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Nelson {vurb} editor shares the soundtrack of her life thus far

With a birthday on the horizon, Nelson's vurb editor shares some special songs that have formed the soundtrack of her life thus far.
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Vancouver's Black Mountain makes the cut for the Soundtrack of Nelson editor Megan Cole's life thus far.

This time next week, dear readers, your editor will be one year older. My birthday is on the horizon and with that comes a bit of reflection on the year and years that have passed.

As a music lover, certain bands and songs have marked specific times in my life, and as I look back I’ve noticed a soundtrack for the last __ years has emerged (a lady never tells her age). Here’s the soundtrack of my life thus far. Parts of it are embarrassing and that’s OK. You’ve to got to take the good with the bad.

Childhood

Easy Lover by Phil Collins. My mother loved Phil Collins when I was little and we had his music on cassette. Yes kids, it’s the thing that came long before iPods. We would listen to him over and over again on road trips to Saskatchewan to visit my grandparents. I think we normally screamed for it to stop, but I appreciate it now.

Crazy Train by Black Sabbath. Thank God for my dad or I’d likely be a devoted fan of top 40 hits (sorry mom). My dad, to put it mildly, has amazing taste in music, and most of the time it is similar to mine. I remember the first time I heard Sabbath. My mother probably wasn’t pleased, but I can honestly say it had an impact. My love for screaming guitar solos and strong drums was born there.

Teenaged years:

Ming Tran by Gob. At one point in my life I was a wannabe punk girl. One summer my friends and I wanted to go to the Warped Tour at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver, so my dad (yep, he’s awesome) volunteered to chaperone all of us 16-year-old girls on a trip to Vancouver. Gob played that year, and they quickly became a big part of my adolescence.

I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys. Remember how I said parts of this would be embarrassing? Here is one of those parts. I saw the Backstreet Boys twice in concert.

University:

Excuse me Mr. by Ben Harper. I started listening to Ben Harper in my first year of university when I was working with this dreamboat older guy with awesome music taste. He would play Ben Harper while I made cheese scones; it was bliss. Up until a few years ago, I had seen Ben Harper eight times in concert. I will admit I cried at many of those concerts. I have no shame.

La Mar by The Beautiful Girls. Even though I’ve called the Kootenays my home for nearly two years, I am an island girl, and I think it’s still a big part of who I am. My favourite concert buddy Aimee and I saw The Beautiful Girls more times than I remember. We would push our way right up front and then dance the whole time.

Vancouver to the Koots:

Rollercoaster by Black Mountain. This is one of my favourite Vancouver bands (sorry Nickelback...) Vancouver was one of those formative periods in my life where I moved away from home and experienced life on my own. The big city was good to me and for a long time I couldn’t imagine life anywhere else. But when I couldn’t find work there, I packed up for the Kootenays and never looked back.

Had to Go by Heartless Bastards. I started listening to the Heartless Bastards while living in Vancouver, but this song became important to me when I moved to Fernie. The lyrics held new meaning to me as I found myself in an unfamiliar town but now I feel more at home in the Kootenays than I did in Vancouver.