Tag Archives: music

How many songs is enough?

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My recent purge/re-org of photos was productive and satisfying. So I decided to tackle my iTunes music library next. I collected a lot of music in the 60s and 70s. LPs, reel-to-reel, cassettes. After I left radio (no longer “on the air” playing music for others to listen to) I pretty much lost interest in music until the iPod came along in 2001. But I never amassed a giant collection of songs.

As I turned my attention to my iTunes library I discovered I had 800+ titles. Scanning and sampling, it quickly became apparent that I hadn’t listened to some of these songs in years… and probably wouldn’t listen to many of them ever again. The result of ripping and entire LP that included only two or three songs that I liked. Or purchasing an entire “CD” from iTunes. But you don’t delete songs, right? You might listen to them someday. So, just tuck them away in a folder or playlist for that day.

In some manner I can’t explain, keeping those never-gonna-listen-to-them again songs were preventing me from listening to the stuff I liked. So I purged. Down to about 650 songs.

I’m still organizing. Creating playlists, adding ratings, etc. This morning I picked my 100 “favorite” songs (from the 650). Much harder than I expected and certainly a moving target. I’ll keep refining that. The goal will be, I think, to reach a point where any song that comes up in shuffle will prompt me to think/says, “Ooh. I love that song!”

I know what you’re thinking (as does The Amazing Kreskin): Why not subscribe to Spotify or Beats or one of the other streaming services and enjoy ALL the songs. See, that’t the problem for me. I can’t enjoy all the songs. Too many choices. I’m glad those services exist and hope there are more and better ones coming, but I’m gonna concentrate on really listening to and enjoying the music I have.

Barb rubs elbows with celebs

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crossroads-barb-pam

If you write a nice check (for a good cause) you get your picture taken with the celebrities. (Barb 2nd from the left; the lady in the middle is Pam, a high school friend).

The artists appearing with Sheryl Crow were pretty much unknown to me. I knew their fathers but haven’t followed their careers. And they play country music. “Redneck Country” in the case of Noll Billings, singer for Blackjack Billy. Looks like David Nail had a #1 song in 2012. They all have wikipedia pages if you’re curious. Blackjack Billy; Trent Tomlinson; David Nail

I assume it’s damned hard to make it in the music business so it does seem noteworthy that four kids from a small (10,000) town in southeast Missouri managed to do so well.

Places that once had purpose

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From a good piece in Mother Jones on how T Bone Burnett chooses music for True Detective

“This show does not avert its gaze,” Burnett says. “It takes a good, hard look at who we are right now, in a very profound way…I live in Los Angeles, and I recently took a drive through the middle of the country, and I was stunned by what I saw. In places that had once had purpose, all that’s left is a pawnshop, next to a gun shop, next door to a motel, next door to a gas station, with a Walmart right outside of town. There are people working three jobs just to get by and having to take methamphetamines to do it. That’s the middle of the country, and that’s a plague that’s spreading outwards.

I grew up (and live) smack dab in the middle of the country which might be why this series resonates so strongly for me. I remember when those places had purpose and have watched it slowly disappear to be replaced by something real dark.

Chipotle FM

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I eat at Chipotle’s a couple of times a week. On Friday I realized I was bobbing my head in time with the song coming from the restaurant sound system. Didn’t recognize the song or the artist. Thinking back, it occurred to me the music there was always to my liking. So I asked Google “do all Chipotle’s restaurants play the same music?” and found the answer in a story at Businessweek (yes).

Chris Golub the founder and sole employee of Studio Orca which “creates customized playlists for restaurants tired of putting their dining atmosphere in the hands of Pandora or Sirius XM Radio. His job consists of researching music, discovering bands, and asking questions such as, “Would you rather hear folky banjo music or classic Motown as you eat your steak burrito bowl?”

“Golub runs Studio Orca out of his spacious apartment in a Brooklyn high-rise. There he spends 8 to 10 hours a day researching music for Chipotle, which lets him play anything he wants. “I’m looking for songs that make you want to dance around your kitchen in your socks and underwear before you’ve even had your second cup of coffee,” he says. “Not many songs can do that.” Golub listens to about 500 songs before he finds one that will work.”

“Chipotle’s 1,500 stores all play the same music. […] Four times a month he loads up his iPod with 15 to 20 new tracks and goes to a restaurant in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood to see how they sound in the store. Once a month he sends the updated list to Mood Media, formerly known as Muzak, which then streams the mix over the online service Rdio and into every Chipotle store.”

Mainland Ukes

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Hopped in the MINI and took a little road trip to Nashville, IN on Thursday. The 368 miles took about seven hours. Nashville — a quaint little village in the hills of south-central Indiana– is the home of Mainland Ukes, owned and operated by Mike Hater and his charming wife Tootka. Tootka is the brains and Mike is “Artistic Director.”

tootka-mike

Purpose of the trip was to swap my new soprano uke for a slightly larger “concert” model.

Mike and Tootka’s story is interesting. After years as a psychiatric nurse, Mike quit and moved back to Indiana where he worked in landscaping before throwing in with a guy who sold harmonicas. When that business tanked, Mike and Tootka took over and switched to ukes. Mike played and knew lots of folks in uke space, so…

Somewhere in this adventure Mike got snowed in for five days and used the time to meet (online) some people in Thailand (where he lived as a younger man). Mike and Tootka connected, corresponded for a while, and then he jumped on a plane to go meet the lady. After that it was love, marriage, and back to the US and Mainland Ukes.

ukes600

They have a big uke festival in June and I’m thinking I might try to make it. Nice people, good ukuleles.

I have a tiny instrument

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Screen Shot 2013-03-07 at Thu, Mar 7, 8.36.38 AMBack in the 70’s I took guitar lessons for a few months. In answer to the question, “You think I’ll ever learn to play?” my teacher (Hoyt Wooten) answered: “Depends on how long you live.”

While I won’t live long enough to learn to play the guitar, I might live long enough to learn a few chords on my new ukelele. I’ve got lots of support I didn’t have 30 years ago. Half the members of The Order of the Fez play the uke, including Professor Peter and Howlin’ Hobbit, who advised on this latest purchase.

YouTube is awash in instructional videos and the technology is much better. I’ve got a tin ear so keeping that guitar in tune was a bitch. I had a little pitch pipe that was all but worthless. This time around I have a little eletronic doo dad that clamps on to the uke and uses vibration to tell you if the string is sharp or flat.

I’m approaching this in the manner of Bill Murray learning to play the piano in Ground Hog Day. I have a long time in which to learn to play a few chords. Once I get a few thousand hours under my belt, I’ll share something here.

Name the Beatles

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One of my favorite bits of dialogue in Carl Hiaasen’s Skin Tight:

“But I don’t want to many you,” she said. “I promise. Even if you ask me afterwards, I’ll say no—no matter how great it was. Besides, I’m not a waitress. You said all the others were waitresses.”
He groaned and said, “Tina, I’m sorry. It just won’t work.”
“How do you know it won’t work?” she said to Stranahan
“I’m too old.”
“Bullshit.”
“And you’re too young.”
”Double bullshit.”
“Okay,” he said. “Then name the Beatles.”
“What?” Tina forced a caustic laugh. “Are you serious?”
“Dead serious” Stranahan said, addressing her from the edge of the roof. “If you can name all the Beatles, I’ll make love to you right now. ”
“I don’t believe this,” Tina said. “The fucking Beatles.”
Stranahan had done the math in his head: She was nineteen, which meant she had been born the same year the band broke up.
‘Well, there’s Paul,” Tina said.
“Last name? Come on! Let’s hear it.”
“McCartney, okay? I don’t believe this.”
Stranahan said, “Go on, you’re doing fine.”
“Ringo,” Tina said. “Ringo Starr. The drummer with the nose.”
“Good.”
“And then there’s the guy who died. Lennon.”
“First name?”
“I know his son is Julian.”
“His son doesn’t count.”
Tina said, “Yeah, well, you’re an asshole. It’s John. John Lennon.”
Stranahan nodded appreciatively. “Three down, one to go. You’re doing great.”
Tina folded her arms and tried to think of the last Beatle. Her lips were pursed in a most appealing way, but Stranahan stayed on the roof. “I’ll give you a hint,” he said to Tina. “Lead guitar.”
She looked up at him, triumph shining in her gray eyes. “Harrison,” she declared. ”Keith Harrison!

This week’s Top 10

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1. Bird On a Wire – Jennifer Warnes
2. Table for One – Liz Phair
3. Put Your Lights On – Santana
4. Stay – Jackson Browne
5. Your Drinking – Gretchen Phillips
6. After the Gold Rush – k.d. lang
7. Gone At last (Orig demo version) – Paul Simon
8. Piece of My Heart (Live) – Phoebe Snow
9. Creep (Live in Boston) – Brandi Carlile
10. A Thousand Kisses Deep – Leonard Cohen

No particular order.

The music of the 2050’s

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My earliest memories of music are from the 50’s. If I described a song as having “a 50’s sound,” you’d probably understand what I meant.

I divide the next decade into Early 60s and Late 60s. The 70’s connote Disco for me. For some reason I don’t have any recollection of the music of the 80’s and 90’s.

So here’s my question for your musicologists out there:

How is that each musical era can sound not only different from the previous era, but from ALL previous eras? Will we have a period that repeats some earlier period?

If not, does this mean that it will get more and more difficult to create a completely fresh sound? How different will music sound to these disturbingly large ears in 30 years?