What does EMF have to do with Sara Bareilles?

It isn't often that a CD comes along that you can just put in, press play, and listen for the next 62 minutes without hitting "skip forward".

The first such time this happened to me was in the early 90's, after I popped in EMF's Schubert Dip and was mesmerized by the catchy loops and mostly-spoken lyrics.

There have been few times since then that compilations have made their way onto my "play the whole thing" list. The most recent was a welcome surprise.

I first heard "King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles scattered throughout an episode of Medium, and three days later I couldn't get the hook out of my head. It was some work to figure out what song it was, playing on repeat in my wetware- I could only hear the melody and I wasn't even sure where I'd heard it. Amazon sold me the single in MP3 format and my poor computer had to endure those 3 minutes and 27 seconds over and over and over for the better part of two work days.

Then, I stumbled onto the video for "Uncharted", via Ben Folds, and again, Miss Bareilles had a firm grip on the soundtrack playing in my head. I decided, on a whim, to just get the whole CD.

Falling in love with her talent was a gradual process. I'd normally play track 2, and then track 5, and then skip to the strings version at track 16. Repeat.

But every once in awhile, "Gonna Get Over You" would start up (it's track three) and I found that I really liked that one too. My fingers were playing the bass line on the steering wheel, without any help from me. Then I discovered the one-minute A cappella intro to Uncharted at track one. Then a demo version of track 3 at track 14. Before I knew what had happened, I was just sticking in the CD and letting it play. It wasn't much longer before I realized that I was singing every lyric to every song, driving down the road. People stared. Freak!

At some point, it came to my attention that the singer-songwriter I was listening to almost every time I was in the car was going to do a show in Tulsa. Sign me up. We had tickets to that show for months. Tuesday finally came and we found ourselves in line outside the venue- General Admission and standing room only means you'd better get there early.

I've been to a lot of concerts in my life. I couldn't even begin to count the number. I have never walked out of a concert feeling like I did that night. It was so amazing I couldn't even find words to describe it. I figured that by the next day I'd be ready to put some kind of word down about it, but I was still high from the concert. When I put the CD in and Uncharted fired up, I could hear her doing it live. I could see her doing it live. I had chills on top of goose bumps. What a voice!

The show started out with Uncharted, and then Vegas, followed by a cover of Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You", which really got the crowd going. That was the perfect intro to Gonna Get Over You. Next, she slowed things down a bit with Machine Gun, Many the Miles, and Breathe Again. Then she asked if we wanted to hear another depressing song about failed relationships (or something to that effect) and of course we did, so we all sang along to Basket Case and Bluebird.

Basket Case and Bluebird were performed with only Sara on keys and Daniel Rhine on a beautiful upright bass, and then she said "What's that back there?!" and pointed to the back of the room. The other three members of her band were at the back and started playing. While everyone turned around, Sara and Daniel ran from the stage to the back (upright bass in tow) to join them. From there they covered Little Lion Man, but the only parts we could hear (from near the stage) were the chorus, which everyone at the back half of the room sang at top volume!

Then they all ran back to the stage. The set list from there is a little hazy, but it included Love Song ("if you know this one, sing along!" -- who would come to a Sara Bareilles concert and not at least know Love Song?) and an audience participation version of King of Anything.

For an encore set, Sara played Gravity on Hanson's Wurlitzer, and finished up with Let The Rain with the band.

Two days later, she played in New Mexico. I woke up wondering if I could make it if I started driving now.