MUSIC: "Pray For You"

I have an unhealthy obsession with vengeful break-up songs. Usually such songs are written and performed by a female artist against some guy who wronged her in love. Face it, it's difficult for a male artist to successfully convey this sense of being wronged without coming across as unnecessarily violent or just being a cry-baby. (In the country music genre, for example, I can't see Tim McGraw or Gary Allen having any success with the Dixie Chicks' "Goodbye Earl" or Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats.")

Newcomers Jaron and the Long Road to Love perform this feat with fantastic finesse and grit in their single "Pray For You". Formerly of the early 2000's pop duo, Evan & Jaron, the later of the twin brothers has ventured back to his folk roots with a country album due later this month, Getting Dressed In The Dark. The lead single finds the crushed guy in a quasi-spiritual state, reflecting on how the preacher tells him "we must not condemn," and to "let the good Lord do His job; you just pray for them." With this, the remainder of the song consists of a long list of biting things on his prayer list for this girl who breaks hearts.

"I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls,
I pray you're flying high when your engine stalls,
I pray all of your dreams never come true.
But most of all, I pray for you."

Wouldn't it be nice if all ex's cared so much?

Sergio del Limonar

RAIN WEEK: "Songs About Rain"

Part 1 of 5
Following the old children's rhyme, about April showers bringing May flowers, ZONINO! presents seven of our favorite "rain-themed" things.

Back in August of 2009 we did a special on Gary Allan so it only seems appropriate that we repeat his phenomenal tear-streaked ballad, "Songs About Rain".

There are many classic tunes that could easily music contenders for the list of great rain-related music, but fortunately Allan takes care of them all for us in this one song, from his See If I Care album from 2003. The heartbroken guy in the song wants nothing more that to take his mind of his current state of emotion with a happy song or two. The radio, however, has different plans and "just keeps playing songs about rain." Conway Twitty's "Rainy Night In Georgia"*, Elvis Presley's "Kentucky Rain" and British band, The Fortunes', "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again" are among the few that seem to haunt his radio dial.

Sergio del Limónar

*originally recorded by R&B artist Brook Benton in 1970 (thank you Wikipedia).

MUSIC: ZONINO! MUSIC SALE!!!

For a limited time only (probably, we really don't know for sure) several albums featured here on ZONINO! in recent months are on super sale on iTunes for only $7.99 each!

This recession-sized opportunity includes the phenomenal debut album from David Nail, I'm About To Come Alive and Defying Gravity from veteran Keith Urban. You can pick up ZONINO! favorite Gary Allan's Greatest Hits CD, including hits like "Songs About Rain" among others.

Also, you can score the album that includes the Canaan Smith penned "Runaway" from Love & Theft, titled World Wide Open. Worth it almost just for this song!

Its hard to keep up with all the greatness we post here at ZONINO! so here's a chance to play a little catch-up...

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 7

NOTE: This is the seventh and last in a special week-long series.

For the last song in Gary Allan is Zonino! Week, get ready to rock hard. Off Allan's most recent album, 2007's Living Hard comes "Wrecking Ball."

I had high hopes that this would become a single and, since it did not, it honorably becomes the Zonino! off this album. In "Wrecking Ball," Allan wails at what has to be the top of his vocal register about how some woman is a wrecking ball since she is making him a wreck. Sounds logical to me!

Allan professes that "she's a tornado, I'm the trailer house, that girl's a hurricane, in a dress" as she proceeds to proverbially knock him down or blow him over, whichever analogy you prefer. This is definitely one of my favorite rocking-out-in-my-car Gary Allan songs.

And, so sadly ends Gary Allan Week here at Zonino! There are plenty more songs worth checking out of this great artist but these seven are sure to get you hooked on the good stuff.

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 6

NOTE: This is the sixth in a special week-long series.

One of Gary Allan's most personal albums, Tough All Over dealt with the death of his wife, who committed suicide after battling depression. The song "Life Ain't Always Beautiful," co-written by Allan, Tommy Lee James, and one of my favorite voices in music, Cyndi Thomson, addresses this loss.

Emotional and sung with as much truth as one in this situation can muster, Allan's voice almost cracks with honesty as he sings "some days I miss your smile, I get tired of walking all these lonely miles." Trying to find the silver lining to horrible life events is never easy, but Allan offers hope as he convinces himself that although life is not always beautiful, "it's a beautiful ride." Truer words have rarely been spoken with such courage.

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 5

NOTE: This is the fifth in a special week-long series.

Since we're on a roll with the story-songs, one of the great ones comes from Tuesday's Smoke Rings In The Dark. "Sorry" has a 60's rock vibe complete with all of Allan's traditional grit. The song starts with the singer getting dumped with a simple "sorry" from his lover. Fortunately this song has a happy ending with the jilted man able to return the word when she eventually comes crawling back.

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 4

NOTE: This is the fourth in a special week-long series.

"She was cool, she was hot, she was smoking a lot at the end of the bar." So begins the dramatic events of Gary Allan's "He Can't Quit Her" off his 2005 album, Tough All Over.

A desperate man gets hooked, not on drugs or gambling, but on the misperceived love of a prostitute. The songs does a beautiful job of likening the doomed man's obsession with the call girl to other addictions. Allan sings "she's like needle to a junkie, like whiskey to a drunk, she's like poker to a gambler, like a bullet in a gun." Unfortunately, the last phrase here offers a little foreshadowing that the green-eyed monster eventually costs the horn-dog his life.

The song captures perfectly the hopeless want and need the lonely guy feels and, as awful an ending to his life as it is, the imagery the song and Allan's vocals display are the stuff of country magic.

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 3

NOTE: This is the third in a special week-long series.

Although the title track of Gary Allan's 1999 album, Smoke Rings In The Dark is a classic, another standout track that got no radio airplay is the tragically honest and thoughtful "Don't Tell Mama."

The song tells the story of a man who witnesses a car drive drunkenly off the road. When the driver of the crashed vehicle is found "lying in the grass, among the steel and glass, with an empty whiskey bottle by his side" his dying wish is to not let his mother know he died because he had been drinking. Now, one might think it was for selfish face-saving reasons, but it's because he knows that "her soul would never rest...[if she knew he] met the Lord with whiskey on [his] breath."

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 2

NOTE: This is the second in a special week-long series.

Yesterday Gary Allan's See If I Care was mentioned to kick off Gary Allan is Zonino! Week. Today, another song from the same album gets the spotlight.

"Drinkin' Dark Whiskey" is a bluesy rocker about the perils of listening to what the whiskey bottle might cost you. "It loosens your tongue but it never tells the truth," Allan sings. Ain't that the truth?!?

Sergio del Limónar

MUSIC: Gary Allan Pt. 1

NOTE: This is the first in a special week-long series.

Every time I go on a road trip, I always get a little excited to actually play DJ and revisit the relatively recent past of listening to a whole CD and not being able to flip easily through a playlist with an infinite number of songs.
On a recent excursion, I rediscovered one of my favorite country singers, Gary Allan. Labeled as "California Country" by many in the music business, his version of country music rocks a little differently, and is, at times, on the grittier sounding side. Regardless, Allan's music speaks volumes to his talent as a performer and, at times, songwriter.

The first song I want to recommend for those new to Mr. Allan's music is off his 2003 album, See If I Care, called "Songs About Rain." This radio hit is about the desire to erase the memory of an old flame that is now married by listening to something happy. Alas, this unlucky guy must put up with sad songs "about rain." Classic tragic country by a master in tragic country songs.

Sergio del Limónar