Tag: Hidden Gems

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Outlaw Roots — The Hank Jr. Legacy (Week 12)

Gonna Go Huntin’ Tonight 🎶 Here I Am Fallin’ Again

Hey yall… got two more good ones for you…
The first one’s fast… the second one slow…

As I was selecting the songs for this one… I was reminded of my first Hank concert…
I think I was 14… it was me… my best friend Joey… my good buddy Chris… and two neighbor girls… April and Ashley…

Ashley’s mother was a police officer… and she and the chief of police for our town took us all to the concert that night…

It was a crazy and fun night… I won’t go into details… other than just to say… everyone had a lil too much to drink… including Hank…

And I ended up spending the night at Ashley’s house… Got the T-shirt!

My mother was not happy the next day… cuz she was worried about me…
…but you know how us Gen X kids used to roll 😎…

So let’s get to the music…

🎵 Gonna Go Huntin’ Tonight
— Strong Stuff — 1983

🎵 Here I Am Fallin’ Again
— Habits Old and New — 1980

Oh! I also included a pic of the mountain Hank fell off… with a lil diagram… showing the path of his fall… just a miracle that he survived (it was 1975… Ajax Mountain near Wisdom, Montana)

Hope yall enjoy

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson. All rights reserved.

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Hidden Gems from the B-Side — ⛽️ FUEL (Week 20)

Shimmer 🎶 Bad Day…

So today I’m moving on… FUEL anyone?…

Man… I’m so loaded up with music and bands… sometimes I just sit there like… who’s next?… there’s just too many…

But yeah… Fuel… one of my favorites.
They’re a little different… some songs are slower… easy… almost laid back… but when they decide to… they can come in hard and rock the absolute crap out of you.

I’ve seen them a few times… but here’s a cool one…

I lived in Leesburg, Florida from 2o16–2o21… little old house… about two blocks from downtown. Leesburg is known for Bikefest every year… bands playing all week long…

And I’m not kidding… I could always hear it all from inside my house… loud and clear.

So it’s 2o17… I’m laying on my bed one day… windows open… just chilling…

Then all of a sudden…

music cuts through the silence…

this band starts rocking… hard… sounding really good…

I’m laying there like… hold up… who is that?…

then it hits me…

duuuude… it’s Fuel !!! 😁🥳😎

So yeah… I just laid there… in my bed… and listened to their whole set that evening…

super cool.

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I got two for you now…

🎧 Shimmer — Sunburn (1998)

🎧 Bad Day — Something Like Human (2oO0)

Shimmer is the song that put them on the map… these 2 are a little more chill… in coming weeks… I’ll let them rock harder for you… thought I’d take it easy on you for starters 😏…

The concert I heard from my bedroom evening

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson. All rights reserved.

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Hidden Gems from the B-Side — Flyleaf (Week 19)

There For You 🎶 Cage On The Ground…

Before Lacey Sturm ever stepped on stage with Flyleaf, she had already lived through the kind of darkness most people only write about. As a teenager she battled deep depression and survived a suicide attempt… and what came after reshaped everything. Her faith didn’t become an image or a lane — it became the core of who she was. That’s why her voice hits different. It’s not just tone or technique… it’s survival, it’s prayer, it’s something real breaking through. A lot of those Flyleaf songs weren’t crafted for radio… they came straight from her journals, her struggles, her conversations with God. That’s why you feel them more than you just hear them.

What makes her story even more wild… she walked away from it all in 2012, right when things were peaking after New Horizons. No drama… no crash… just a decision to step back for her family and her calling. Most artists hold on tighter at that point — she let go. And when she came back, it wasn’t to pick up where she left off… it was to start fresh with her own solo career. Same intensity, same raw honesty… just even more personal and stripped down. That contrast you hear in her — the softness and the scream, the broken and the bold — that’s not a style she learned… that’s a life she lived.

There For You 🎶
Year: 2005
Album: Flyleaf

Cage On The Ground 🎶
Year: 2012
Album: New Horizons

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✝️ 1 John 3:18
“Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

© 2026 bryanforchrist | All rights reserved

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Hidden Gems from the B-Side — Life Side (Week 17)

Matthew Sweet 🎶 I’ve Been Waiting 🎶 Walk Out..

For this week’s Hidden Gems from the B-Side, I’m digging into the catalog of Matthew Sweet.

Today’s picks come from two different moments in his career — 🎶 I’ve Been Waiting from the 1991 album Girlfriend, and 🎶 Walk Out from 100% Fun (1995). Both tracks show why Sweet became such a cult favorite in the alternative scene — melodic, guitar-driven songs that still sound just as good decades later.

As a bonus, I’m also sharing a video of Matthew during his recovery after suffering a stroke in 2024. Watching a musician fight their way back through therapy is powerful — a reminder that music isn’t just something we listen to… it’s something that lives deep inside a person. Seeing that strength and determination makes these songs hit even harder.

Hope y’all enjoy… 🎸

Special Bonus 👇 Recovering From A Stroke…

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© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson. All Rights Reserved.

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Hidden Gems from the B-Side — Faith Side (Week 16)

BarlowGirl 🎶 Song for the Broken 🎶 Sing Me a Love Song…

This week I’m digging into two deeper cuts from BarlowGirl — “Song for the Broken” from How Can We Be Silent (2007) and “Sing Me a Love Song” from Love & War (2009), their fifth and final studio album.. also nominated for a Dove Award for album of the year…

These ladies have so many deep cuts.. as a musician.. I really enjoy and appreciate them.. I listen much.. it’s good stuff..

I also added a bonus interview vid… I hope you enjoy and have a blessed Sunday…

Bonus interview 👇

Lauren.. Alyssa.. Becca..

🔥 Acts 4:12 (KJV)

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

© 2026 bryanforchrist. All rights reserved.

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Hidden Gems from the B-Side — Life Side (Week 16)

Matthew Sweet 🎶 Evangeline 🎶 Not When I Need It…

🎸 Matthew Sweet — Hidden Gems
Two deep cuts worth the spotlight.. “Evangeline” and  “Not When I Need It.”
“Evangeline” comes from Girlfriend (1991), Sweet’s breakout power-pop classic. It wasn’t a single, but it became a fan favorite for its hooks and guitar fire—and it was inspired by the comic-book character Evangeline, blending sci-fi imagery with aching pop romance.

A few years later, 100% Fun (1995) kept the melodic magic rolling. “Not When I Need It” is one of those perfect deep cuts—bright, punchy, and emotionally honest. Together, these tracks show Sweet’s sweet spot: killer hooks with real heart.

Discovering Matthew Sweet in the early ’90s was a blast for me—cranking his CDs, guitar in hand, playing along in my room. Hope you enjoy this little trip back 🎸

Also, I love the guitar riffs in “Evangeline”… many of his songs have it like that.

👇 bonus Paste Studio tracks

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson | All rights reserved

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Hidden Gems from the B-Side — Faith Side (Week 15)

Barlowgirl 🎶 Enough 🎶 Grey

“Enough” and “Grey,” both from Another Journal Entry (2005), show two different sides of BarlowGirl’s heart. “Enough” is actually a cover of the worship song made well-known by Chris Tomlin, and BarlowGirl’s version leans into rich harmonies and a more rock-leaning sound while keeping the focus on God being all we truly need. “Grey” is an original that wrestles with living in the in-between — not fully cold, not fully on fire — calling out compromise and the pull toward lukewarm faith. Together, they capture both worshipful surrender and honest self-examination in the same breath…

Hope you enjoy the music and hope you have a blessed Sunday…

Bonus track 👇 BDW feat. Barlowgirl

Psalm 73:26 (KJV)

“My flesh and my heart faileth… but God is the strength of my heart… and my portion for ever…”

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Hidden Gems from the B-Side—Life Side (Week 15)

Matthew Sweet 🎶 We’re the Same 🎶 I Almost Forgot…

As I was putting this piece together, I got raptured back to 1995 — on the edge of my bed by the window… that little apartment in Riverdale, GA… guitar in hand… as was always the case… learning these next two songs. The story behind this album’s title is heavier than the sound.

Matthew Sweet’s 100% Fun — the 1995 album that includes both “We’re the Same” and “I Almost Forgot” — gets its title from a surprisingly heavy rock history footnote. Sweet lifted the phrase “100% fun” from Kurt Cobain’s 1994 suicide note, where Cobain wrote: *“The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by faking it and pretending as if I’m having 100% fun.”*

That ironic origin gives the album title a bittersweet edge — a record full of bright hooks and jangly guitars, but named after a line born out of real emotional struggle. 100% Fun stands as one of Sweet’s most loved power-pop records — catchy, melodic, and quietly reflective beneath the shine.

So yeah — without further ado… here’s the music.

🎵 “We’re the Same” — 100% Fun (1995)


🎵 “I Almost Forgot” — 100% Fun (1995)

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© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson

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