The Castellows - Love Is A Game, Stage 12, College Station, Texas

Описание: The Castellows often treat us to unreleased new songs at their concerts, like this new unreleased gem called "Love Is A Game". I first saw this title on a setlist in Oklahoma a while back and then ‪@thecastellows‬ released a clip of it on their Instagram too.

This is just the end of the song. Watch the full widescreen version here:    • The Castellows - Love Is A Game, Stage 12 ...   - after Ellie's intro you hear a faint train horn as this venue is just beside some tracks.

FYI I made a playlist of other unreleased songs that we got to hear first as acoustic arrangements and then as full band arrangements:    • Castellows Unreleased Songs - Miss America...   - some of these are released now. Soon Love Is A Game will be too. There are some sweet original songs in the unreleased playlist there like I Was Born With A Shotgun In My Hand and Cowgirl Blues. Check them out.

What is to love about "Love Is A Game"? Well, let's start with nice groove and a sweet melody in the chorus. Great dynamics too. The ladies do have a lot of songs where they quiet it down in the middle and fill it up with a chorus and outro. Similarly, I recently heard the Kurt Cobain loved such dynamics in Pixie's songs and used that same approach in Smells Like Teen Spirit! You may think a grunge reference may be out of place but Ellie once said they could tour with Foo Fighters, and Lily said sound guys told them they sounded like a rock band. Lastly, the first place I saw them play was The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, a place Nirvana also played :) Small world. Music is a continuum IMHO.

To wrap up, do go see The Castellows play live. I have found that its always a peach-perfect performance just like this. Never the same show twice - and I've see 20 shows! Their harmonies are always so sweet, just like in this song. They play tender original ballads like Broke and Sober Sundays and many bangers / rocking numbers too. Here's where you can get your tickets: Get your tix: www.thecastellowsmusic.com

The lyrics in this song go "Love is a game and I don't wanna play anymore". Ellie shared at the first show of the tour in Austin, Texas that she had a break-up recently and she and sang a solo song about it called "Did You Forget". Singing about relationships and break-ups sure can be cathartic. We've all been there some time - even me - this was a song I wrote for a friend at work who was getting divorced:    • Blue Eyes Something About You (Acoustic) -...   (one take acoustic live). The message was that things will get better "blue skies are dawning around you".

Another break-up example that worked out: my high school GF dumped me in grade 12 but then looked me up on Facebook almost 40 YEARS LATER to connect! I wrote this song about the letters she seemed to have forget about and that I sent when we were together:    • These Letters - original song by Robert Mu...   ... OK, I know that nobody writes letters anymore but hey it was the mid 80's back then. The lyrics in my song about my GF leaving her dog with me are actually about a small "stuffed dog" named Droopy that she gave me. Full circle, I returned Droopy when we connected again after 40 years :) It was time to give him back. 40 years ago he smelled like Tuxedo by Ralph Lauren because she had sprayed him for me :) After 40 years the perfume is gone and so is any of the break-up hurt... good news is that it doesn't take a whole 40 years either!

Enjoy :)