Carbon Leaf, Trombone Shorty

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       Carbon Leaf - Changeless off their 2004 album Indian Summer

Carbon Leaf was all over the radio in D.C. in the early 2000's with "The Boxer." So I kept up with them and found that there is a very Celtic feel to a lot of their music. I also found that I love a lot of their songs. This song hits me hard every time I listen to it. I can pretty much only think of one way to interpret the meaning of the song as a whole. Friends leaving each other for one reason or another. The singer laments the change while trying to remember the good times. 


Damn. Pretty much just makes me realize that no matter what you do, life goes on and leaves some of your relationships in the past. Even really good ones. In addition to my wife, who thankfully has stuck around for a while and doesn't seem inclined to leave, I can think of 7 people that I've thought of as my best friend over the years. I still keep in touch with three of those people; two more so than the other. So in all reality a 29% rate (2/7) of maintaining a friendship with the people who, at the time, you could never envision not being friends with, is a pretty low rate. It might just be my luck and my fairly nomadic life (moving during elementary school, moving far away for college, moving to a completely new city after college, having two friends move permanently away), but I would wager that a lot of people have this same experience.


This song is sung in the present tense, as if the singer knows what is about to happen and wants to make sure the friendship lasts even though distance may separate the two people. It's hard as shit to see that coming. 

"What are the odds, what are the odds
This ends and we don't meet again?
What are the odds, what are the odds
That I will miss your smile"

I'm reminded of something that happened when I was a junior in college. I was 21 and still had a whole year left at school. Nothing significant was going to change when I came back in the fall. I worked with a small group of people and as I went to my last shift for the year, the girl that worked before me was leaving. She was a senior and we weren't really friends, but knew each other through work. As she left I said "see ya later." She responded with "have a great life" as she walked out. I haven't seen her since and I can't even remember her name. But I swear I will always remember what she said. I even understood it at the time. We meet so many people that it's impossible to maintain relationships with all of them. But it's important to maintain relationships with people you care about, even if it is hard due to distance. It's completely worth it, because without friends what do you have? Your job?

"Let fondness be our souvenir.
To keep it warm, we'll keep it near,
otherwise with no heart to recall.
A memory's just a memory after all.
I will not leave this pulse alone
Though it may take the long way home,
I will not wait until the end
for my applause for you my friend."

To me this verse means "don't let the distance get between us. Let's keep our friendship going, even if it takes a long time for us to see each other again." And the last two lines seem to be saying "I won't wait until our friendship has ended to tell you that I'm proud of you and that I enjoy what we have." That's pretty prescient of the writer. But more than likely it was written to be a warning in the present but conceived due to a lost friendship. Don't take your friends for granted and try to remember that life will lead you in different directions, but that shouldn't be reason enough to lose touch with those that really matter. 


You would think that a song about losing friends might be corny, contrived, and skirt around the true emotions, but this song seems like it's straight from the heart, which is why I love it.

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        Trombone Shorty - Hurricane Season, off of his 2010 album Backatown

Since that was such a long and emotional post, I'll keep this one short and objective. I have fun listening to Trombone Shorty. He's young, he's been playing since he was six and I've just started listening to him. But I have a pretty large spot in my heart for good jazz. This one is an instrumental that sounds like big band music and for some reason reminds me of the theme song to Friday Night Fights. I'll be checking back on him in future posts. It's worth a listen.