pop culture, reviewed

There are a few things that always get me choked up, including but not limited to the following:  the first page of The Sound and the Fury, the end of To Kill A Mockingbird, this one part of the Ryan Adams Asheville 2005 bootleg where he belts out “Banks of the river run through my hometown,” the end of the pilot episode of Freaks and Geeks when they’re dancing, any footage of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, the hymn “Here I Am, Lord,” the story about how Nora’s mom cried after dropping her off to go to England and prayed that she would find just one friend and then we met each other,  and all versions of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

It’s that last one that I’m going to talk about tonight.

Usually when I hear a version of “Hallelujah,” I tear up partly because it’s just a pretty song, but mostly because Jeff Buckley’s version is so incredible that every other version, even the good ones, pales in comparison, and that’s so sad because poor Jeff Buckley isn’t around anymore on account of how he drowned and all. 

Tonight was the first time that I have ever heard a live version of “Hallelujah” that brought tears to my eyes because it was so close to being just as magnificent as Jeff Buckley’s. 

Brandi Carlile, y’all.  Brandi Carlile at the Birchmere — probably the most gorgeous voice I’ve ever heard live and in person.  She is the real deal.  She is spine-tingling, hair-raising, goose-pimply good.