Every Friday night we smooth our way into the weekend with music, the universal language. These selections demonstrate that despite what is being passed off as art today, there is plenty of really good music available. Come along and enjoy.

“Winter. It’s the darkest and often the coldest of the seasons, but … Who doesn’t love curling up with a winter cocktail by the fireplace, snuggling up with a blanket and indulging a bit.”
Town and Country magazine

That’s one outlook. Here’s another.

It’s been cold. Real cold.

Can music work to make us feel a little better during such brutal times?

Let’s find out. That’s our focus this week.

We start with one of the best popular music instrumentals of all-time. Big majestic opening and the paino work of Eddie Heywood.

A lone hiker is dwarfed by the snow-covered mountains of Lake McArthur at Yoho National Park in Alberta, Canada. Photo: Michael Zheng

“To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold.”
Aristotle

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, ‘Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.'”
Lewis Carroll

Piano duo Arthur Ferrante and Louis Teicher commanded the Easy Listening charts of the 1960’s. About thirty of their albums offering light arrangements of easily recognizable classical pieces, movie soundtrack themes, and show tunes were successful over the course of the ’60s up through 1972. 

Think warm.

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
John Steinbeck

“They who sing through the summer must dance in the winter.”
Italian Proverb

A few years ago keyboardist/arranger David Arkenstone teamed up with vocalist Charlee Brooks, though our next track is an instrumental that will remind you of Mannheim Steamroller.

A fresh snowfall on Peyto Lake in Alberta, Canada. Photo: Matt Meisenheimer

“‘Hear! hear!’ screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, ‘winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it.'”
Henry David Thoreau

“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape — the loneliness of it; the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.”
Andrew Wyeth

Speaking of Mannheim Steamroller, from 1999…

In -10 degree temperatures, the waters of Iceland’s Aldeyjarfoss waterfall splash their icy spray over a frozen ledge. Photo: Amanda Luker

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is time for home.”
Edith Sitwell

And remember,

“No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”
Hal Borland

That’s it for this week.

Goodnight.

Cover up.

Have a great weekend.