Okay, so I'm going to try to make a new mix every so often and put it on here and say why I picked certain songs... I made this one last fall and based it on the song Blue Mind by attempting to choose other songs with the same kind of feel and mood. I think it's turned out to be one of my favorite mixes, and hopefully someone on here might like it.

1. Blue Mind
The title track of the mix, I became obsessed with this song on my scenic 30-minute drives to school on the Minnehaha Parkway. Being the dork I am, I could just see some kind of music video or something to this song of a man going to a park in the fall and remembering jumping into the leaves as a child, with artsy shots of the sun glaring through the almost-bare tree branches, etc. It was just the perfect morning song for me at this point of my life, and I decided I needed a mix to go along with it so I wouldn't somehow get sick of it listening to it repeatedly. Edit: I strongly prefer the version on Four Songs to the one on Time Without Consequence, so listen to that one. It fits the mix much better. Actually, all the songs on Four Songs that are also on Time Without... are better on Four Songs. Yeah. That's all for the edit...

2. Gone To The Movies
Having always been a fan of this track from my favorite Semisonic album, it popped into my head one time while listening to Blue Mind. So I decided it should go after Blue Mind, and it worked. Its delicate acoustic guitar supports the somewhat melancholy, though sweet, story perfectly. Also, it always makes me think of Uptown Minneapolis in the winter when I hear the lyrics, "Now the rain turns into snowfall as the city sky reflects the silver street below," partly because Semisonic is from Minneapolis, and mostly because I love and live in Minneapolis. I made this mix when I started realizing that since I was in my senior year of high school, I was heading into a series of "lasts"... last Minnesota winter with high school friends, driving to school on sheets of ice somehow permitted to be roadways, last time seeing the trees change colors on the Parkway, last carefree year of life.

3. Till Kingdom Come
I'm kind of a dork when it comes to having two songs in a row in the same key, and I was listening to this song when I realized that it was in the same key as Gone to the Movies and should therefore be the next song in the mix. It reminds me of a trip to Italy I took summer of '05 with a group from school for art. "I don't know which way I'm going/ I don't know what I've become"... it is just one of my peacefully, but slightly yearning and also somewhat content, contemplative songs that I will always love.

4. The Blower's Daughter
I realize many people reading this might think that I listen to too many overplayed, popular songs, and you might be right. And even though this song has probably been in every good acousticky mix since the film Closer came out, I still wanted it. It brings the more solemn mood and brightens it up, building up slowly until the key change when Lisa Hannigan comes in towards the end and releases or at least gives a response to the somewhat pent-up feelings Rice has shown in the rest of the song. It's truly a beautiful song, although I've always had a funny feeling about the untraditional ending.

5. Hold On
The ending of The Blower's Daughter flows right into the beginning of this short track by David Gray, which holds to the lighter feeling from the end of the previous track. The verses' suspended melodies at the end of each line kind of keep your heart or mind in that other level of living, of feeling... It keeps you floating above reality, lost in the music and your own thoughts.

6. Bones And Ice
Another favorite during the Italy trip, this song is just gorgeous. Dosen's music is always delicately strong to me, and this track is no exception. Just listen to it at her MySpace page - myspace.com/stephaniedosen. Her music just always lifts me to another somewhat fantasy world and keeps me hoping that when the music ends, this world will become my reality.

7. January Rain
Another from Gray, this song is instrumental and one of my favorites by him as well. Its sweet guitar parts bring out this kind of clean energy and rejuvenating feel that do to my mind what a wheatgrass shot does to my body. You can just feel whatever burden is on your mind lift along with the music.

8. Butterfly
Okay, so I know it is kind of one of those cheesy, cute love songs, but I still like it. It keeps you in that optimistic mood from the past two tracks and turns it into a hopeless romantic kind of feeling. The guitar is just sweet, and the idea of the song is cute and innocent, something I feel like too many people are almost afraid to be associated with. I think that theme of innocence is also what I was subconsciously going for in at least some of this mix, to go along with the reminiscent songs or ones that remind me of the "lasts."

9. Tampa to Tulsa
This song is also a story that seems to portray a romantic innocence - "The driver just smiles... With every mile, he's closer to the arms of the woman he loves." I think one thing about Blue Mind that at least some of the songs on the mix are like is that it feels like a miniature journey, and Tampa to Tulsa definitely has that characteristic.

10. Traffic In The Sky
Even if you think you don't like Jack Johnson and that all of his songs sound the same (which I kind of agree with), give this song a chance. I really like the lyrics, and I think that's the main reason I put this song on the mix. I feel like I still want to be one of the "kids on the pavement" and I don't want some of that feeling to be "lost in the well." At least that's how I see this song...

11. Fast Car
This song randomly popped into my head while our Italy group was in Toronto before we finally made it back to Minneapolis. It's another one of those journey/story songs and is just one that always sends me into the back of my thoughts. It makes me wonder what I value in life, what I think I need to feel that I've lived mine well.

12. Black River
I was introduced to Amos Lee in the winter of 2004 by a friend, went to see him for free at a bar, and instead of seeing him as just another guy with acoustic guitar, I found that there was something else about him... Maybe it's just because I am a sucker for upright bass, but there is something to his music that declassifies him from that coffee house acoustic stereotype. His bluesy feel transfers to the lyrics in this song, making me feel like it's something that's been sung for years and years by people who have become weighed down by life and are looking for something to take it away. For me, this song can plays that role and takes away my cares for the time being.

13. Lonely Tonight
Matt Wertz is one of the few Christian artists I really listen to, and this song is one of my favorites. It reminds me when I'm feeling religious that when I think it's just my thoughts and me, it's really "just me and my Maker in this cold moonlight." Even if I want to be lonely, I still have someone there for me.

14. La Cienga Just Smiled
Taking a turn from the more serious tone of the past few songs, this track is kind of bittersweet. I'm kind of tired now and am running out of things to say, so I'll just say you should just listen to the song and leave it at that. It's good.

15. Let It Fall
This will remain one of my top 5 songs of all time for a long time, if not for forever. Glen Phillips provides the vocals and really sings the lyrics well. I've always loved Glen's voice and I feel like he really fits with this track better than even a lot of Toad songs. This song is truly perfect. The poetic lyrics are brought to justice by Glen's voice and the beautiful instrumental arrangement that almost dances with your thoughts. God, that sounded cheesy.

16. To Believe
So you probably haven't heard of Llama. But there's no doubt you like their name already. I believe you can purchase this song from iTunes, so DO IT! To Believe is kind of your classic last-track-of-the-album, like many of the other songs on this mix, and I think it really does belong towards the end of the mix. The strings and simple guitar bring a bit of color to the slightly bitter (though not really) lyrics.

17. Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World
If you haven't heard this yet, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you have, then you know that no explanation is needed. This song is just amazing.

18. Angel
Nothing too amazing in itself, Angel is a good close to the mix because it keeps the mood there without becoming too much itself. It kind of leaves you hanging at the end somewhat, which reminds me that the music doesn't stop when the sound has stopped. I try to let music live in me every day.

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So, that's my sometimes personal, sometimes lazy play-by-play of probably my favorite mix ever. I hope you can enjoy it or at least take something out of this little review.

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Mentioned Artists:
Alexi Murdoch
Semisonic
Coldplay
Damien Rice
Lisa Hannigan
David Gray
Stephanie Dosen
Donavon Frankenreiter
the Jawhawks
Jack Johnson
Tracy Chapman
Amos Lee
Matt Wertz
Ryan Adams
Sean Watkins
Glen Phillips
Toad The Wet Sprocket
Llama
Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Matt Nathanson