Live from the Student Center Computer Lab!

I was just at the student Starbucks (shut up) listening to a guy play guitar and various percussion instruments live. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a standard coffeehouse staple, but he didn't sound like your standard Starbucks music fare. Probably because he was brought in by our University Programs group, but just stick with me here.

His name is Doug Wood and he spent a lot of time performing on the streets in Boston, making a living off of that, which I have to give him super kudos for because I cannot imagine living like that. Well, I can, but it's mostly influenced by Rent and some other miscellaneous movies about people who play guitar on the streets (like a very specific movie that I'm thinking of but cannot remember the name of it. It had a great soundtrack and was about this Irish guy and a Bulgarian or Romanian or Hungarian woman meeting in Dublin, but the woman had a husband back in the former-Soviet country she was from, but they fell in love anyway, and it's all there in the music, and if you remember what that movie is I will reward you in some way that is yet unspecified. Possibly cookies).

Anyway, back to what I was trying to say. He has the clear markings of "street performer who plays guitar" and it shows, but that's good in my book. He's very chill and makes jokes and slightly self-deprecating. He also has this vague Celtic-y vibe in his music, which would usually scare me away but I rather like it here. It's not all new-agey and overbearing, like other Celtic-types who are all, "I worship the waning and waxing of the moon because the Goddess lives within her and she is the Goddess and we are all one with nature," which gives me the urge to take a bat to someone's head (not in small part because that music also gives me a headache). No, his Celtic-y sound is more like, "I heard this and tried it out, and it worked, but I limited it. Also, wanna grab a coffee later?", which is a lot more inviting and chill. It's a lot easier to handle than "I dance around in my backyard naked chanting poems to the Lady while playing this song". (<----way intimidating and a good way to scare me off of a CD forever) He also has a song he plays called "The George of the Jungle Jam". Seriously. And it's fun and bouncy and has lots of percussion. How can you not like it? Seriously, though, he definitely knows his way around a guitar. He actually tries out a lot of things with it that impresses me because it just sounds so good. I don't know how else to say it without sounding horribly cheesy and cliched, but honestly, the chords were surprising but went well together and if he had just played the guitar, even without all of the excellent percussion he did, I still would have been mighty impressed. As it stands, I am plus-one approving. Here's a clip so you can get a feel for his music:

The only problem I personally have with this kind of music is that, while I love it live, I don't usually buy it because I have little patience with it when I'm listening to recorded music. Yeah, it's picky, but it's just the way I am. I'd have to get used to listening to it recorded before I could buy it or really think about buying it, actually. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the free coffehouse jam and I'd like to hear more from this artist, so Doug Wood, if you're Googling yourself (like me) and you come across this blog, I was the chick in the back of Starbucks at Alabama knitting and applauding and you were fantab.

Blog-wise: tonight I'll probably post a new blog about breakup music and my selections, because let's face it, everyone needs a breakup playlist on their iPod just in case (look how handy mine came in, after all). Have a good afty and I'll see you tonight.