Current Obsession: Give in to Me

I'm the kind of person who once I find a song or album that I love, I'll play it to death. I won't get sick of it  just the people around me get tired of it and eventually so sick of hearing it I have to change it. I can usually go for about a week or so before this happens so I figure I'd start to share these songs that hook me in and make me truly obsessed.

This past week I watched the movie Country Strong. It's the story of "a rising young singer-songwriter (Garrett Hedlund) gets involved with a fallen, emotionally unstable country star (Gwyneth Paltrow). The pair embark on a career resurrection tour helmed by her husband/manager (Tim McGraw) and featuring a beauty queen-turned-singer (Leighton Meester). Between concert, romantic entanglements and old demons threaten to derail them all".

*Synopsis taken from the official website for the movie

It was a simply beautiful and surprising movie and the soundtrack was perfect. While a lot of the buzz from this movie surrounds Gwyneth Paltrow, Garrett Hedlund and Leighton Meester were the real stars of this movie - their ease and grace on screen was something to behold. They scored most of the major moments in the film and were hard to surpass.

After watching the movie my sister looked up the soundtrack and we were surprised to learn that Gwyneth dominated the soundtrack and most of the major songs that Garrett and Leighton sang were for some reason sung by other "real" country music stars (like Faith Hill). To me that seemed like a massive shame so we dug a little deeper and found that they have released two soundtracks - the second had the songs as they were sung in the movie. Ahhh a breath of relief.

Here's the one song that I have had on replay all week - it's a beautiful love song.

It's nice to know that Garrett Hedlund emerged himself into the country music scene to prepare for his role in this film. He auditioned in a karaoke bar then spent four months learning how to play the guitar, took voice lessons and started working with a record producer in Nashville to become a county singer. This helps it feel more real and creates an authenticity in the movie that shines through. This man is a superstar in the making.

I absolutely recommend checking out this movie - and also the "More music from Country Strong" soundtrack. It was shocking, heart wrenching, beautiful and sweet and the music in the soundtrack reflects this.

I sometimes surprise myself in the music and songs that steal my attention - this one certainly took me by surprise, but I'm so glad it did. 

Enjoy the music

 - Brooke