A very wise man, Yogi Berra, once said:  “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”  The state of my NCAA basketball tournament bracket this year shows just how right Yogi was.  Instead of invoking the spirit of Nostradamus for the Song of the Week two weeks ago, I should have simply hoped to be lucky.

There are many songs about luck, and one of them is the new Song of the Week, “Lucky” by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat.

Colbie Caillat?  Does this mean I am trying to build the appeal that the Song of the Week may have to teenage girls?

Or the song itself – “Lucky”?  Could it be that future brides and grooms will want to link to this website to find music for the first dance at their reception?  Following its 2010 Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals, this song has been very popular at weddings.

The answer is probably “no” to both questions.  Besides “Lucky,” I don’t think I have ever listened to a Colbie Caillat song all the way through.  Her father produced a couple of Fleetwood Mac albums and she has a pleasant voice, so it is not surprising that she ended up in the music business.

Jason Mraz is a little bit more interesting.  Sort of an All-American kid, he grew up in Mechanicsville, Virginia, where he was a high school cheerleader.  He attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York for a little over a year before he dropped out and eventually drifted westward until he reached San Diego.  He sort of had to stop going West, so he hung out with musicians and played at local coffee houses.

His landed his first major recording contract in 2002, and his early recordings seem to target a teenage audience (you could say the same of rock and roll a half century earlier, but Jason’s “targeting” was more record company marketing; so it wasn’t the same).  His music and songwriting have matured over the years and now give listeners an interesting sound influenced by folk, rock, reggae, hip hop, jazz, Brazilian music and who knows what else.

Jason has also become active in many humanitarian causes which have taken him to places such as Ghana, to bring attention to efforts to liberate children sold into slavery, Myanmar, for a concert to raise awareness of human trafficking in that country; and Antarctica, with a group led by Al Gore focusing on the effects of climate change.  He has worked with the Nature Conservancy and various LGBT groups and he is active in projects to protect and preserve the world’s oceans and beaches.

His music is also influenced by his healthy lifestyle, as Jason eats mostly a raw vegan diet, practices yoga and is one of those California surfing dudes.  And – perhaps most interestingly – he owns an avocado farm outside of San Diego.

“Lucky” is a song that is pretty much pure pop.  It is pleasant, with a catchy tune.  The instrumentation is subdued, and works well.  The video is nice, too.  Half of it was filmed in Kauai – a place I enjoy very much.  The other half was filmed in Prague, which is interesting because Jason’s ancestors lived in what is now the Czech Republic until his grandfather came to the USA in the early 20th Century (mraz, I am told, means “frost” in Czech).  I have never been to Prague (I have seen the Czech Republic from a hill in Poland), but I hear it is nice.

It is also nice and lucky to be in love with my best friend.  I do like that (and have for more than 35 years).

Lucky
By Jason Mraz, Colbie Caillat and Tim Fagan