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Mr. Bear Cub and I have been busying ourselves with quite a lot of wedding tasks recently - one of which is dance lessons! We're making some head-way on our fancy footwork, but I'll save the details for another post. Right now, our lovely dance instructor is helping us choreograph our first dance. You need a song to be able to choreograph, so we've been pondering the "first dance" song pretty heavily!
Last weekend when while Mr. Cubbie and I were on a 10-mile run (marathon training full steam ahead!), one of my favorite songs played in my ipod.
The song, Somebody Loved, is by The Weepies. Even though their name is a bit of a downer, they play some of the happiest, up-beat music ever! Great running music! This song is one of their slower ones, but I think it's so beautiful. If you have a minute, you should read the lyrics along with the song (linked here).
The thing we're grappling with however, is how do you dance to a song like this? It's beautiful, the lyrics describe us, but the tune is a little hard to actually choreograph. Our dance instructor started us with a whole bunch of lyrical moves, but that is not us. We don't really feel comfortable dancing for show, but we definitely want to do a much more technical dance than the 8th-grade sway.
Maybe we need to change our song to a more up-tempo one.
Take It From Me is very sweet, and a little more up-tempo...
and Jolene sounds like it could be very fun to dance to! I don't know if the lyrics are very fitting for a "first dance" though.
The other end of the stick is that we have our band! I'm really excited to have them play our wedding - they're a local oregon folk/bluegrass band, with a bit of an irish sentiment to their style. We've asked them to play our first song, but this raises another issue - they don't have a female singer. Normally not a biggie (I like guys singing voices all the same), but "Somebody Loved" is sung by a girl. Seeing as how the major melody for the song is in her voice, I don't know how well it will translate into a cover by 3 guys, a mandolin, bass, and violin. Their style is a bit more "Jolene", if you know what I mean.
Should we keep looking for a first dance song? Mr. Bear Cub and I both love folk music - Hem, Ray LaMontagne, Nickel Creek, Mark Kozelek, Laura Veirs, Josh Ritter, Joan Baez, Iron & Wine, Dick Gaughan, Damien Rice, Charlie Cutten, Billie Bragg, Beth Orton, The Be Good Tanyas, ... Actually, we like a lot of music.
Or should we stay with our song, and try to learn some dance moves that won't leave us feeling like awkward 13-yr-olds? Do you know of a good dance style that would go with our song? Do you have an even better suggestion for a song?
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yayy Josh Ritter! I got engaged at a Josh Ritter concert! I love the Weepies, too. I'll give a listen since I don't know all the songs and check back :)
ReplyDeleteOK, just gave a listen -- I think the first song is the best. It is a little slow, but the other ones are a little too fast for first dances unless you have some kickass routine, I think. Plus, the words of the first one are so nice. The great thing about having a band do it is that they can kick up the tempo a notch. As far as having a female singer goes, maybe you can ask if they have one who sings with them sometimes... otherwise they'll probably just transpose it to whatever key suits the singer's voice. I like it!
ReplyDeletewow. I used "give a listen" twice. yikes.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't find a singer, I could sing it. It's very much in my vocal range.
ReplyDeleteJust offerin'.