Monthly Mixtape: Snowflakes and Honey

Happy February! …five days in.

And don’t look at me like that – this mixtape is the furthest from over-the-top sap. Matter of fact, it’s hardly about love or loving or lovers at all! (minus Gillian’s song My First Lover, which isn’t even romantic, but simply incredible and everyone must store this song somewhere in the chambers of their cerebrum.)

But this playlist, while I didn’t realize it at the time I was putting it together – these bands, most of these songs, are my soul fabric. Every single band on here is a band I’ve been in love with since my 20s. Since the ’90s. Since the early ’00s. (Okay, Wye Oak since 2007 BUT WHO IS SPLITTING HAIRS.)

I remember listening to a handful of these records in my little single-lady Fayetteville, AR apartment (Laura, you know the one!), burning Nag Champa and dancing around with no jowls, a flat (exposed!) tummy and bleached blonde hair.

Everything has changed. (except the Nag Champa. Still burn that on the daily.)

And okay, I put us on there. Not US, you and me us, but me and Aaron. Our old band. The New Tragedies, which was mid-2000s, BUT WHO IS TURNING TABLES OVER.

I really hope you love this mixtape! And stick with it. Get to Nick Drake’s River Man, because the orchestration is gut wrenching. And sure, Coldplay makes an appearance, but in those early days (Rush of Blood!) there was NOTHING like it. And Warning Sign makes my eyeballs bawl.

This playlist – listen while you prep Valentine’s Day dinner. Or while you run errands. Or while you fold laundry. Listen now! No one cares. I care. You care. Never mind.

I give you . . . The “Snowflakes and Honey” mix.

This time last year.

This time two years ago!

THREE. YEARS. AGO.