It must be Spring...

Here in Southern Ohio it's a lovely 73 degrees today. I spent an hour sitting on the balcony of my 3rd floor apartment reading the Paste magazine that arrived in the mail for me today, listening to ye ol' iPod and watching a resident groundhog scamper around on the ground below. I also saw the first bees of the season, it indeed must be Spring.


To celebrate here are a few nice calm and enjoyable songs about bees...

• The Softies - "Me and the Bees" ( left click )
• Laura Cantrell - "Bees"

And a few more by bands with "Bee" in the names...

• Bee and Flower - "Don't Say Don't Worry"
• Bird and the Bee - "Again and Again ( from Bring Me Up )

Rose Melberg

Rose Melberg is half (with Jen Sbragia) of one of my "must-buy" bands, The Softies. They are twee-pop at it's very best. Two women with soft child-like voices creating beautiful guitar harmonies together. They are beautifully woven together (seriously, wow) to make these sweet loveable songs with a delicate and beautiful sound.

They have not recorded together since 2000's "Holiday in Rhode Island". Since then Rose, also former member of Go Sailor and Tiger Trap, has released two solo albums. In 1998 she released "Portola" which I do not have, but the track from it I have heard (see below) is quite good, and her most recent, released this past April is called "Cast Away the Clouds". I only recently bought Cast Away the Clouds but I quite enjoy it, but I do feel it loses some of it's charm when it's just Rose and there are not the harmonies of the 2 guitars that I enjoyed so much. All the same, here are some Softies tracks as well as some solo Rose tracks for you guys to check out.

The Softies:

• "Me and the Bees" (left click)
• "Count to Ten" (left click)

Rose Melberg:

• "Golden Gate Bridge" (from Portola)
• "The Time Has Come" (from Cast Away the Clouds)