Jack Johnson : The magic of subtleties of words and music

 

I first came of know of Jack Johnson through a documentary I was watching called the Hawaii: Message in the waves, that tells us about how the current generation is departing from the deep knowledge of our ancestors about conserving and harvesting nature and the plastic pollution from the mainland that is killing the Albatross that breeds on the Hawaiian islands. Jack Johnson born and brought up in the paradise that is Hawaii, grew up admiring nature and is in the forefront on conservation activities at Hawaii. In the documentary in question he is singing a song 'reduce, Reuse, Recycle' at schools. How many of the rock starts really have concerns about nature and conservation? Hats off to JJ.

Now coming to his music, I will not bias my views taking his environmentalist activities in mind. ... I love his music, Yep, not only is his voice really good, he writes deeply meaningful songs and his band makes some amazing music.  I am listening to 'Only the ocean' from the album 'to the sea' in a loop and going totally high. The way he has expressed the ocean, huge , mighty not always loving but always by you, pulling you in.

 I love his views, his magic of words and the accompanying sweet music. There are many favorites of mine from his albums, like 'At or with me', is just a jolly song, 'Better Together' a very romantic song, "banana pancakes' just the right for a lazy morning. I even made banana pancakes one day learning them from the internet on one lazy morning which brought rains, and bunked office. :) and listened to this song.. Bubble toes, a cute song, sitting waiting wishing a very touching song,  Enemy (Worst Friends Remix) , breakdown,  dreams be dreams,  actually I'll stop here or i might end up listing all his songs.

Johnson's band is composed of:
   * Jack Johnson – Vocals, guitar
   * Adam Topol – Drums, percussion
   * Merlo Podlewski – Bass
   * Zach Gill – Piano, percussion

The music is soothing, acoustic, soft rock.. to kind of folksy.. I simply love his songs on mother nature.. a friend of my pointed to the this number from Brushfire fairytales, inaudible melodies a line that says, "yellow-bellied given names" suggesting that may be he does birding too.. great many connections.. I am yet to check out all his songs, and very excited too!

A look at his website and wiki page will give you all the info on this great albeit humble man - http://jackjohnsonmusic.com/home

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Johnson_%28musician%29

review of 'to the sea' - http://www.parcbench.com/2010/06/03/jack-johnson-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%9Cto-the-sea%E2%80%9D-music-review/ .. love this line "Did I mention that he is likely to enter this week’s Billboard charts at number one? You see, Jack Johnson is kind of a big deal. But he’s done it all in a quiet manner; he’s made a pop career for himself even without the help of American Idol."