Jeff's Quick Hits O' the Week

• The New Year has begun, and with it comes boundless opportunity, limitless optimism, and any other warm and fuzzy thoughts you can think of. Here at the Vault, the New Year presents a chance for us to erase the memories of terrible albums, and to purge our LP collections of unworthy material. Let's say that five minutes from now, Doc Brown is going to pull up in the Delorean and take you back to a point this year when you made a terrible mistake in buying an album, and undo it. What terribly misguided abomination against mankind are you choosing?


• For those who received a CD or perhaps an iTunes gift certificate for Christmas, and are pondering the multiple options available to you to listen to said music, do not automatically jump to the conclusion you need an iPod. A great alternative has arisen lately, that being Microsoft's Zune 2. As an Apple fanboy it pains me to say it, but the Zune is the iPod's equal in terms of hardware, and some may argue it's greater. With an iPod you have access to the whole world of iPod accessories and iTunes, but the Zune 2 is no slouch.


• When artists die, there is usually a rush to snap up their material and lavish them with praise. I always find it ironic that the person isn't around to enjoy this renewed success, but I imagine most would be happy people are listening to their music again. Dan Fogelberg was a man I knew by name only; gun to my head I could not have named a single song of his. So, when he passed, I decided to throw in the Greatest Hits disc my Mom had lying around. Shame on me. I realized that I knew a lot of these songs, and they were favorites of mine as a kid, "Same Old Lang Syne" in particular. I may have been late in joining the party, but I don't believe Mr. Fogelberg would begrudge me that.


• "Download of the Week": In a glimpse at a future review, I offer up "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles. Normally I am not one to to be influenced by advertisements on television, but whilst I was gorging on poorly played bowl games, a commercial came on featuring this song. After doing some research and reading up on the lady, I took a plunge on the album. Those thoughts I will save for a later date, but I can tell you that "Love Song" is a terrific slice of piano-pop/rock that will put a smile on your face.

...melt into a river of souls...

I got home late from work last night -- I'm in the restaurant business, so this time of year is busy. I ate something, then logged on to my email just to give it a quick sweep...

..and that was when I saw the subject line. "RIP Dan Fogelberg."

And that was pretty hard to take.

I am a huge fan of Fogelberg's work. I think he is -- he was -- grossly underrated as a singer, a songwriter, and as a performer. I want to celebrate the music and what it meant to me.

I want to remember the first time I heard the fantastic guitar on "She Don't Look Back." I want to once again soar high above Fogelberg's beloved mountains with "The Wild Places." I want to remember being a teenager and being inspired by "Part Of The Plan" heard at a youth Mass. I want to get teary-eyed again at "Same Old Lang Syne." I want to shudder at the power of "The River" and "River Of Souls," twenty-five years apart. I want to sit in the darkness of a Samhain ritual and drown in "Ever On." And I want to celebrate one of the first songs I learned to play on my guitar, "Tucson Arizona (Gazette)," which is one of the greatest songs of all time, period.

I want to remember all this, and I want to mourn for my own getting old and the death of my heroes.

And I want to dig in my CDs and find "The Innocent Age," "Phoenix," "Windows And Walls," and listen to them all again, and mourn for the loss of a man and a musician who cared about the Earth, about people, and about life.

What is remembered, lives -- but it's never quite as good.

"I take my place along the shore and I wait for the tide
It seems I've passed this way before in an earlier time
I hear a voice like mystery blowing warm through the night
The silent moon embraces me and I'm drawn to Her light
I follow footprints in the sand to a circle of stone
Find a fire burning bright 'though I came here alone
And in the play of shadows cast I can dimly discern
The shapes of all who've gone before calling me to return ..."
--"River Of Souls," Dan Fogelberg

Gone too soon: Dan Fogelberg

Soft rock singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg died Sunday morning at the age of 56. Fogelberg, whose melodic hit singles included "Leader Of The Band," "Same Old Lang Syne" and "Longer," was part of the 1970s sensitive-guy singer-songwriter movement led by James Taylor and Jackson Browne. Fogelberg, an environmental activist whose most recent album was 2003's Full Circle, was diagnosed in 2004 with advanced prostate cancer. After his diagnosis he spoke out often as an advocate of regular testing and exams for men over 40. Read his Associated Press obit here; check our reviews here; visit his Web site here.

R.I.P. Dan.