (Live)" by Chris Tomlin* on Live From Austin Music Hall
"Love Heals Your Heart" by Third Day on Whereever You Are
"Love Song For A Savior" by Jars of Clay* on Jars of Clay
"Dare You To Move" by Switchfoot on The Beautiful Letdown
"In Christ Alone (My Hope Is Found)" by Promise Keepers on The Awakening Worship
"Stillness" by Aaron Shust on Anything Worth Saying
"The Day Before You" by Matthew West on History
"Disappear" by Jars of Clay* on The Eleventh Hour (which I somehow don't own....hmmmmm)

Well, the randomness left something to be desired, but I suppose that's the point of the site. I'd never heard the Third Day or the Matthew West song (though I've heard others by them), and I did like them, so I think that counts for something positive learned today. Every day should be so lucky. Plus, with a visual to go with each song, I feel like I have a chance of remembering songs that go with a particular artist (I'm terrible at that particular skill -- I think it stayed in the untappable back of my brain with the audio learning that I never got either. I still wonder how I got a degree in a lecture-styled education system.).

* Acts I've seen live