Mog in the Belly

Well, it's appropriate that I ran across this today since I am currently miserable about my weight. I need to lose 25-30 pounds, and I need to do it now. I have tried a couple of different things and haven't made any progress. I know that ultimately it wil have to be exercise because dieting rarely works for me. Anyway, here's some musical food for the belly, which is better for me than the cheeseburger I'd like to have right now.http://www.amazon.com/Food-Belly-Xavier-Rudd/dp/B000LPR50WAnd here's the Daily OM review of the album:February 20, 2007Food in the BellyXavier Rudd 2005 (Australia) 2007 (US)"Food in the Belly is a suitable title for an artist whose work is as earthy, soulful, and seemingly centered as Xavier Rudd's, the Australian surf/world/roots singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose tools include guitar, didgeridoo, harmonica, banjo, and a variety of percussion instruments, many of which are often played simultaneously. He draws stylistic inspiration for his self-penned songs from diverse themes like Celtic music, British blues, and American folk/rock, very often played over the mysterious and transfixing rhythms and tones of Australian native music.The album opens with an interesting one-two punch made of missives. The first, "The Letter," is very old-school, almost Fairport Convention Olde English, both in subject and form. Over a slow, acoustic, descending telling, conjoined with wonderful slide parts, olde Rudd relates his tales, at the end of each verse promising to write all he has done and knows in a letter, yet you know the letter will never be written and Rudd will pass into the ephemeral. Then as dramatically as "The Letter" stops, "Messages" eases in, all sweetness and light, where he then doubles up the finger picking and races down the instant illumination highway. Here Rudd is on the road: young, lost, and he keeps getting messages; he "don't understand these things." It's a wonderful juxtaposition of time, place, and perception.Rudd roughs it up with "Fortune Teller," racingly told with a mix of acoustic and electric guitars and furiously finger-picked. The rhythm roils with great bursts of dirty yellow sulphur and stone just below the surface. The lyric is brief and bleak: "Read what I've got/ this is all I've got?/ This is my fortune?!" Further in, the title track is a happy mix of slide guitar and multi rhythms, pork chops in the chorus, and the message, obviously targeting Australia's unfortunate indigenous, is that it's far better to be full than not. Rudd is really something of a revelation; this is very old music played by a young man with energy and passion."