Never have I considered JC Penney’s to be the hotspot for new music, but I’ve been wrong about things before. Last week, Lauren, Keri, and I were wandering the aisles of the Juniors section looking for ‘business causal’ attire for Keri to take with her on her trip to Virginia. Without realizing what I was doing, I found myself singing along to a song that I knew all the words to but felt as if I’d never heard before. It was an out of body experience. I could hear my voice singing but my brain was screamin’, “Whoa, wait! How do we know this???” Finally after what seemed like hours of auto-pilot karaoke, I got to the chorus and realized that something magical had happened… someone had covered Don Henley’s Heart Of The Matter. I LOVE this song. When I say love I don’t mean an ‘oh well that’s kinda nice’ love but a ‘roll the windows down and sing at the top of your lungs’ love. There’s just something about the story he tells in this musical masterpiece that speaks to me.

But his tale of the heartbreaking realization that your ex has found someone new and the forgiveness it takes to move on, was coming from a woman’s voice. Within seconds of recognizing the song, I knew the voice… India.Arie. What to some might sound odd in theory was gorgeous in reality. Her voice captured the emotion of one of my favorite songs. So as soon as I got home, I ran to download this instant classic only to find it had been hanging out on my hard drive for the past 9 months. I really need to get better about listening to ALL of my music. Since then, I have become obsessed with this song. I’ve made everyone I know listen to it as if it was my creation. So blog….. take a listen.
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India.Arie – Heart Of The Matter
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