Wild Fire “Been There” Quick Album Review

If you haven’t already heard of the group Wild Fire, I can assure you that you’re missing out on some of the great young talents in country music.

The band is two sisters, Kelli and Kayla Iutzwig, from Houston, Texas. I recently had the pleasure of discovering this sound and figured it was definitely one I’d like to share with the readers of this blog.

Their album “Been There” features six tracks and a combination of vibes including everything from having a little playful and catchy sound to pop and a little sass with cool beats throughout.

Photo Courtesy of Wildfiresings.com

The themes of youthful experiences like breakups, first loves and coming of age stories resonate through the album.

In some ways, they have a sound that almost melds the standard country and powerful vocal stylings of Carrie Underwood with the youthful and fun side of Kelsea Ballerini. I’d say that’s a pretty good combination.

Check out their website at http://www.wildfiresings.com to learn more or order music including their latest release “We Got The Summer” now available there or on iTunes, Amazon Music, Apple Music and Spotify.

Photo Courtesy of Instagram at @wildfiresings

 

Wildebeest By Jennifer Burton

This poem is from the talented artist and writer Jennifer Burton. You can find her on Instagram and check out her shop on Etsy.

 

I’ve been dying for a long time

and I’m not talking about the decaying kind that we are all doing

 

I’m talking about daily dying death

 

Roadkill: The way we feel it until we don’t

 

I’m talking about coloring in the lines

 

I’m talking about how filth is human and a human is filthy but so very blessed with showers and toilets, soap, trash cans and landfills

Dust equals dirt, but dirt was dead skin first, and dead skin was once you and you were once alive

 

I’m talking about how you were once a howling wolf

Then turned jealous of howling wolves

Then turned fearful of howling wolves

Then turned indifferent

 

I’m talking about the death of the wildebeest

Born when you were born, when I was born

Born howling at the moon, scared and angry,

but mostly fierce and shining

Bright

like a firefly

if a firefly was also a sun

 

Now what have we become?

 

I’ve been dying for a long time, and decay is not the worst kind of death

No

The worst kind of death?
is when the beast quits rearing its ferocious, ugly head and you start to think life is a paint by number, that ducks really do belong in a row, that a family belongs in a house and a house belongs in a world made bigger and better-faster-stronger by the dollar and sweat off your back

 

I’m talking about roadkill

Coloring in the lines

streets upon streets empty of wild beasts running, drumming, howling

 

With brass knuckles, celebratory trumpets, gloriously bloody knees

 

You did this to yourself

You breathe in the trees and give all your air to gossip, meaningless lists and plans

You take it all for your stupid lungs and give nothing to anything real or burning

 

Lambs lie down before slaughter

But no one can slaughter the wildebeest

Only beat it into a shadow

that would still roar had it one breath

To breathe

Toilet Paper Roll Creativity

Toilet paper is a hot commodity right now. I bet you never thought you hear that phrase. But, while toilet paper is a bit scarce, most of us have tried to stock up. That brings us to the question of what to do with all those toilet paper rolls when the tissue itself is gone from them. Sure, we can just toss them out or put them into some recycling bin. But, if you want to get a little creative, especially if you have children, there are lots of interesting things you can do with those rolls.

You can get out the hot glue gun and glue them together side by side. If you want to go with a safer and less messy route, you can use velcro or double-sided tape or even duct tape wrapped around both roles to attach them together easily. And just like that, you’ve got yourself cheap and easy pair of imaginary binoculars.

You can also take a string or a piece of rope that is three to four feet long, or whatever length you choose, tie a pen, pencil, small stick or really anything else you have around the center of one end. Place rollers through the other end allowing the first one to be stopped by the stick and adding more to go up the string as far as you like. Now, you have something that can be used as either a toy snake that slithers as you pull the string or you can paint or draw on the tubes to make them look like train cars and drag the string along the ground like an imaginary train.

You always have the option to make ornaments or decorations. For the summer time or holidays like the 4th of July, you can color them or cover them in a red with paint or craft paper put bright yellow and orange tissue paper coming out one end and attach a black pipe cleaner inside so that it sticks out an inch or two from the top of the tube and you have yourself firecracker decoration to enjoy.

A different spin on this candy Christmas ornaments made to look like wrapped candies. All you really need to do is get some cellophane paper and in various colors and cut it into pieces to wrap around the tube leaving a couple of inches on each side. Wrap those two sides and secure them with tape or string and you have yourself candy decorations.

New Video By Talented Musical Artist Abigail Jerri

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some talented artists over the years. A while back, I met Abigail Jerri and have been following her work since. Her style is hard to define. You really can’t classify her sound as one genre but that’s part of what makes it cool.

She’s originally from Pittsburgh, PA but also lives in Nashville as part of a way to keep working on her music career.

She recently released a new video for her song “Lighter” and I wanted to share it with readers on this blog.

I hope you all enjoy it.