30 Day Writing Challenge - Day 04

I've somehow always mean to write about it, but never actually sat down and got around to it - today, I get to tell you about the meaning behind my blog name!

I am going to admit that I am super-boring, and the name for my link - twentysixx - is only because 26 is my favorite number, but spelling the link as twentysix was already taken. I often feel like it looks like one of those obnoxious links, where people throw in unnecessary X's for attention no reason. I somehow never managed to have a username with obnoxious extra X's, through all of my AIM and Yahoo Messenger days (am I aging myself right now? I am getting up there....) but ended up with one now.

"Feels Like Home To Me" (which I later shortened to just "Feels Like Home" (but I used "Home to Me" back in my Livejournal days) is a name that I have loved for what seems like forever! When I realized that I could take a handful of my favorite songs and use them to make a username? I was obsessed. The phrase Feels Like Home/Home To Me was ripped from a bunch of songs that I love, so I will include a snippet of lyrics, and a link to a video of each song if I can find one.

Firstly, "Home to Me," written by Thom Shepherd and Memarie Gayle. You can hear this song on Thom's "Tonkyhonk" album. Thom sent me the lyrics to this song (and later a demo recorded by Brad Cotter and Jenny Farrell) years ago. It's one of my favorite Thom songs ever - despite never getting to hear it live. I think it has a special place in my heart because Thom and Memarie met at an event that I co-hosted with some friends.

How did we get so lucky? All I have to be is me and you still love me. You're my friend, you're this ring, honey you're my everything. But most of all, you're home to me.

 I feel like the song that is most often stuck in my head with my beloved phrase in it would be Chantal Kreviazuk's "Feels Like Home to Me." Undeniably a classic, which always reminds me of a road trip I took with my friend April back in 2008 or so, from Nashville to Gatlinburg, where she kept replaying bits of the song until I knew all of the words. Ten years later, and I still know all of the words, and love the song.

If you knew how lonely my life has been, and how long I've been so alone. If you knew how I wanted someone to come along and change my life the way you've done. It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me. It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from.

Blue County's "Sounds Like Home" gets me right in the feels every single time. Remember Blue County? They're the guys that brought you "Good Little Girls," and "Firecrackers and Ferris Wheels" several years back. I'm generally that girl that falls in love with the random song on the album that was never released as a single, and no one ever knows what I am talking about when I mention it. These guys were always a favorite of mine - I got to see them several times back in my concert-going-days, when I would road trip with girl friends nearly every weekend.

I hear the dancing of the raindrops while we tumble in the hay loft. I hear you laughing at my bad jokes and singing oh so sweet. I hear the creaking of a screen door, and bare feet on a wooden floor. But to hear you whisper my name is all I really need. Your voice sounds like home to me.

And of course, there is the always-amazing Little Big Town, with "Bring it On Home." I have adored these four since their first record deal, and mostly loved them during that in-between period when the four of them would drive themselves around in a white van to shows. I was there in the days when they would set up their own equipment, and Karen would belt out "Maybe it Was Memphis" for her sound check.  "Bring it On Home" has been one of my favorites for a long time. There is something so pure about their voices on this song. This, to me, is the Little Big Town I fell in love with all those years ago!

When your long day is over, and you can barely drag your feet. The weight of the world is on your shoulders, I know what you need - bring it on home to me.

 I now feel like I am drawing a blank, because I am almost positive that there was at least one more song with the phrase that I had drawn from. But this is why my username has been Feels Like Home or Feels Like Home to Me for several years. Music has such a huge piece of my heart, and I had to find a way to include it. Plus, getting to include some of my very favorite artists - and people - in a subtle way in my username made me so happy!