Thanks for coming by! This page has been set up specifically to go into a bit more detail about some of the songs I chose for this year's Kwanzaa Mix CD, available directly from me.

01) "Intro" by India.Arie
I always like to open up and close strongly, with something to set the tone. Call it the instruction of the Anansi Writers' Workshop, my mostly-weekly fix.

02) "Gotta Get up (Another Day)" by Jill Scott
How many mornings have I needed to hear this. When this song appeared in my life, second disc on Jill's live album, it was really an inspiration. The kind of determination to continue that I often lacked. I once debated setting my alarm clock to play this song or KRS-ONE's "Get Yourself Up!" really loud every morning, but remembering somebody else sleeps in the same bed stopped me. Barely.

03) "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" by Stevie Wonder
My mother raised me to believe that if there was a superior musician to Stevie Wonder, that being had yet to be discovered. I have discovered and rediscovered this amazing talent time and again throughout my adult life, and this is a song from his heyday, when he was firing on all cyllinders and his politics balanced perfectly with his craft and enthusiasm.

04) "Hercules" by Aaron Neville
I gotta thank my dawg Alexis Rivera for hipping me to this song. The bassline will, one day, be sampled by somebody, and I hope to get my album done with the sample first. Anyway, a really good song that I feel is underexposed.

05) "Fabulous" by Jaheim
I remember when the modern "thug singer" genre was founded, with a group called DRS (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) who had one of the worst albums in recorded history. Since their thankful exit from the music scene, many others have come along, and most of 'em are just ... well, not worth mentioning. Jaheim, however, infuses a real soulfulness into his work, plus he does what I call "man-singin'" with a deep voice and real power behind it. None of that whiny stuff here. Plus, the song's inspirational message and cute kids chorus lights up faces everywhere I've seen it played.

06) "Reach For It" by George Duke
My mentor/foil/father figure Peter J. Harris reminded me how much I loved this song, even after Mack 10 soiled it with a latter-day interpretation (sampling isn't bad, sampling and being wack is bad). Just funky for no real reason, and that makes me happy.

07) "Candy" by Cameo
If a funkier song came out of the '80s, I'd be hard pressed to find it. This almost flawless composition is one of my all-time favorite songs, and I play it whenever I get the chance. I'm never inspired to go back to those hairdos, thankfully.

08) "Mo' Betta Blues" by the Branford Marsalis Quartet
A moment of quiet, kind of a transitionary song. I remembered watching the movie and swearing I could do something with it, sample this, flip it that way. Never have gotten around to it, as writing has overruled music since 1995 at least. Hm.

09) "I'm In Love" by Mary J. Blige
I was out getting some food when I heard the original version of this song on the radio -- it sounded like Guy, but I couldn't be sure, Mary is very sneaky with her remakes. Nonetheless, the production on this version is so crisp and so glorious, it immediately became a favorite, and the sultry vocals of the original are reinterpreted here quite well.

10) "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" by the Supremes and the Temptations
The Temps and the Supremes (probably not Diana, I can't be sure) -- how is that not wonderful? This song got a real second life when Lauryn sang it on the Conspiracy Theory soundtrack, but it's a great composition all by itself.

11) "Talk To Her" by India.Arie
I worked hard to fit in an India.Arie song, since she's a really amazing artist with so much ability and flavor. This is probably my favorite song off the Voyage to India album, plus it gives a really good (if heavy handed -- what about respecting me?) message, so it's a good inclusion.

12) "All I Got" by Jimmy Cozier
From the other side of the coin -- every guy I know is very in love and very committed to his woman. They all also have times when that woman is driving them out of their gourd. This song is for those times. Don't act like you drink Act-Rite Juice all the time, ladies, it's not a condemnation.

13) "Bring Your Heart" by Angie Stone
The first bars of this really caught my attention -- I mean the entire Brown Sugar soundtrack is tight, but this really stood out to me. Angie Stone, likewise, is a voice that blows in like a Memphis memory of simpler times. Well worth the time.

14) "Love It Or Leave It Alone" by Etta James
I got the entire run of Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night on DVD (an early Kwanzaa present to myself) and this reminds me of the opening theme. That's it -- sometimes the explanations are simple.

15) "Say A Little Prayer" by Burt Bacharach
There's an SNL sketch where Val Kilmer plays Burt Bacharach, during the making of this song, that makes it a guaranteed grin for me every time I hear it. I dunno if you saw it, but it's an amazingly well put together piece of music as well, so hopefully that'll be enough.

16) "Be Thankful For What You've Got" by William DeVaughn
"... diamond in the back, sun roof top ..." Is there ever a time when this song isn't apropos?

17) "Overkill" by Colin Hay
When I switched on Scrubs and saw Men At Work veteran Colin Hay serenading the vexed lead character JD, this song really hooked itself into my brain. Its construction is fairly simple, but I think it's really haunting. When I started having problems sleeping in early December, it became even more valuable to me.

18) "Walking Away" by Craig David
Craig David is gonna grow up and be somebody -- this song, one of his earliest, only shows a smattering of his singing ability (the kid is amazing), and he's a little too callow yet for his songwriting to have real emotional intensity, but I really like him, and this song is very comforting.

19) "Drive" by Bic Runga
Another co-worker named Mai Nguyen turned me on to Bic Runga, a very unusual songwriter who, near as I can figger, is from Australia. This song ... well, "haunting" is a word I really use a lot with music I like, so with this, I drive into the end of the mix, with nothing resolved, with nothing decided ...

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