Following the music…

I like music… but not the top not 40, pop crap (I said it) not the stuff on network TV, not American Idol or The Voice… Not the stuff found on TV or found at Target and Wal-Mart…

I like concerts… I like to spend time on the Web finding bands, music that looks interesting…

Within music, artists list “influences”… the artist that they find inspiring… Artists recorded music written by others…  It becomes a road map, a sometimes vague road map, but a path to follow.

Defining my likes is a bit difficult..  Graham Parsons called it Cosmic American Music, Houston Jones calls it High Octane American Music.  Its somewhere between traditional (not Nashville) country and rock…  It is sometimes called Folk… but not Kumbuya folk…  It is a challenge to fine in a record store (if you can find a record store…  Here in the best place to live in the world, San Francisco’s Bay Area we have several good stores to choose from… If you don’t live here, you have my condolences…)… much of what is called “Rock” is good for me as well…

At one time, my choices would have been defined by the “recording industry” with labels, signed artists, A&R men and radio stations, occasionally accepting Payola to play the corporately chosen music…

Modern technology is challenging the definition of who is in charge of the media… the delivery system… the music…

Cheap computers, mixing soft-wear, The Internet, The Web, especially Youtube blew that all to hell…  Any band with a couple of songs, a point of view, a mike and a computer can build a web site… upload songs to My Space, videos to You Tube… and create a presence…  The label is not needed… the Eagles don’t have a record contract… Contracts are not needed…

So, you may have to hunt to find music… I have a good radio station… KFOG… They have stumbled recently, but still have the best play list … they do 10 at 10 every day at 10:00 am… 10 songs from one year… they have Acoustic Sunrise on Sunday morning, Acoustic Sunrise Sunday evening…  they play music with a point of view… (and when I write the program director an email he answers… he cares) They pay stuff beyond the top 40 crap…. (crap is my point of view… defining much of commercial music)….

So, currently I am following several paths… Early this year the daughter and I attended a concert at Slims… a local club… we found the Comatose Brothers and the Good Time Thrift Store Outfit…  I am hooked on both groups, particularly The Outfit’s The Burden of Sea Captains  Big Jim’s Guitar, and Tow-truck…

Separately, a staff member, a young woman a bit younger than my daughter, suggested I look at  Nicki Bluhme… following her lead I find “Van Sessions” covers (other people’s songs) recorded while driving to concerts… I look to her regular work… She is married to a musician, Nick Blume, of the Mother Hips… on my radar, but not generally following… they have a side project “Broke Down In Bakersfield”  they call it Baskerville sound, but to me it sounds like Gram’s Cosmic American Music. They cover Gram Parson’s Luxury Liner… (40 tons of steel) Now I am following… and hooked… badly.

Broke Down In Bakersfield is playing the Kate Wolfe festival… so is Good Time Thrift Store Outfit (they have a song, Tow Truck, about a driving from Oakdale to Jacksonville Florida… my son is driving to Jacksonville from San Mateo early next week… connections are everywhere…) and Comatose Brothers… And Richard Thompson, one time part of Freeport Convention….. and Blame Sally (The lovely Tina and I have seen them more than once… we really like them, and strangely, the lovely Tina bears a strong resemblance to Rene, of the Sallies…  We are now off track, but much of my musical journey is off track)  local girl band, just too good…  Connections, connections, connections…

So, I will go to Laytonville, to Black Oak Forest, to camp and listen to music the last weekend of the month…  I will enjoy the music, enjoy the place… Tina will be off watching gymnastics… Steph studying for finals…It will be therapeutic…  Sitting, listening, camping under the black oaks… 

Oh, and in a couple of days, I will be at Slim's again, to see the Indigo Girls... Live music... 

Randy