I didn't know Jack...

How is it that I never knew Jack? No really, I should have known. I feel ashamed that I didn't have a clue before.

What am I on about? What, you don't read minds? I'm talking about Jack Johnson of course. And it's not even like nobody ever told me.

What transpires to turn us on to new things? Sometimes it's a concerted effort. Sometimes it's more of an accident. This is probably what you would call something in between.

For those who don't know, Jack Johnson is a singer/songwriter type - essentially a guy with a guitar. Yes girls, a good looking guy with a guitar. Anyway, he does songs that you can imagine him singing around a campfire when he's out camping with friends. He's that kind of musician. Nothing fancy, just a guitar and some heartfelt music.

I had heard him more than once and thought that he was alright. Nothing really sank in though.

Then I heard about him on Jax's blog. She's a huge fan. Okay...maybe even a number one fan. Anyway, she sings his praises - in prose, not literally that I know of. Still it never clicked for me.

The other night, I was out at my favorite pub and was talking to my friend Becca. She was filling the jukebox with hard-earned coin and started talking about how much she likes this Jack guy.

"You've gotta listen to this song," she said. She stopped short of pulling a Natalie Portman in Garden State because she never said it would change my life.

"Oh yeah, I know this song..."

We both decided that he would be a guy you might want to hang out with, but I was still pretty indifferent.

Then, a couple of days ago I got the iPod (which still remains un-named by the way) and had to download a couple of podcasts. I downloaded some good ones like the German one I've been listening to for a while, Schlaflos in Munchen, and a few new ones like, Tiki Bar TV.

Along with these was a surfing one called - In the Lineup. Mostly I wanted to hear the segment with Daize Shayne, a hot longboarder and one of the original Roxie girls, but that's another story. Anyway, it turns out that Daize has a budding music career and did a couple of songs. She also talked about other surfer songsters and mentioned Jack Johnson.

That was the final prompt. I went online and found out that Jack is one of those musicians who's cool with taping live performances. There are a ton of live shows to be downloaded from the Archive. I did. It was awesome. And now I can't believe it took so long for me to find this guy's music.

Now I just want it to be summer again...