Hem = Perfect

Anyone who knows me also knows that my musical tastes are all over the map. Depending on my mood, I could easily be rocking out with X, chilling with Burt Bacharach, swinging with Count Basie, twangin' with Hank Thompson, foot tappin' with some Art Blakey, fist pumpin' with Van Halen, drinkin' with the 'Mats, groovin' with some Toto, etc. You get the idea. Hell, I've even performed an interpretive dance routine to A View To A Kill by Duran Duran (albeit I was drunk at the time). Good music- and I mean whatever's good to you personally, seeing as how we all have our own tastes- should be able to elicit some type of emotional or physical response. That being said, there are very few artists or songs that I would describe as "beautiful". It's not that I'm insensitive- I just have high standards for music to qualify as such.

One of these bands is one that I saw last weekend for the third time in the last couple of years. They're called Hem and they're from Brooklyn, although they've built a substantial following here in the 'ham. Their music and melodies combined with the angelic voice of Sally Ellyson floor me everytime I hear them. The most accurate term I can come up with when attempting to describe their sound is "orchestral folk music". I am comfortable enough to admit that I have actually been moved to tears before when listening to a band, but it's only happened twice. One of those times was with Hem (incidentally, the other was Paul McCartney). For any of you who are interested, take a spare moment and check them out on iTunes or another source.