I have been asked these questions thousands of times.

Yet here I am still holding my pen and paper, longing to hear the keys on my keyboard being stroked in a fast motion because the words seem to flow off the paper and on to the screen, the words of innovation and musical expression.

I have wanted to work for Rolling Stone, since I was 11 years old and purchased my first copy. I held the publication in my hands and cared more about the writing then Britney Spears on the cover. I had never realized that if you loved music, you could write about it. This seems like a strange concept. From that moment standing with Rolling Stone in my hands, I realized I would never want anything else in life then to see my name published in a bi-line of Rolling Stone.

Now, I am sure this story has been told thousands of times before. I have been working towards this goal since I was 11 years old. I would write articles in class instead of taking notes in Algebra. I was more fascinated with the form of fame, then the desire to be a part of it.

I had to write this down. I had to remind myself why this is important in my life. As I start on my application and place the final postage on the envelope, I needed to remind myself that even if I get lost in the day-to-day activities of this world, I still want to try to reach my dreams and see my name printed in black ink.

Live. Love. Rock.

Chels

40 years ago this movement of peace, love, drugs and sex took over. Now in 2009 music seems to be driven by wealth and commercialism. Music no longer connects generational gaps or helps a generation find their identity. Where has the enthusiasm from 1969 gone? Why will we not lose our inhibitions just for a weekend in order to experience what music has to articulate? Why do we desire glamorous music videos and designer labels over classic guitars and mud slides down hills?

Back in ‘69 music was a road map that aided many on the long road to self-discovery. I can see this in the artists like Santana and Jimi Hendrix; they became the people they are through their own musical exploration. The music connected with the audience. The music defined a generation and that generation was the audience; the music created the historical archives I review now and learn from.

My generation is defined as generation now. How is that definition even understood? We have the music of right now, this minute. It has catchy appeal, it has staying power for weeks on the charts, but can it past the test of time? Will the music of Lady Gaga or Miley Cyrus echo in the souls of generations to come? Can we think to even put Kanye West in the same category as a Hendrix or Joplin? Music in ’09 has had it’s postive remarks, but when it comes down to natural, unprocessed, unrehearsed music that an audience not only hears but physically experiences, that sensation left my generation back in ‘69 when the sun came up. The sun rose before my generation ever had a chance to understand what a powerful feeling Woodstock had become, how it could posses your soul. My generation will never see that Monday morning sunrise.

I might never experience anything close to the LSD trip that was Woodstock. Festivals like Rothbury and Bonaaroo have tried to re-capture the feelings of pure freedom and music with the intention to recreate what took place that weekend back in 1969, but both never seem to reach their full potential. Maybe my generation is meant to learn from the past. We may never fully understand what happened that weekend but my generation can look back and come a little closer to finding out whom we are through the music of Woodstock. The experience. But most of all learn from people that gathered on the hill back in 1969. Who not only heard the music, but also lived it.

Live. Love. Rock.

Chels

The show was amazing, full of liveliness and energy but the image of this father still is engrained in my mind. Generations had come together. Three ladies in their mid 30’s sat next to me and rocked out harder than I could have ever expected.

Music united the generations and the sounds of a sexy saxophone and smooth guitar solos unified the listeners. While Marc Roberge’s lyrics cohesively brought the audience together.  When the stage lights came up, the screams filled the air, screams of joy and sounds of pure enjoyment. I may not understand what generations before me went through, but the music of such greatest artists like, Billy Joel and Bob Dylan, help me connect and understand a time I did not experience.

In the eyes of this little girl, I was that the music my generation holds so dear will in time tell our own story of our way in the world. I only hope one day I can hold my son or daughter up on my shoulders at a concert and they feel the same passion and drive for music as I do, because, after all, the music has already changed my life and in the process united generations that seem worlds and years apart.

Live. Love. Rock.

Chels

Dave Matthews opened the set with “Proudest Monkey” and then effortlessly drifted into “Satellite.” The crowded danced and sang but once the group started the opening chords of “Funny The Way It Is,” the crowd broke a few decibel levels. The band seemed to be in perfect tone. Never missing a beat and capturing a class band jam sound but what filled the air was sadness before the band played “Why I Am.,” the song that was written for fallen band member LeRoi Moore. The crowd was reserved for a moment and then let go of all inhibitions and danced, yelling the words along with Dave.

When you are standing on the lawn at DTE it feels like you have entered into a party where music is the best drug available. Dave Matthews Band lived up to all expectations and provided a night of a non-stop music loving energy.

Live. Love. Rock.

Chels

Common Ground has taken over downtown Lansing, Michigan and everyone seems to be embracing the outdoor “Woodstock” vibe. Different stages are set up and acts such as Sheryl Crow and Stone Temple Pilots are introducing their sound into Lansing. The vibe is pure liveliness.

My experience was different than the average concert attendee. I skipped traffic, parked my car on a bridge (and did not get a ticket), got a VIP pass and was driven down to the backstage area on a golf cart. At this point in time, I had to take a moment and ask how, for the first time in my life, I felt like I was getting somewhere. I was one step closer to achieving this crazy dream that I have chased for ten years.
This is not an easy road to travel down. When people ask you what you want to do with your life, music journalist definitely gets some bad reactions but standing backstage and feeling the music literally pound in my heart that set in stone that this is what I want to do. You feed off the energy of the band, the smell of alcohol and illegal drugs fill the air, the crowd is electric and you simply want to tell the story.

Sometimes you need a recharge of inspiration, after hours and hours of spending time studying and in being caged up a classroom; to get near the tour busses, to tell the story. It reminds me that this chase might be worth it after all.

Live. Love. Rock.

Chels

The Fray and Jack’s Mannequin took over Detroit this Saturday.  The weather had finally cooled down after a week of above 90 degrees. But the show heated the crowd up. First up was Richard Swift, who never formally introduced himself on stage. I missed most of this act; due to never ending construction traffic which in Michigan is everywhere you look.

After Swift, Andrew McMahon and the rest of the mannequins started their set with “Dark Blue” a well known track off their first album, Everything in Transit. Which immediately got the crowds attention. McMahon entered the stage saying, “What a day to forget my sunglasses,” while the sun glared in everyone eyes, fans tossed their own sunglasses on stage. Once his eyes where protected, the piano became McMahon’s playground, jumping on the antique auburn piano, even playing the keys with his feet. When McMahon plays the piano it is as if he gets lost in his own world, himself and the piano, a world that we get to enter even in the back rows of DTE. The set consisted of both new songs and old, but what shocked the crowed was when McMahon started to play “Watch the Sky,” a Something Corporate song, McMahon’s former band. A reminder that maybe an indefinite hiatus might come to an end after all. The set ended with liveliness and influence.

An elaborate set change later, Issac Slade, Joe King, Ben Wysocki and David Welsh took the stage, opening their set with an a cappella version of “Happiness” off their sophomore self titled album.  The stillness filled the air after the song had finished and the set accelerated from there. When you close your eyes it feels like you are listening to a CD, which in a day where computers seems to be the star on so many records, it is refreshing. The live piano playing of Slade stood out but King’s guitar and vocal skills took the show to another level. King even taking a solo to perform “Ungodly Hour.”

The raw talent stood out, but it was hard to ignore the LD light show behind the Fray. It reviled that of fellow inspirational rockers, Coldplay. The background was impressive, but not distracting. Just another level of enhancement that kept the audience fully wanting more, so much that the encore felt like an entire new set.

Before the final song of the encore entranced fans, Issac and the boys took time out of their show to console all of those effected by the economy. Pointing out that Detroit has been hit the hardest, “This is something we are not used to, maybe our grandparents, but this is different, we are leaning on each other,” said Issac. The Fray then closed their show by finishing “Happiness,” and asking the crowd to sing along. All band members left their instruments, coming front and center singing the hymns of the chorus. The audience joined in and in that moment it did seem like we could lean on each other. Music might not be the key to fixing the world, but it seems like the best way to get people to come together.

Live. Love. Rock.

Chels

Dave Matthew’s fans have been waiting four years for new music from the band and Big Whiskey is the remarkable response. Engaging solos, meaningful messages, classic Dave lyrics compile the album. It is hard not to hear the undeniable gift that Moore left behind, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King.

After a haunting solo, the band flows effortlessly into “Shake Me Like a Monkey,” which launches the record into an upbeat reaction. This and many other tracks on the album seem as though Dave and the boys have re-entered into a day when the streets where crowded and everyone crashed into each other. While the roots of the band show, “Funny the Way It Is” brings the band into a new era, an era that showcases the needs of the world and addresses them while taking the band in a progressive direction. “Spaceman,” “Alligator Pie,” and “Time Bomb” have morphed both classical musical styles with a down-home southern vibe.

While the album showcases all members of the band, it has a Dave Matthews Band feel when you first put the record in the player. That classic sound cannot be written about or ever fully understood, it is more of a feeling. A feeling that makes you forget where you are and who you are, for you are alive in that moment, in that song. The one person that did truly live and breathe the passion of the sound was Moore, who leaves behind a testament to how powerful music is and how much it changes our lives. He will be forever missed but his talent can always be found dancing with GrooGrux King.

Live. Love. Rock.

Chels

My dorm room is packed up and my thoughts are focused on finals. But on the walk over to the library, I realized that this is yet another chapter in my life that is ending, in a few days I will be leaving the dorms for the last time and heading on to a new part of my life. I will be saying goodbye to my friends that are leaving for the summer and saying goodbye to friends that are graduating.
I am unsure about how my summer will unfold, I am scared to death of my first day as an intern, I am afraid of working and handling summer classes all at once. The fear keeps me intimidated but I always remember that you have to put fear aside in order to reach the full potential I have.

Life is a novel. As cliché is that sound…it really is. It’s my story, it’s simple to tell, but at the same time I am unsure about what will happen until I turn the next page. As I close the chapter on my sophomore year here at Michigan State, I remember the good times along with the bad. I remember learning life lessons that I will never forget. I remember falling in love for the first time and the heartbreak that followed. I have two more years left on this campus and I can’t wait to see what the last chapters of this section will bring.

Good luck on finals to all and as always thank you for reading.

Live. Love. Rock.

Chels

I have tried to picture myself walking across the stage at graduation two years from now. I can see the stage, the crowd, even the diploma. I just can’t seem to picture the first five minutes after I get off the stage and the closer I get to that moment, the more terrified I become. I have had a long time to figure out my life. Why is it then that I still have no idea what comes next?

People come to college in order to find themselves, in order to find a career path, and most likely end up finding love. I’m currently 0 for three. So as I sit about to schedule my junior year of college, I am looking at my future and trying to make the picture come in clearer. I have no idea, what is next and I cannot fake myself into believing I do. I will wait out the confusion and see what happens next. After all, maybe the best things will come when I have no idea what it is coming next.

Live. Love. Rock.

Chels

Have you ever felt like your life was going nowhere and you had no exit to get off at? You can’t pick a different road because this road was the only one available. At times the speed might pick up and you move forward, a small reminder that this road might be worth taking, but then you hit more construction and even come to a complete stop on the never-ending highway. No exit in sight. Others surround you stuck on the same road.

The same road trip time and time again can become boring and predictable. Life is meant to have a few curve balls. If you never take that random exit, you might never know what could happen, if you never take chances and venture down a different road, life might continue to be stop and go.

When I am on the highway, I like to have my music blasting and an open road to drive down, I don’t want to be sitting in stop and go traffic. The same should be true for my life; I shouldn’t be waiting for traffic to clear and opportunities to present themselves. I should try to take a few different exits and see where the road takes me. I just need to find the courage to put on my turn signal and experience a new road.

t took me three hours of sitting in traffic to come up with this realization. Just think if I had been on I-96 longer…