Panclog

Thirsty Thursday: Singer-Songwriters

Happy Thursday to the thirstiest of readers.  This is the 4th edition of this fine editorial.  If you haven’t read the other three, I should probably catch you up.  The boys of Panclog choose a human they would like to have a beer with and then we choose a beer that pairs well with that humans essence.  We didn’t post last week due to the lovely food holiday of Thanksgiving.  Did you have any beers with interesting people?

There will be a new Panclog on Tuesday! No, this is not a December Fool’s Day prank.  It will be reviewing a restaurant that is less than 3 months old. Be excited. Set your alarms.

Here we go. Which singer-songwriters do the Panclog Pals want to have beers with?

Jared – Whom I would have a beer with – Paul Baribeau

September 2008, Driving around the rough streets of Overland Park, Kansas with me newest friend, Matt. The late summer heat is finally starting to give way to the slightly chilly breeze of fall.  The windows down, the music up.  The CD ends and with all of the style in the world, Matt hands me a compact disc that will blow up my very fragile understanding of “indie” music.  The CD contains bands like Andrew Jackson Jihad, Tom Waits and Paul Baribeau.

Paul Baribeau struck me instantly. His simple acoustic guitar backed poetry is just what you need when your world is changing from the safety and security of high school to the open and friendless space that college begins as.  Paul’s lyrics can bring you to laughter or break you into tears. Paul has written songs that perfectly encapsulate the youngest of loves. Strawberry is one of the most romantic songs that I have ever heard. Give it a gander in this best fashion you can, a lyric video.  Paul Baribeau has given me great advice like “Hard work helps the time go by.”and “Name 10 things you want to do before you die and then go do them.”

Sadly, Paul Baribeau’s last released album was in 2010.  The last song on that album is called Wild Eyes and is all about reckless love and loss.  Pretty exciting. I don’t want you to be sad because, Paul still releases music.  it is just different.  He releases some delicious new age music with guitar mixed into it.  It will make you want to hold hands and get things done. He releases this music under the name New Boy.

The beer I selected to share with Paul Baribeau is none other than a beer I brewed on my own.  Why not drink something home brewed to share with someone who creates their own music?

Kelly Bripa is a beer. That is all I have to say about it.  I brewed this beer as a gift for my best friends’ wedding.  I made this recipe as an ode to their relationship.  In fact they both have been guest writers on this fine Panclog.   He loves dark beers and she loves IPAs.  I put these two styles in the best way I knew how.  It turned out very well.  The crowd loved it.  I brew under the name Trestache Brewing with all of my friends help.  Hit me up on Twitter and we can brew and drink our creation.

You can follow Paul Baribeau on his tumblr.

Brent – Whom I would have a beer with – Tom Petty

When listening to music very rarely am I able to equate the song with the artist. Asking me who sang such and such song will only lead to a dead end. This deficiency in my knowledge was most recently demonstrated when someone asked me what band wrote and performed “Come, Sail Away.” I can’t remember what my answer was, but it was certainly not Styx. The only reason that I know it is Styx now is that I just looked it up on Wikipedia.

So when confronted with the suggestion of favorite singer/songwriter for this column I was kind of at a loss. I like almost all music and musical genres, but since I would find it difficult to determine which artist belonged to which catalog, how could I fairly say that person is my favorite. Performing a quick scan of the stations I have setup on Pandora only yields more confusion. I pick artists for the shuffle play because I know they belong to a genre of music I enjoy listening too. A quick sampling of the list of stations I have setup includes, Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast), Lisa Loeb, The Roots, Straight No Chaser, Bettye Lavette, Green Day, Wicked, The B-52s, Hootie & The Blowfish, Frank Sinatra, A Tribe Called Quest, The Piano Guys, Wynton Marsalis, etc.

I soon realized that I was going to have to dig deep on this one. So I thought back to my teenage years, the age when music seems to capture people more tightly than any other. In 1989, when I was 15, Tom Petty released “Full Moon Fever”, a solo album. The album took off pretty quickly and peaked at number 3 on the US Billboard 200 list. Following my siblings and friends, whom were all avid watchers of music videos, I quickly discovered Runnin’ Down a Dream. The video caught my eye way before music actually did because of the surrealist animation. However, it didn’t take long for my appreciation of this song and his music to grow. A couple years later Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released “Into the Great Wide Open”, an album I truly enjoy from beginning to end, cementing Mr. Petty as one of my favorite artists.

In any case, Tom Petty is an artist whose music I know, well almost. It is a good thing that I know Jared, because he knows all the music, and can correctly steer me in regard to music trivia.

There seems to be a slow, easy drawl through all of Tom Petty’s music, with a strong emphasis on the lyric. That isn’t to say that the music is over powered by the words. Mr. Petty seems to be able to consistently balance the two threads of music and lyric. Throughout the bulk of his music there is a bluesy quality that permeates, of which I am a fan.

Playing his music in the background while working helps push the day along. Earlier this afternoon listening to “Learning to Fly” powered me through a rather complex SQL query and “Out in the Cold” delivered on the application of some JQuery validations for a web application. I am certain Mr. Petty would be pleased with this outcome.

The beer that I would like to share with Mr. Petty is Boulevard’s Bourbon Barrel Quad (BBQ).

I find that the flavor of the BBQ is very deep, and rich overall. However, I do find the initial sip unexpectedly sweet. The beer finishes clean and clear with very little aftertaste. If you focus on what you are tasting you can get hints of vanilla and cherries. According to Boulevard’s website, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Also, it is probably only due to the power of suggestion in the name of the brew, but I do think I can taste the Bourbon from the barrels. If this is true, and it is only suggestion, don’t tell me, I like it the way it is. BBQ, in my opinion, is unique across the rest of Boulevard’s offerings and it is one of my favorites.

Who would you like to have a beer with? What beer would you drink with them?

Let us know at our Twitters: Panclog, Jared, and Brent.

CHEERS!