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This week our host Jim Adams for Song Lyric Sunday has given us the prompt of Hidden Gems: great songs that missed the top of the charts.

The goal is to take the prompt and profile a song that has it part of its lyrics or title.

Please consider carving out time to read the posts of other bloggers who responded to the Song Lyric Sunday challenge.

Rules for Song Lyric Sunday

Post the lyrics to the song of your choice, whether it contains the prompt words or not.  If it does not meet the criteria, then please explain why you chose this song.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due.  Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be.
• Make sure you also credit the singer/band and if you desire you can provide a link to where you found the lyrics.
• Link to the YouTube video or pull it into your post so others can listen to the song.
• Ping back to this post or place your link in the comments section below.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts.
• Have fun and enjoy the music.

Define Hidden Gems

Lots of writer discretion is available this week in determining what constitutes a “Hidden Gem” that didn’t make the charts. My definition is simply something that isn’t well known or popular.

When the Blues is your favorite musical genre that gives you a leg up on writing about something that might not be musically mainstream.

Midnight in Harlem

In 2011 the Tedeschi Trucks Band released an album called Revelator. One track that I love, and many others are enamored with is “Midnight in Harlem”.

Not only is this song a “Hidden Gem” but the band just might be also. When you have an 11-piece band complete with a horn section and back-up singers you go to the top of the list of hidden gems. The driving forces of this band are singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi and her fabulous guitar playing husband Derek Trucks.

The song was written by Mike Mattison who is a musician and vocalist for the Tedeschi Trucks Band. He has also been part of two other groups Scrapomatic and the Derek Trucks Band. Mattison has a unique distinction in the song writing business of having a degree from Harvard. Derek Trucks also contributed to writing this song.

The song really highlights the vocal chops of Susan Tedeschi, the guitar playing of Trucks, and the sounds of having 11 talented people on stage. Listen to this “Hidden Gem”

Lyrics

Video

Here is Tedeschi Trucks Band performing the song live in Atlanta GA. If the guitar solo by Derek Trucks doesn’t move your soul, you better get to church today. Mike Mattison is doing back-up vocals and playing guitar on this video.

Next week the prompt is One Hit Wonders where an artist or a group had a song that reached the top without any follow-up success.