And Now For Something A Little Different

Possibly you didn't know that I have a brother called Luke. You know about Tom, of course, and also about Susie, but the time I posted that hideous photograph of the four of us on the back lawn of our old house in England, someone asked in the comments "who's that child in red?"

Which made me think that hmm, perhaps I don't talk about my other brother enough. And the few times I do, he's wearing a santa outfit. Or playing the euphonium.

Luke is possibly the world's best just-turned-17-year-old musician, and alright, I'm biased, but when he stands at the door to his room and says "hey, I've written a new song, want to listen?" you'd better believe I'm going to turn off the Wilco and come in and listen. My dad taught him to play the guitar when he was ten or eleven, and he sort of just took it himself from there. (My dad, I'm sure, is incredibly relieved to have one child who can play the guitar. We all remember how it worked out with me.)

Anyway, I thought you might want to hear for yourself. Luke recorded both these songs in his bedroom a few weeks ago, and everything you hear on them—every voice, every instrument—is his. The first is about his girlfriend (I know! I still think he's about six and now he has a girlfriend!) who recently went to Burma on vacation. The second is about a friend of his whose mother suddenly had a miscarriage quite late in the pregnancy. The baby was going to be called Victoria.

You can click "play" on the thing Sean designed below to stream the songs; they'll start immediately. (Look how he made it match all pretty with my site! Clever boy!) And if you want to read Luke's lyrics, they'll pop up here.

You don't have to listen, of course, but maybe you want to. Maybe it's a slow Friday at the office and no-one will notice if you slip the headphones on instead of working on the Anderson account. Maybe you need to get "Livin' On A Prayer" out of your head. Maybe you just want to take a break and sit in front of your screen and close your eyes and think about nothing and listen to something beautiful. And maybe, hopefully, you just don't mind indulging a girl who's fiercely, fiercely proud of her little brother.