It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.
In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.
For our second Very Special Presentation of A Good Read . . ., we’re jumping all the way up north to Yellowknife, NorthWest Territories, where singer/songwriter Mary Caroline divides her time between television and making indie-folk music.
As an introduction, here are some songs from her debut studio album, Life on Earth:
Songs of Winter is really about the end of winter, and romance blooming again in the spring:
Full Moon is surprisingly mellow, for a song about flying over thin ice and outrunning wolves:
And finally, the one that is probably my favorite, This Is Home, because it encapsulates the feeling of walking in the door and being able to exhale, and the subtle joy of sleeping in your own bed after a long time on the road.
And with that, I turn the floor over to Mary Caroline, who joins us today to share her favorite book, record, and drink.
Mary Caroline
A Good Read:
My favorite book is an easy one. It’s The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. I read the Alchemist about once a year, and am always left inspired by it. Having just been on the road from January- March, and having very little money while on tour, and at times feeling deflated about my decision to pursue music full time, I would often think of the Sheppard in The Alchemist, and remind myself that following a dream isn’t easy, and isn’t always achieved in the way you expected it to be. Sometimes the harder you work at a goal the further you seem to be getting from it, and then all of the sudden you find yourself in an amazing situation that you always dreamed of.
A Good Listen:
I’m a big fan of Florence and the Machine‘s album, Lungs. I just love Florence Welch’s song writing. Its gritty and beautiful and strong. I’m a pretty solitary song writer, but I sometimes fantasize about polishing off a bottle of scotch with Florence Welch and writing songs together.
A Good Drink:
My recommended drink was introduced to me this past winter by my American friend, Ariel Benarroch. We work together on a TV show that is filmed in Yellowknife, and on our days off the whole crew would play hockey on an outdoor rink on Great Slave Lake. Each game, Ariel would bring out a thermos of hot buttered rum! Playing hockey in the sub-arctic is quite an experience. The guys would have frost encrusted beards and we would bring out the set lights so we could see the puck past 4pm, but it was really the hot buttered rum between periods that turned the weekly event into a utopic winter scene.
[Ed note: Great Slave Lake’s name has First Nations origins, and is derived from the name given to the local Dene by the Cree, who were their enemies.]