The Gallawa Girls Story - Mixtape Intro

Now, the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do's and don'ts. First of all you're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing. - High Fidelity

My wife has mentioned on a few occasions my use of music as a way to express myself.  I don't want anyone to be confused.  I am very passionate about music, but I have no actual musical talent.

I don't have a terrible voice, so I guess you could say that is the one instrument that I can play.  In fact I sing constantly to Grace and Ana.  I'll sing them whatever song just happens to be in my head.  I'll sing them a song that relates to what we're doing whether that be changing, bath time or food time.  They seem to enjoy it.  Or they've at least learned to humor their father at a very young age.

My biggest musical talent (if you can call it that) would have to be putting together a mix tape (or CD or playlist or whatever).  Maybe Nick Hornby and John Cusack have a little more influence in my life than I'd like to admit because I look at compiling a mix tape as very seriousness business.  Months before the girls were born, I started compiling all the songs that could possibly tell the story of me and my girls.  You have to understand that when I am putting together a mix tape I start with more songs than I know what to do with.  But it takes more than a good song to make the cut with me.  It has to fit within the framework of the story that I'm trying to tell.  I'm not just throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks (especially when linguine might be a better choice).

And to hammer home the point of how seriously I take these sorts of things, I didn't really complete it until after they came home from the hospital.  It needed to be perfect for them, and I was able to finally work it out as they were being released.

Over the next few days I'll be going over the 22 songs that make up The Gallawa Girls Story.  I'll tell you why I chose the songs I did.  What they mean to me and what I want them to mean to my girls.  I'll discuss separate sections in separate posts because: 1. I'm a tease and 2. I don't want to ramble on and on in one post.  So click here to read about tracks 1 through 5.