Homage to Ol' Blue Eyes

One of my favorite aspects of blogging is the opportunity to chase rabbits let loose by readers who do me the honor of leaving comments. And thus I found myself googling "Frank Sinatra's version of 'The Star Spangled Banner'" in an attempt to answer Deborah's rhetorical question as to whether The Chairman ever recorded that song.

I didn't take the time to find a definitive answer, but I found something better: this article published in the Virginia Quarterly Review that provides an amazing amount of insight to Sinatra's roller-coaster career. The article was written in 1999, about a year after the entertainer's death, and as we approach the tenth anniversary of his passing, it remains a fitting tribute: unflinching, respectful, informed.

I always took Sinatra for granted. He was around long before I was born, and he was there, doing his thing (or reinventing it, as the case may be) throughout most of my life. And thus I didn't realize or fully appreciate some of his accomplishments, such as the invention of the "concept album." From the above-linked article:

And at one time, Sinatra held the record for a performance in front of the largest live crowd, 175,000 people in a soccer stadium in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

I highly recommend taking the time to read Michael Nelson's article. I suspect you'll then be tempted to jump over to the iTunes Store or Amazon.com music store and add a few Sinatra tunes to your playlist.

Fun with Bulgarian Euphemisms

Oddest spam received today: an announcement of the National Bulgarian Radio Big Band's production of The Best is Yet to Come, a tribute to Frank Sinatra. The Bulgarian band is available for bookings, in case you have a dance in need of music.

But, that in and of itself isn't so unusual. It's this teaser that seems to indicate that the translation from Bulgarian to English skipped a beat somewhere:

Disappearance? Do the Bulgarians know something we don't? Are or things just that bleak in Bulgaria nowadays?

On the other hand, some people still insist that Elvis is dead.

Sound Pride

• 360 feet of 2- and 4-conductor Monster speaker cable, 1 Niles Modular Speaker Wiring Panel, and 2 Niles Remote Volume Controls – $400.00


• 4 8" Polk in-ceiling speakers with pre-construction mounting brackets – $300.00


• Connecting all the wires five months after running them through the newly-framed house and finding that every single speaker and volume control functions perfectly – Priceless

Now, if only the installation of the flat-panel TV will go as smoothly. I'm afraid I'm a non-native HDMI speaker.

Get out the Vote (No, it's more important than that!)

As many of you know, Kyle Lent is lead guitarist and song writer for The Justin Cofield Band, and we've just learned that the band has been nominated for rock artist of the year by the music site IndieHeaven.

IndieHeaven sponsors the Momentum Awards, an annual worldwide recognition program for Christian independent musicians. The awards are based on fan votes, and that's where we come in.

First, drop by the JCB page at IndieHeaven and listen to some samples of their music. Then, because you'll be suitably impressed, jump over to the voting page, scroll down and cast your vote in the Rock Artist of the Year category.

The awards will be presented at the CIA Summit in Nashville at the end of March. JCB is going to be there; we might as well make sure they come back to Texas with some major bling.

Did I mention that Kyle is a graduate of Midland High School and Texas Tech? That's for you Midlanders and West Texans who are sitting on the fence.

Solid Gold Vinyl

My pal Mark is thinking about digitizing his extensive collection of Slim Whitman albums, but he's leaning toward leaving them on vinyl and buying a new turntable to replace the old and busted Radio Shack model he's nursed along since 1968.

He tells me he's just about decided on this model, which borrows technology from both the Mars Rover and The Terminator.

I can't decide if this is a joke. A hundred large for a 'table? Of course, that works out to just $130 per pound, which probably makes it a better buy than most of the alternatives. Plus, according to the shopping cart calculation, shipping by USPS is only $7.00. And, they take PayPal.

I say, go for it, Mark. And let us know how ol' Slim sounds when spun on bullet-proof wood.

Blast from the Past

We're 60 days from closing on the new house (theoretically) and so we're doing some packing, starting in the closets and cabinets that contain items that don't get a lot of use. We're making some interesting discoveries. To wit...

And, yes, we are taking them with us, along with another dozen or so.

I'll Be Experiencing Cognitive Dissonance for Christmas

Regardless of the time of year you visit Santa Fe, if you make the wise choice to dine at any of the scores of excellent Mexican restaurants scattered throughout the city, you'll likely be presented with the option of having your entrée smothered with a combination of red and green chile, and that option will be referred to as "Christmas." (You should always choose that option, by the way. Trust me on this.)

I bring this up because last night as we were driving home after coffee and dessert, one of the Christmas music stations on XM Radio regaled us with Winter Wonderland as interpreted by the Eurythmics, and among other questions (firmly planted at the top of the list was "why?") was idle speculation as to whether Annie Lennox's scalp at the time of the recording would have properly been referred to as "Christmas."

Movies [that] Rock

We're watching the CBS special Movies Rock which is a tribute to musicals and movie music, and there are some pretty amazing performances by current artists performing some of the great songs from the silver screen. I tuned in late, but here are some of the highlights:

• Jennifer Hudson sang Somewhere from West Side Story, and I can't help wondering why she hasn't yet been showcased in another movie following her amazing performance in Dreamgirls. She's got incredible talent.


• Usher re-created Gene Kelly's classic dance sequence from Singing in the Rain. I confess that I don't know Usher from Rush, but the kid can flat dance. I suspect he was a fan of Gregory Hines; you don't just wake up one morning with those kinds of tap dancing moves.


• OK, how intimidating would it be to sing The Sound of Music in front of a packed house of movie and music professionals? Can you think of anybody who's ever done that song better than Julie Andrews? Well, Carrie Underwood came pretty darned close. If there's a better justification for the existence of a TV show like American Idol than bringing the likes of Jennifer Hudson and Underwood to our attention, I'd like to hear it.


• Nicole Scherzinger's rendition of Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend should be required viewing for pop-tart "performers" like Britney Spears, in the hope that they might begin to discern the distinction between sultry and slutty. [And, by the way, CBS, what's up with failing to give Scherzinger and Usher any billing on your program website?]


• Harrison Ford still has that dorky earring.


• John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer (who will be teaming up for this upcoming movie) teamed up to present some of the funniest musical moments in film history. They could have just shown the The Blues Brothers in its entirety and covered the bases, although Puttin' On the Ritz from Young Frankenstein got a well-deserved place in the sequence.


• John Williams just directed the orchestra in a musical montage of his film scores. These are some of the most recognizable tunes in history. Is there anyone who can't identify the movie scores that feature reek, reek, reek or dum dum dum dum?

Sing Cubed is Not Square

In response to this week's Random Thursday post, Jeff parted the greasewood and mesquite enough to reveal the kind of serendipitous rabbit trail that, for me, is an entirely sufficient reason to keep blogging, by pointing to the following YouTube video showing an excerpt from Benny Goodman's band 1937 performance of Sing, Sing, Sing:

I watch this clip and, frankly, can't think of a better job than being one of the sax players sitting behind Goodman during his solo. What a gig!

That's Gene Krupa on drums. For you kidwinks who never heard of him, Krupa was likely the first drummer to combine flair and skill and get a showcase in a commercially successful band. He and another somewhat skillful (ha!) drummer named Buddy Rich used to do the dueling drummer thing, much to the delight of audiences. Here's an excerpt from a 1956 interview of both men. It's fascinating reading, especially the part where Rich takes on the so-called "cool music" of the day, and the way he felt it excluded musicians of his ilk:

And speaking of their drum battles, here's another YouTube clip of one that was broadcast on the Sammy Davis, Jr. show in 1966. The tune will be recognizable, I think:

Getting back to the original topic, Wikipedia has a pretty good writeup on the history of Sing, Sing, Sing.

I Love Lucy

I drafted this post two weeks ago. After deciding it made me sound like a pitiful fanboy, I put it on hold. Then, yesterday, I again fired up the iPod and after listening to the album three more times, I realized that I am a fanboy. I can live with it.

I was watching a now-forgotten movie on AMC a few weeks ago, and enduring the endless repetition of that channel's ads for upcoming movies. My pain was eased somewhat by the music that accompanied one ad, a snippet remarkable for its energy and intriguing arrangement, a catchy pop tune with some throwbacks to another period, including a clarinet riff and some nasty horns. Fortunately, AMC had the good sense to show the song title and artist in the lower corner of the screen, like MTV used to do in the old days when it actually featured music videos. The song was Use What I Got by a woman named Lucy Woodward. I immediately sought it out on the iTunes Store and invested 99 cents.

Fast forward a couple of weeks. I'm doing some rather tedious image editing, one of the few tasks that actually goes better for me with a musical background. Use What I Got popped into the shuffle rotation, and again sent me back to iTunes where I sampled a few more tracks from its album, Lucy Woodward is Hot and Bothered. Noting that I had a few bucks remaining on account from a gift card, I did something I rarely do: downloaded the rest of the album. I've listened to it a dozen times in the last three days or so.

In a nutshell, I'm smitten by Lucy Woodward's voice and musical talents.

I now see that her songs have been featured in a slew of movies (none of which I've seen, by the way, another testimony to my sad state of uncoolness), and she's even had a top 10 pop song, Dumb Girls (which I sampled and passed on; it's from an earlier album). So I'm late to this bandwagon, but in this case, it's better late than never.

Woodward's got this crazy voice that adjures adjectival alliteration: sultry, sophisticated, sassy, sizzling, soulful. She writes songs that beg for repeat listenings in order to dig all the layers. She has a feel for pop hooks that turn tunes into earworms, but this is oh-so-much more than a pop album. The lyrics are sophisticated and occasionally racy, and the musical references span decades (or, perhaps, centuries) and cultures. How can you not like a song entitled Hot and Bothered set to the tune of a Yiddish lullaby? Woodward cites influences ranging from Julie London to Ray Charles to Bjork to Etta James, and you could picture her singing in a speakeasy from the 40s as easily as in a trendy 21st century nightspot.

The musical arrangements on this album are imaginative and grown-up. This is not your teenybopper's pop music. In fact, the only reason I apply that genre is that it's what the iTunes Store uses. Regardless of the classification, the tunes are uniformly catchy and sufficiently layered (there's that word again) to bear repeated hearing.

I don't buy many albums – Love and Tommy Castro's Painkiller are the only others I've purchased this year, in fact [I would have bought Kyle's In Harbors Gray but I've got connections] – but Hot and Bothered is an investment I'm thrilled to have made. If you've never heard of Lucy Woodward, don't worry; you can make up for it by adding her album to your collection. It may not make you cooler, but then again, you probably won't care.

Technorati tag: Lucy Woodward

Two Theories about the Dumbing Down of Digital Music

iFidelity: Why sound engineers are changing their methods, and shortchanging your ears

In yesterday's Portals column, Wall Street Journal writer Lee Gomes describes how the dominance of personal music players and their reliance on the MP3 audio format has changed not only the music listening and buying habits of consumers, but also the way that music is recorded:

In response, engineers are adapting their techniques in ways that include dropping out higher frequencies (that tend to sound harsh on tiny earbuds) and jacking up the volume (in response to the impression – right or wrong – that iPod listeners like it loud. Some of the engineers quoted by Gomes talk about the disappearance of more complex music with rich tonal layers that tend to get lost in the compression required by the MP3 format, or that can't be reproduced by cheap earbuds.

This is nothing new. I remember that the big complaint when CDs were introduced was that the music was cold and harsh, lacking the warmth and character of its vinyl counterpart. Sound engineering technology and techniques eventually overcame those complaints, and I suspect the same will happen with the new ones.

What's a bit disturbing, however, is not that the music is losing quality when it's ripped to MP3 (or AAC or whatever compressed format you pick), but that the source data is being compromised, in the studio. If the tones aren't on the master, they're gone. I had always assumed that digital music was sort of like digital photography. Even though -- or because -- I know that an image will be down-sampled before it hits the web, I want to have the highest resolution possible in my source image, so I can always go back and create a less compressed version if necessary. This principle appears to be lacking in sound engineering philosophy described in the column.

This means that it won't do much good to opt for a higher quality version of your digital music (like that offered in the iTunes Store for a higher price), because the source file was compromised from the start.

I'd be interested to get some input on this issue from a professional musician/recording studio owner like, say, Kyle.

But, that's not the only issue at work here...

The iPod Generation: Mos Def or Mostly Deaf?

Leaving out those tonal nuances may not be a big deal after all, given that the iPod generation is largely comprised of two demographics that share a common trait: hearing loss.

As more boomers adopt the new technology, you can bet they're not hearing those high frequencies with the same clarity they did in their 20s and 30s. There's a good reason why high school students use a special high-pitched ring tone (when they're not using an annoying hip-hop tone instead) on their phones: teachers can't hear it. I've experienced this first hand, watching kids twitch like dogs in obedience class in response to the vast nothingness that intruded upon my consciousness.

But it's not just us oldies that are becoming hearing-impaired. Is there any doubt that the earbud generation will reap what it sows in terms of decibel deficit, and probably sooner than later? Parents, how many of your kids have activated the automatic volume limiter feature on their iPods? Did you even know it exists?

So, it's perhaps a moot point as to whether sound engineers should "dumb down" their musical products or not. The relevant question is when is Apple going to introduce subtitles on its video 'pods for both lyrics and soundtracks?

Chill Bump Inducing

Update: Deborah (whose absence from the blogosphere has only one acceptable excuse, which is that she's focused on writing a novel – and if that's not the case, then we demand some new Glove Box Stories, toot sweet) tells me that the man in the video linked below is singing the Nessun Dorma from Puccini's "Turandot," one of her favorite operas. She provides a helpful link to a translation and exposition of that aria. While I'm impressed with her knowledge and passion for this art form – and I love having opera-lovers for readers; it makes me feel less low-rent – for me, this video is not really about the opera. The guy could be singing the back of a Cheerios box and still deserve a standing ovation. Although I'll confess that his performance is made more meaningful because of his choice of material. He's obviously in it for the love of the music, and not for the commercial potential.

Jimmy posted a link to the short version of the following video. It speaks for itself.

Buy this DVD: "Rocking the Boat"

My "Pre-Release Special Limited Edition" copy of Rocking the Boat: A Musical Conversation & Journey arrived in yesterday afternoon's mail delivery. I opened the package immediately but managed the discipline to delay putting it in the player until late in the afternoon. Good thing, too, because once I started it, I couldn't tear myself away.

I mentioned this movie in a recent post about Delbert McClinton's local appearance last Saturday. In that post, I lamented the lack of intimacy in the concert venue that kept McClinton's music from being at its best. This DVD overcomes that limitation, and then some. The movie is a compilation of interviews and performances arising from McClinton's annual floating R&B festival – a chartered cruise ship filled with amazing musicians and appreciative fans. If you appreciate "lyric based rhythm and blues" (and, really, who doesn't?), and especially if you like the Texas and Louisiana flavors of the blues (as opposed to, say, Mississippi and Georgia), then this disk is an absolute must-have.

The cruises feature a wide range of music, ranging from alt-country to gospel to roadhouse blues to zydeco. Most of the songs are performed by the people who wrote them. Joining Delbert are luminaries such as Marcia Ball (who is introduced by a worshipful McClinton – "listening to her is like...hearing the truth."), Rodney Crowell (whose rendition of "Dancin' Circles Round the Sun" had me filling my iTunes Store shopping cart with more of his music), Paul Thorn (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Jason Statham of The Transporter movie franchise, albeit with an Alabama accent), and many others.

As much as anything, this is a tribute by, for, and to people who just like making music. They're not in it for the money; they're in it for the music, and it shows. If that statement doesn't resonate with you, you're better off with anything from the Hottest Hits rack at Best Buy, but if you know what I'm saying, you'll want to click over and buy the movie. At $25, it ain't cheap, but when you spread it out over the repeat viewings and listenings you'll subject it to, it'll be a rare value.

Note that this movie is unrated, and there are a few occurrences of strong language.

Margarita & Salsa Festival: Part 3

If you're just tuning in, we're continuing our report from last Saturday's Margarita & Salsa Festival in downtown Midland, where Leon Russell, Jonny Lang, and Delbert McClinton provided several hours of live music for an appreciative crowd. Part 1, covering Russell's act, is here, and Part 2, featuring Jonny Lang, is here.

Delbert McClinton's the real reason I was willing to pony up $30 bucks per ticket to attend the Margarita & Salsa Festival last Saturday evening. As I mentioned previously, I'm not a huge fan of Leon Russell, and Jonny Lang's music was relatively unfamiliar to me, but my musical proclivities go way back with Delbert.

He wasn't my first introduction to blues – that would be Paul Butterfield and the Butterfield Blues Band – but I wore out the cassette tape of his 1979 album, The Jealous Kind. But in all those intervening years, I never took the opportunity to see him in concert.

I'd like to say that it was worth the wait, but, frankly, by the time he and his band got on stage, my wife and I were worn out. To make matters worse, the sound crew inexplicably cranked up the volume (and apparently shoved the treble slider up past ten, to boot), creating a sound that could cut steel. Even though we were 75 yards from the stage and speakers, we felt pummeled; we made it through 45 minutes of the set and then headed home.

Another disappointment: Delbert's music is tailored for a more intimate setting, perhaps in a bar with a couple hundred appreciative fans in attendance. His songs tell stories, and fascinating ones at that. I can't blame any musician for seeking out larger venues (and the irony of downtown Midland being considered a "larger venue" is not lost on me), but in McClinton's case, the lyrics get lost in an open-air setting among office buildings.

That's not to say that his music isn't enjoyable apart from the lyrics. As one would expect, he's surrounded himself with excellent musical talent, and his music spans a wide variety of styles. I simply wish I could experience it in a better setting.

Like, say, the Sandy Beaches Cruise that Delbert sponsors each year. It's a cruise ship filled with big time blues musicians and their fans; the 14th edition sails next January out of San Diego and down the western coast of Mexico, and will feature artists like Marcia Ball (did you catch that, Gwynne?), Jimmy Hall, and Stephen Bruton.

It sounds like fun, but the prices are pretty steep. I'll have to be content with ordering the new DVD, Rocking the Boat, which was filmed mostly on last year's cruise. The movie debuted at the 2006 Austin Film Festival. Here's the set list for the DVD.

Despite being a little disappointed with Delbert's appearance (but also pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the previous two acts mentioned above), I do have a little pixelage for your viewing and listening pleasure. The first video focuses on Delbert; the second one features some of his band members.

That wraps up the Gazette's coverage of the inaugural (and oddly-named) Margarita & Salsa Festival. It was a great beginning and I hope the organizers are energized enough to make it an annual tradition in Midland.

Margarita & Salsa Festival: Part 2

If you're just tuning in, we're continuing our report from last Saturday's Margarita & Salsa Festival in downtown Midland, where Leon Russell, Jonny Lang, and Delbert McClinton provided several hours of live music for an appreciative crowd. Part 1, covering Russell's act, is here.

By the way, I'm less than impressed with the response time for YouTube to process and activate the video clips I've uploaded. Those linked below were uploaded around 4pm yesterday and as of this writing (16 hours later), are still awaiting processing. If you aren't seeing the YouTube video links below, I've provided alternate links to the original QuickTime movie files. The alternative movies are higher quality than the YouTube-rendered videos, for what it's worth.

Jonny Lang is a musical prodigy. At 26, he's still just a kid, at least as far as the blues genre goes, but his voice and guitar skills are a match for anyone in the business. My first encounter with Lang was his appearance in the uniformly awful Blues Brothers 2000; he was 17 when the movie was released, and he was a wild child apparently born with a guitar in his hand. I never saw him again until last Saturday night.

Jimmy compares him to a Joe Cocker/Stevie Ray Vaughan hybrid, and while I bow before the Jimster's superior musical intellect, I think that the only thing Lang shares with Cocker is his ability to become totally immersed in his music. But there's no doubt that Lang, as our friend Toni put it Saturday night, "has a voice made for the blues."

As with the previous installment, I'm providing some horribly amateurish video clips to go along with this report. Here's one focused on Lang himself:

Lang has surrounded himself with some fine musicians. Here are clips of his backup singer and rhythm guitarist. The former could easily front his own group, and the latter's immaculate control is a great complement to Lang's more free spirited riffs.

Alternate Link for preceding clip

Of course, what concert would be complete without a drum solo?

Alternate Link for preceding clip

And, finally, here's the whole ensemble, performing a portion of Faithful:

Alternate Link for preceding clip

Much has been made about Lang's conversion to Christianity, and his music reflects that change. The instrumentals are as driving as ever – there's nothing the man can't do with a guitar – but the lyrics, while still bluesy, speak more often to redemption, hope, and positive change. He's not overtly evangelistic, but he's putting out a message of optimism that's a pleasant contrast to many on the contemporary music scene. (His latest album, Turn Around, contains some traditional Gospel tracks, some of which are getting airplay on XM Radio's Contemporary Christian channel as well as on Air1.)

Lang and his group played for more than an hour, leaving the stage to a standing ovation shortly after 10:00 p.m.

Next up: Delbert McClinton and his classic Texas blues

Margarita & Salsa Festival: Part 1

Last night was the inaugural Margarita and Salsa Festival in downtown Midland, an event which I hope will become a permanent fixture if this year's edition is the standard for future shows. This outdoor concert featured three legendary musicians, Leon Russell, Jonny Lang, and Delbert McClinton. It was an interesting mixture, considering that the first and last performers are old enough to be the middle one's grandfathers, but they all have tremendous musical talent, and I'm still impressed that someone in Midland had the mojo to get all of them on the same ticket.

One puzzling thing about the event was the conspicuous absence of, well, margaritas and salsa (and guacamole). We had understood that there would be a competition in those three categories, but if it occurred, it took place in an undisclosed location, and the identities of the prizewinners are a state secret. But that didn't detract from the quality of the music.

I'm going to break my report into three parts to make it more manageable (not only for me, but also for you, dear reader – I'm always thinking of you!). First up: Leon, who opened the show, and played a non-stop set of about fifty minutes. And when I say "non-stop," I'm not exaggerating. He said perhaps five sentences to the audience, and none until after a half dozen songs. His set was eclectic – as one would expect – with covers of "Jumping Jack Flash," "Great Balls of Fire," and "Georgia On My Mind," among many others. I've never been a huge fan of Russell's music, but his band is tight and they get the crowd rocking.

I toted my little DV cam to the concert, leaving the still camera at home, and while I did regret not getting some close-up stills, I also found that I captured some interesting video footage, and I want to share some of that (courtesy of those fine folks over at YouTube). The following clips are not intended to provide examples of Russell's music; instead, I've concentrated on some of the more, um, esoteric aspects of the concert.

For example, I was fascinated by the percussion instrument played by the lone female musician of the evening. Can anyone identify it (Kyle?)?

Update: According to a YouTube commenter, the instrument is a shekere, which in its original form was a dried gourd covered with beads or shells. Russell's variation appears to be a bit more high-tech, but the basic premise is probably the same.

Russell's lead guitarist has an interesting technique. As far as I could tell, he uses only his thumb, and doesn't use a pick. But that didn't stop him from slamming out some smokin' riffs:

[Update: YouTube has failed to render the video of Russell's drummer despite two separate uploads, so I've deleted it as well as the description of it in this post. Because of this, some of the comments may seem irrelevant.]

Here's a short clip of the band at work:

In closing, I ran into a friend at the concert told me that he was there to hear Delbert McClinton, but his wife was a big Leon Russell fan. He then said, "I saw Leon in concert in 1973 and he was old then!" How old is he? (Not as old as Delbert, which you might find surprising. And unspoken was our mutual understanding that neither of us are that much younger than Leon.) Watch this clip to the end in order to get a familiar cultural reference:

Next up: Jonny Lang, Nodak rocker extraordinaire (and nice guy, to boot!)

DRM: The Stake is Driven Deeper

At the risk of being overly dramatic, it's quite possible that Amazon.com's decision to start offering DRM-free music downloads will spell the end of that misguided attempt to control what consumers do with their purchases.

Of course, the momentum for this got its start when Apple announced last month that EMI had agreed to offer its catalog DRM-free via the iTunes Store. Amazon's announcement validates the wisdom of that move.

Don't be surprised to see record labels falling all over themselves to get on this bandwagon.

The linked article in Playlist mentioned "12,000 labels" will participate in the venture. I'm no expert in the music business but that looks like a typo. Are there really more than 12,000 record labels in existence? Amazing, if true.

Delbert coming to Midland!

I just learned that Delbert McClinton will be playing a concert along with Jonny Lang and Leon Russell, as a part of the "Margarita and Salsa Festival" in downtown Midland on June 9th.

A show featuring any one of these guys would be worth attending, but having all three in the line-up is pretty amazing. We'll be there.

You can be there, too -- drop by this website to buy and print your tickets, which are $26.50 (plus $3.50 handling -- I guess those pixels are expensive to push around).

Musical Announcement

In case you haven't checked in a while, Kyle Lent's new solo CD, In Harbors Gray, will be released on May 8.

You can pre-order it for $9.99 at Urban Junk. I think it will also be available via the iTunes Store at some point if you're not into plasticware.

Signs of Impending Armageddon - #1,238

If you think that God doesn't have a sense of humor, consider this. As of a moment ago (things may have changed by the time you read this) the #8 best-selling music CD at Amazon.com is Donny Osmond's "Love Songs of the 70s."

And for those who are still truly committed to the album concept, consider this. Does the world really need another version of Gilbert O'Sullivan's suicidally whiny Alone Again Naturally*?

*And, pray tell, how is this a love song, exactly?

Cover Art Contest

Update #2: I do have to wonder what will happen when Google caches THIS copy of the post. Can the two co-exist without tearing asunder the very fabric of the below-referenced universe? Stay tuned...

Update (4/25): Thank goodness for Google's cache, into which a copy of this post was written mere hours after it was published, thereby allowing me to resurrect it after I inadvertently overwrote it with a new post. The order of the universe has been restored.

Oh, and Bob (guessed the artist name) and Rachel (guessed the song title) are still the joint winners of the contest.

Here's a softball of a contest. Identify the group and Side A of the 45 associated with this jacket:

I have to make a quick trip out of town and may not be able to monitor your responses, but I'll be back later this evening and we can settle up then.

No Beatles (yet), but no DRM, either...

Sorry for the string of iTunes and digital music posts, but that's just what's catching my attention nowadays. We'll soon return you to our regular Content Free™ posting as soon as I can...oh, look! A baby squirrel!

Steve Jobs big joint announcement with music company EMI did not include the hoped-for news that the Beatles' music catalog would be available via the iTunes Store, but it may be even more significant for those who purchase and download their music.

EMI has agreed to release its entire music and video catalog free of a Digital Rights Management (DRM) scheme, meaning that the downloads can be played on any digital music player, and the purchaser can copy it to his or her heart's content. Even better, this new DRM-free content will be encoded (at least on the iTunes Store) at twice the bit-rate of regular DRM-protected music, meaning higher quality tunes. The downside will be larger files and a higher price -- $.30/song more -- but neither of those should be a significant factor for those who want better sounding music and more freedom to manage the music they've paid for.

On iTunes anyway, you'll still have the choice of purchasing the smaller, cheaper, DRM-saddled music whenever it's available in both formats.

That sound you're now hearing, in 256kbps non-protected AAC format, is the noise the DRM Wall makes as it begins to crumble, and Steve Jobs is swinging the biggest sledgehammer of them all.

A Musician Weighs in On iTunes CMA

I love it when this happens. Kyle Lent checked in after I posted about Apple's new iTunes Store feature, "Complete My Album," and left a comment about it. He then crafted a longer post over at his provocatively titled blog, Kyle Lent.com, in which he shared his philosophy as a musician about why listeners and music purchasers shouldn't take albums for granted. It's well worth the read; Kyle's already got music on the iTunes Store (via the Justin Cofield Band) and will soon have a new solo album on the Store -- plus, he owns a commercial recording studio -- so his opinions are based in experience and expertise.

For the record, I've never assumed that [most] musicians didn't put any thought into the order in which the tracks appeared on their albums, or whether they "fit together" musically or thematically. That, to me, is simply a part of the implied artistic vision that I assume [most] musicians bring to the creation of an album. From their perspective, when we listeners/music buyers monkey with that, we're desecrating their vision.

On the other hand, just because they have that intricately worked-out vision doesn't mean that listeners agree with or appreciate it. Even musicians themselves disagree, as Kyle takes The Fray to task for the order of a couple of songs on one of that group's albums. I suspect they'd accuse Kyle of meddling.

And that's fine. On the third hand (see, Kyle, I can do it too), money has flowed out one pocket into another, and benefits accrue thereto. The buyer has purchased the right to rearrange (or ignore) the tracks; the artist gets the dinero needed to fund the realization of his or her next vision -- whether it's musical or putting dinner on the table.

I do think Kyle could come up with a better "proof of concept" album than Abbey Road, however, as most of that album was created for continuous play. However, I don't think I'd care one whit whether Octopus's Garden came immediately after Something, instead of Maxwell's Silver Hammer. But, then, I'm not a musician, and I'll stand corrected by anyone who can present a good case for it being like it is.

Technorati tag: Complete My Album

iTunes = Death to Albums? Maybe not...

A recent post about the "Definitive 200" list of "must have" albums generated some interesting discussion about a peripheral issue: whether or not the ability to purchase and download individual tracks instead of buying the whole album is a good thing for musicians. My general feeling is that listeners shouldn't be forced to buy "filler" they don't want; others, such as Scott (whose opinions are always worth considering), felt that this was a disservice to the artists, and especially to so-called independent musicians without big studio or label budgets behind them.

I guess Apple must have been monitoring the discussion, given yesterday's announcement of a new feature at the iTunes Store called "Complete My Album" (CMA). CMA basically ensures that if you buy individual cuts from an album via iTunes and later decide you want the entire album, you don't have to pay again for the tracks you already own.

This feature is being applied retroactively -- for a limited period. You have until June 26th to complete any album you've ever purchased from the iTunes Store. Thereafter, you'll have 180 days from the purchase of an individual track to take advantage of CMA. (Update: I just checked the iTunes Store CMA page, and the retroactive offer applies only to "eligible" albums, of which there are only 86. Going forward, all "qualifying" albums will be available via CMA; presumably, some artists/labels have not agreed to this feature. You can check Apple's FAQ page for more details.)

Further update: I completely misunderstood the CMA page on iTunes. It's not showing ALL of the albums that are eligible, just those in MY iTunes library that I can complete under the new program. Sorry for the misleading information. I thought it was odd that every one of those 86 albums looked verrrry familiar! ;-)

Obviously, Apple is hoping this will spur music sales -- and it does seem to remove one of the barriers to taking the plunge on music which you've sampled and liked, but didn't want to buy again in order to get the rest of the album. It also adds some incentive to try out music from new and/or obscure (in the marketing sense of the word) musicians. It's not a complete answer to the concerns expressed by Scott, but it may be the best that can be achieved in the new world of digital music delivery.

Technorati tag: Complete My Album

The Definitive 200: Additional Thoughts

A couple of folks have observed via comment on the previous post the tilting of the population of the recently announced "Definitive 200" albums toward music from the 60s and 70s.

Setting aside the very real possibility that the music was simply better back then, I wonder if we're also seeing the impact of music downloads on album sales, something I'll call ICE (the "iTunes Chilling Effect"). As folks become increasingly released from the burden of having to buy an entire album to get the song(s) they really like, the focus on the album should inevitably lessen, and not just from the consumer's perspective.

The recent hoopla over Coldplay's return to the recording studio provides some provocative ammo for this argument. The lead singer is pitching the new album, of course, but even more pointed is his attempt to focus on a single song that will appear on the album: "...we have to have one song that we feel like everybody has to hear ... before we die." Could that be a subconscious acknowledgment that the album is no longer the touchstone for music delivery?

How many albums have you purchased in the last five years, vs. single track downloads? I've got 300 tracks in my iTunes Purchased Music playlist dating back to 2004 -- but only seven complete album downloads. The only albums we've purchased in plasticware form have been either ballroom dance music (don't get me started) or the Beatles' Love (which is, of course, unavailable via iTunes). I don't see that trend changing. Ever.

Technorati tag: The Definitive 200

The Definitive 200

I'm sure you soon won't be able to swing a dead cat without hitting a blog post devoted to the "Definitive 200" list of "must-have" albums just released by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Association of Music Retailers. Watch for an endless variety of memes whereby bloggers bold the albums they have, italicize those they really liked, and highlight in red those they would have bought had they not spent all their money on drugs and/or leisure suits.

Here at the Gazette, however, we're all about statistics, and we've performed as exhaustive an analysis of this list as permitted by a 3rd grade level of expertise with in Excel. Here are a few of the results of this scrutiny.

Artists with three or more albums on the list:

• 5 - Beatles, Led Zeppelin
• 4 - Metallica, Rolling Stones
• 3 - Bod Dylan, Dixie Chicks (!), Jay-Z, Michael Jackson, Pink Floyd, Prince, U2

# of Soundtracks on the list: 8

Time span of list: 1954 - 2004

# of albums by decade:

• 50s - 4
• 60s - 17
• 70s - 58
• 80s - 40
• 90s - 56
• 00s - 25

Years with no selections: 1955, 57, 60, 62, 63, 74 (!)

Years with only one selection (after 1965):

• 1982 - Michael Jackson - Thriller
• 1990 - LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out

Most obvious omissions and travesties

• Nothing by Chicago or Blood, Sweat & Tears
• Albums by Faith Hill and Shania Twain, but none from Merle Haggard or George Strait
• Soundtrack from Forrest Gump but not Woodstock
• Three albums by the Dixie Chicks

Don't trust our analyses, or want to roll your own? Download the list in a well-formatted Excel spreadsheet and knock yourself out.

Technorati tag: Definitive 200

Knew him when...

Do you know anyone famous, infamous, semi-famous, or should-be-famous-if-there-was-any-justice, and you can say about that person, "I knew her/him when..."?

I know several folks who fall into that category, ranging from a multi-millionaire would-be-governor of Texas whose lawn I used to mow when I was in junior high, to a current US congressman whom I met with on Wednesday evenings in our roles as directors of our respective Sunday School departments. But I also know someone who may be on the verge of becoming an "I knew him when..." candidate, and if you pay attention, you'll be able to make that same claim.

I'm referring to Kyle Lent, whose blog is listed over at right in the "Other Texas Blogs" category. Kyle grew up in Midland, graduated from MHS, and we count his parents as dear friends. He now lives in the Austin area, is a member of a Christian band, and owns a recording studio. He's also working on a solo musical project, and that's the real subject of this post.

He's posted links to four of the songs on the new album, which will be titled In Harbors Gray, and I'm impressed. I've got all the CDs recorded by his current group, the Justin Cofield Band, but, frankly, his solo work is much more my cup of tea. I recommend dropping by his place and listening to the songs; if you have time for only one track, start with the bluesy Providence. I think Kyle would probably tell you that he's been influenced musically by people like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jonny Lang, and he's skillfully woven those influences around a worshipful song.

Somewhere in a shoe box in a closet, I have an 8mm video tape of Kyle and his dad playing guitars in a talent show at a local fair. I don't know how old he was at the time...early teens, I think, but he was the crowd favorite. To this day, I still can't figure out how the judges decided some doofus pre-teen boy in a sequined suit singing and dancing to a Broadway show tune was superior to a rockin' dude belting out licks with his guitar behind his head, but I guess that falls into the last category of "famous" I mentioned above.

Anyway, take a listen to Kyle's music, and when you start hearing it on the radio and downloading it from iTunes, you'll be able to say "I knew him when..."

Loving "Love"

I stopped by Sam's Club yesterday afternoon to stock up on bottled water and batteries, not wanting to be caught unprepared for the next great Nonexistent Blizzard of Ought Seven, and on a whim added The Beatles "Love" to my flatbed. I had read glowing recommendations in sundry newspaper columns and blogs, including those from the Brothers Jim, and while I don't always agree with the latter's musical tastes, I have to say that in this case they are, if anything, under-enthusiastic.

In case you have the same misconception I did about this album, it's not simply a new compilation of old Beatles tunes. Sure, it's a collection of Fab Four staples, because, after all, they're not recording together anymore (in case you haven't kept up). But through some technological magic -- I don't think this project could have been pulled off fifteen years ago -- and the creative genius of Sir George Martin and his son Giles, original tracks laid down by the Beatles have been mashed up with a tasteful dollop of new and assorted loops and effects to produce a recording that's a sonic delight that manages to capture the amazing diversity of the group's original music while presenting it in a new light.

If you're a traditionalist, this may not be your cup of tea, but I still urge you to give it a chance. The package I bought comes with two disks, both containing the same music. One's a standard CD, the other's a DVD which presents the music in 5.1 Dolby/DTS surround sound. My advice is buy the dual package and listen to the DVD on a good surround sound system, and prepare to be awed by both the clarity of the music and the skill of the producers.

I don't necessarily agree with the all of the choices the producers made. For example, the intro to Lady Madonna is a bit too cute and frantic for my taste, and some of the electronica seems to be an uneasy fit with the original arrangements, making them seem more like Broadway showtunes, ala the finale of All That Jazz. On the other hand, the arrangements as heard on the DVD should dispel any notion that Ringo Starr was a sub-par drummer.

Overall, this is a masterpiece that should serve to reinforce the sometimes under-appreciated musical talents of the Beatles.

Incidentally, this is the first music on disk I've purchased in more than a year. If and when the Beatles catalog becomes available on the iTunes Store, I hope the surround sound version of this collection will be one of the options; if not, it will be a good case for the argument that the plasticware version of music is not yet dead.

Digging the Dirt on iTunes Store "Clean"

In response to a number of comments left on yesterday's post about the odd labeling in the iTunes Store of several songs by Christian rock band Audio Adrenaline, I did a little more exploration of the Store and learned enough to formulate a plausible explanation.

According to the iTS's page about Music Ratings (this link will work only if you have iTunes installed), the "Clean Lyrics" label (represented on iTS as an icon labeled simply "Clean," as seen on yesterday's post) is used "to differentiate the edited version of an album or song whose content has been modified from its original form so that it does not require the Parental Advisory Label." This is in keeping with the RIAA's guidelines on parental advisories.

In and of itself, this explanation still doesn't clarify the labeling of a handful of Audio Adrenaline's songs as "clean," but I looked closer at the song listing and discovered that all of the songs so labeled were taken from various albums and combined into a five song compilation entitled Top 5 Hits: Audio Adrenaline (EP). Thus, a mindless application of the RIAA guidelines apparently requires the labeling of these songs since they were modified from their original release, if only by virtue of their being put in a different lineup than the albums from whence they came.

This also explains why one listing of the song is labeled "Clean" while the original version is unlabeled.

None of this seems logical or helpful, but I can't think of a better explanation.

Of potentially more interest is this paragraph lifted from the above-linked page on the RIAA website (emphasis added):

One might wonder if Apple is violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the RIAA guidelines by labeling this music in this manner, as I can't imagine that the band or the record label would ask for such a label. It would be interesting to know if Audio Adrenaline is aware that some of its music is being labeled "Clean," and how the band might feel about the implication that its non-labeled music is explicit.

Deciphering iTunes Parental Warning Labels

A couple of posts back I mentioned hearing Audio Adrenaline's cover of The Little Drummer Boy on the radio. What I neglected to mention was that in the process of searching for the song on the iTunes Store, I ran across something very odd. See if you can spot it in this screenshot:

I didn't focus on it at the time, but the question finally formed in my distracted brain...why did the iTunes Store feel it necessary to label specific songs from an evangelical Christian band as "Clean"?

And does that mean that the non-labeled songs are, well, dirty? (OK, Apple actually uses the label "Explicit" for songs that carry parental advisories.) Gosh, there's even a song entitled "Dirty" at the top of the shot, so that makes sense. Sort of.

Or, given the genre of music, does it really mean that the other songs are explicitly Christian, and perhaps these two are just nominally so?

I'd be interested in knowing just how the iTunes folks go about deciding which labels go on which music.

Musical Miscellany

Repeated iPod Playing: Fool's Paradise by Monday Morning. Wonder of it All (Next Year) is getting a lot of airplay on Air 1, and deservedly so. It's got the catchiest hook since Deeper by Delirious (with even the song title borrowing a phrase from the latter anthem).

Best Cover of a Christmas Song: Little Drummer Boy by Guns n' Roses Audio Adrenaline, as found on the WOW Christmas compilation CD. One of the Amazon.com reviewers refers to it as a weird, punked-out version, but my response is, "and your point would be?" I can't think of a song more deserving of being "punked out," unless it's MLB's least favorite seasonal song, Go Tell It On The Mountain.

Gift Music

After reading a gushing review of Marcia Ball's music over at Gwynne's joint, I decided to take a look at the iTunes Store and see what it had to offer. I discovered two things. First, I was familiar with Ms. Ball's music, even though I didn't know it. I immediately recognized her distinctive voice, and so I thumbed through my iPod and sure enough, her rendition of Eugene is in a blues/zydeco compilation entitled Out of the Blue. I'm not crazy about that particular song, but listening to the samples from Ball's Live! Down The Road album highlighted some tracks I'd like to add to my library.

That segues into the second thing I learned, which is that the iTunes Store now has an option to send a song, an album, or a playlist as a gift to someone else. Perhaps this option has been around for a long time, but I just noticed it, and aside from the really annoying way that Apple displays the option ("Gift This Music") I think this is an excellent idea. The only problem is that not everyone has access to the iTunes Store. Wouldn't it be nice to know in advance if this kind of gift was possible?

I've come up with one possible solution, at least as far as bloggers are concerned. Please meet the newest member of the button family, "iTake iTunes." By displaying this chiclet on your blog or personal website, you tell the world that you're not only cool enough to have access to the iTunes Store, but also greedy needy willing to accept the gift of music from anyone so inclined to buy it for you.

If you think this is a good idea -- and, really, who wouldn't? I mean, it could lead to free music, and if the downside is that it might be by Brad Paisley, well, life's a risk, isn't it? -- feel free to download the little image and post it on your site, and sit back and wait for the tunes to roll in.

[By the way, the concept of creating a custom playlist and giving it to someone else raises a lot of interesting scenarios...like, what songs would you include on a playlist for your ex-whatever? Or for your least favorite boss? Or for Howard Dean? Or for that North Korean lunatic-for-life?]

Call me on my rhumba numba

You know those people with the fancy schmancy cell phones and the obnoxious ringtones that play entire songs and annoy you to no end but they think they're really cool? You know -- those people, um, like me:

G'head, give a listen. It's just 62kb.

I've never before had a phone with Bluetooth and MP3 capabilities and when MLB and I got new RAZRs a couple of weeks ago, it set me off on a path that will eventually lead me straight to perdition, but the journey surely is fun.

I used iTunes to snip a section of music from one of our dance numbers ("Sway," by The Pussycat Dolls), which was a bit more complicated than usual since it was in Protected AAC format (purchased from the iTunes Music Store) and I had to get around the DRM protection. I then moved the MP3 over to the phone via Bluetooth and assigned it to my wife's mobile number so I'll be able to quickly recognize her call, not to mention aggravate everyone around me.

But, lest those put-upon souls become too exercised over the ringtone, they should be forewarned: it could get worse. I have a rhumba and I know how to use it.

The one thing I wish I'd done is edit the clip to fade it at the end, not that I plan on ever letting it run that long...

The Outlaw 92.5 Update: No Chicks Allowed?

I've been streaming The Outlaw 92.5, an alternative country music radio station originating in San Antonio (and first discussed here), for about six hours during mindless Photoshopping and web maintenance work over the last couple of days, and while it's occasionally amusing, periodically entertaining, and generally harmless, I have just one question: where are the women?

In those six hours of listening, I have heard zero-zip-nada-no songs by a female artist. What's up with that? Are there no "musical outlaws" of the distaff persuasion in Texas? I guess Gretchen Wilson (for example) is too much of a Nashville Yankee to qualify.

That's pretty lame, when you think about it.

On the other hand, by my scientific measurement and analysis, 84% of the songs mentioned drinking beer until senseless, so it's got that going for it.

Update: In the interest of providing fair and balanced reporting, I need to let you know that only 80 minutes after this post, the station played "Something The Doctor Didn't Order" by Bonnie Bishop. It was quite excellent, by the way.

Technorati tags: 92.5 The Outlaw | KRPT-FM Radio

Streaming Texas

Scott's nailed it, calling it "Our Kind of Music." I'm streaming this bad boy as I type this and it's the aural version of comfort food.

The best part? You don't even have to be Texan to enjoy it. (But you might need a translator. ;-)

It is kind of a lame name, though.

Technorati tag: 92.5 The Outlaw

Ancient Media Weekend

We spent a quiet, mostly un-busy Memorial Day weekend at home. Caught a movie, did a couple of bike rides (including one Monday morning on a parallel route for our own version of Rolling Thunder...it's pretty cool being passed by more than 300 motorcycles, most of whom waved or honked at the sight of our bike, which was longer than most of them), went to our usual Saturday evening dance class (learned a killer tango step..."killer" is the proper word because you don't want to be anywhere near us when we try to pull it off), worked the TV broadcast at church Sunday morning, and took food to a family in our Sunday School class whose mother/grandmother passed away earlier that morning.

Amongst all of that we also partook of some old-school media. On Saturday afternoon, I plugged in a 1995 episode of The X-Files ("Humbug," if you must know; remember it?), one of a dozen or so we have on that flash-in-the-pan medium of laserdisc, the video equivalent of 8-track tape, only much higher quality. In fact, I continue to believe that laserdisc video is superior to any non-HD DVD I've seen.

And interspersed through the entire weekend I endeavored to digitize a half dozen LPs my wife had bought at an estate sale the weekend before. They were old ballroom dance albums (a couple by Arthur Murray and the rest by artists and on a label I'd never heard of, including Billy Mays and his orchestra; I thought he only pitched cleaning products on TV).

I used Sound Studio to record the LPs via my laptop, then ran the resulting AIFF file through SoundSoap to minimize the pops, reduced the turntable rumble, and add some low end frequency punch. I then returned to Sound Studio to break the enhanced AIFF into its component tracks, which were imported into iTunes for the addition of meta data and consolidation into a playlist, which was then loaded onto an iPod. The culmination was that Monday night, I routed a ripped tango on the iPod through the stereo and we did a little ripping ourselves.

Killer weekend...just killer.

Cover Art Contest

Final Update: We have a winner, and a Midlander to boot: Sherry correctly identified the cover as The Rolling Stones' "Child of the Moon." This is actually the jacket from a 45 rpm single, and is the flip side of the better known "Jumpin' Jack Flash." Congratulations to Sherry, who will be disappointed to learn that I actually have very modest dreams in terms of fame and fortune.

[Did I mention that our first dog was a chewer?]

Update #2: The cover grows clearer, even as the guesses get muddier.

Update #1: I'm feeling generous (we just got a brief rainshower) so I've uncovered some more squares.

The outcry over the absence of a Gazette cover art contest has been deafening, and who am I to resist a force of nature? You know the drill. Be the first to provide the correct artist and title of the record that the following cover belongs to, and win fame and fortune beyond my wildest dreams. Of course, every now and then, I'll uncover more of the artwork, if you're stumped.

Oh, and Wallace...it's not "A Hard Day's Night."

"It's not nice to mess with the Beatles"

Playlist Magazine has a fascinating -- well, if you're fascinated by trademark law, but who isn't? -- look at the long-running and contentious relationship between Apple Computer and the Beatles' business affairs company, Apple Corps. That relationship garnered the media spotlight again last week as Computer successfully defended itself against a lawsuit brought by Corps alleging misuse of the Apple logo in conjunction with the iTunes Music Store.

The case highlights the challenges arising from evolving technologies, and the importance of having a skilled legal team capable of drawing up contracts that can protect a company's interests even when the threats can't be exactly predicted. The article shows how Apple Computer's inability to do this hurt it in the past, and how Apple Corps' seemingly invincible legal team finally fumbled.

Technorati tags: Apple Computer | Apple Corps

Indie CDs

What do Mic City Sons, Bellybutton, Gods and Monsters, and Iron and Wine have in common? Well, as you've probably intuited (yech...I hate that word) from the post title, they are all indie CDs, but they also comprise 0.39960% of Coverpop's Flash-based interactive Indie Rock compilation.

If you have an hour or so to kill, this is not the page to visit, as you will surely end up doing just that.

Fire Ant Theatre: Classical Readings, Vol. II

Our second installment of FATCRs takes us places where, really, no one should ever go. Oh, it begins innocently enough, with a reading of a short original essay, but then something goes dreadfully wrong. I'm at a complete loss to explain why I ever thought this was a good idea.

For what it's worth, I don't own any woven hemp sandals, and despite how it may sound, no living creatures were harmed in the making of this recording. As far as the effect of listening to it...well, you're own your on.

Go ahead, fellow bloggers; laugh it up...but consider the gauntlet tossed.

"I'm King Dork and I want you to be my Queeeeeeen...."

The debut novel by Frank Portman (of The Mr. T Experience), King Dork, has its own theme song...or, rather, title track.

Read a book review here, listen to the song here, and order the goshdarn novel here. (That last link, at Amazon.com, also has some additional and interesting content by the author.)

Tip o'the hat to Bookslut

Technorati tags: Frank Portman | King Dork

I'm Pro Choice (When it comes to the Dixie Chicks)

My good friend, author, raconteur, newspaper editor, ultra-suave man-about-town, and fellow blogger Jimmy Patterson argues eloquently and passionately on the front page of today's local newspaper that the Dixie Chicks are being given a raw deal by local radio stations who are apparently still refusing to give airplay to the group's music in the wake of Chickita Natalie Maines's assertion a couple of years ago that she was ashamed to be from George W. Bush's home state.

I'm in complete agreement with a couple of Jimmy's assertions. First, Ms. Maines's right to publicly express her opinion is constitutionally protected. Second, any threats of death or harm to her or her family (assuming they're real and not planks in a PR platform) are despicable.

Where I think mi amigo wanders into the weeds is when he implies that local radio stations have some kind of obligation to play the Chicksters's music, and that music consumers have a similar obligation to listen to it or even *gasp* buy it because not to do so somehow stifles The Dialogue.

To my way of thinking, Dixie Chicks, Inc. is a business, and if it's not a publicly traded corporation in the traditional sense, it still has stakeholders who determine its success. The product DCI is pitching has a lot to do with music, but it's more than that. It's a shrewdly marketed package that owes a large amount of success to the fact that the Chicks are relatively young, relatively fetching, and generally astute about the preferences of their "stockholders," who may also be referred to as "those who buy their CDs or pay to download their music, including but not limited to young hormone-driven guys." Part of their business strategy -- no doubt worked out in detail in a boardroom filled with lots of young marketing gurus with soul patches and PowerPoint presentations -- is to be a bit edgy, a bit controversial (which Jimmy astutely acknowledges in his article), and if you don't buy that, just take [another] look at the cover of Entertainment Weekly where the Chicklets choose to appear in their birthday suits. Think that wasn't a stroke of marketing genius (or desperation? Hard to distinguish the two, sometimes)?

Anyway, what Ms. Maines did on that London stage in 2003 was commit the cardinal sin of forgetting that she's both a marketer and a product, and, worse, of failing to understand the desires of her stockholders. Chalk it up to hubris, sincere exuberance, or plain old ignorance -- and it's probably a combination of all three -- but for whatever reasons, she stepped over the strategic line that was drawn for her a long time before, and in doing so made a lot of "investors" decide to realign their portfolios.

Ms. Maines is not guilty of treason, or of giving aid or improving morale of the enemy. Lord help us if country music -- especially the Nashville variety -- is that influential. No, it seems to me that her sin is primarily that of being an incompetent businesswoman. Unfortunately for her and her fellow Chickories, the wages of sin in this case are manifest on the demand side of the equation, and continuing to harp on "stockholders" for their unwillingness to invest in damaged goods just compounds the error.

It should be further noted that local radio stations are apparently unwilling to make a similar mistake -- that of ignoring the wishes of their customers -- and I was educated to believe that giving the customers what they want (or not giving them what they don't want) is fundamental to our great American Economy. I suppose we can argue that their marketing research is faulty, but I'm pretty sure they know more about that than we do.

So, while I support mi amigo Jimmy's right to buy and listen to everything the Chickorettes choose to put on the market, I don't think he's made a particularly compelling argument as to why anyone else should jump on the bandwagon. It might help, however, if they'd do another magazine cover, perhaps for Guns and Ammo.

Disclosure: I wouldn't know a Dixie Chick song if it bit me on the iPod. But since when has being informed been a requirement for punditry?

Fire Ant Theatre: Classical Readings, Vol. I

I can't tell you how often people ask me why the Gazette isn't doing more to enhance the cultural and aesthetic sensibilities of our woefully déclassé-leaning society. Well, let me tell you, that's been weighing heavily on my mind, and I've decided to do something about it.

This post inaugurates what I'm sure will be a long-running series in which the great masterpieces of Western Cultural Expression are brought to life through the technological wonder known as MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, aka MP3. Simply click the following link to be immediately transported into an aural dimension of wonder and delight.

And, in anticipation of your next question...yes, I am taking requests.*

*Requests that this series be discontinued immediately will be taken under advisement.

An Amazing Three Hour Tour

One of the pleasant surprises of blogging is when someone stumbles onto an old post and it strikes a chord with them...and they share with you about it.

That was the case this morning when I opened an email that fell into my "Possible Junk Mail" folder (because the sender isn't in my address book). Here's the gist of it:

This was a new one for me...Amazing Grace set to the theme music for Gilligan's Island. But it took only a few seconds of humming the tune and then adding the words to see how it fits...and very well, too. At first glance, the tune is perhaps a bit too, um, lively (irreverent? trivial?) for such powerful words, but the change in key -- if that's what it is; I need a real musician to help me out here -- of the last phrase sort of adds some solemnity. And, in the end, Amazing Grace is a quite happy and triumphant song.

Works for me. But now, the question of the day is whether you've run across any other tunes for Amazing Grace. We've already got House of the Rising Sun, The Eagles' Peaceful Easy Feeling, and now Gilligan's Island. Surely there are others...

If it helps, the meter of Amazing Grace is 8.6.8.6. - Common Meter, according to The Baptist Hymnal. Granted, I don't know 8.6.8.6. from "25 or 6 to 4," but perhaps you do.

"What Was I Thinking?" Song List

From Verging on Pertinence via Cowtown Pattie over at Texas Trifles comes this nasty little meme wherein we're supposed to expose ourselves to public ridicule and possible acute snubbery by disclosing a song or album which (1) we loved in our 'ute and (2) we hate in our oldfarthood. Why, exactly, anyone would want to do this is beyond me.

But what the hey.

The year was 1967 and the girlfriend would eventually become my wife and while her every whim would still be my command, I would at least be able to sneak my own music. But at that point in time, for any number of reasons, not the least of which involved a combination of an 8-track tape deck, a '58 Ford and a series of star-filled summer nights in west Texas, I came to believe that I really did want to listen to Rod McKuen's New Agey "The Sea," part of a trilogy that also included "The Earth" and -- you're already ahead of me, aren't you? -- "The Sky."

At this point, I'm supposed to explain why I no longer wish to subject myself to the aforementioned recording but, frankly, I've successfully blocked the memories and I don't want to take a chance on reviving them.

[Technically, we're supposed to come up with five of these traumas, but frankly, I was pretty cool back then and everything else stood the test of time. OK, there was the soundtrack from "Romeo and Juliet." And everything by The Lettermen. But that's it. Absolutely. Oh, and that fish head song. But nothing else. Really.]

Recording History

What do Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Mingus, Gene Krupa, Theolonius Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, and Lucky Williams have in common? Yeah, they're all famous (or should be famous) jazz musicians from a bygone era. And as far as I know, they never all played together on the same recording.

However, that doesn't mean they weren't recorded together, and this is the real answer I was seeking: they -- and a number of others of their profession -- all appeared in a photograph taken in 1958 by Art Kane. That photo, entitled Harlem 1958 is #6 in The Online Photographer's "T.O.P. Ten" list* of all-time greatest photographs.

It really is a beautiful and fascinating photo, not only for its content and historical significance but also for its composition. It's even more remarkable considering that the shot emerged from the photographer's very first paid shoot!

If you have time, visit TOP and read more about the photo (oh...and actually see it, as well!), and then read the accompanying comment thread for a wide-ranging discussion about what makes a photograph significant.

*Others on the list (thus far): #10 | #9 | #8 | #7. No need to thank me for saving you the trouble of finding these...it's why I make the big bucks; future TOP 10 posts are forthcoming each Tuesday. You might also look for the "Shadow Top 10," which are the blogger's all-time favorite photos. Just as interesting; just as striking.

Technorati tags: Art Kane | Harlem 1958

Chicago Crumbles

Jimmy Patterson has heard Chicago's new album, and he's not amused.

His "Real Top 30 Chicago Songs" list is a nice stroll down memory lane for anyone who still has to haul out a turntable to listen to the group.

Chicago XXX sounds like an album featuring Vin Diesel on..I don't know...exploding dumpsters?

Technorati tag: Chicago XXX

Percussion Discussion -or- Rhythm and No Clues

[Original post from 3/20/06]

As I warned promised you, I've created a new music quiz that's deceptively simple. Even if you can't carry a tune in a bucket...even if you're tone-deaf to the max...you can participate, because this ones all about the drums, man.

I've created an mp3 using clips from eight songs, said clips consisting entirely of drum solos or other percussive instrumentation. Your assignment is to identify the eight songs (and for extra credit, the drummers who drummed them).

And lest you think you have to be a rocker to play, 'tis not so. Two of the clips are of the non-R&R persuasion.

The mp3 weighs in at around 750kb, in case your connection speed is a concern. I suggest downloading it to your hard drive and listening offline; run it through headphones or your stereo system for best results.

As usual, leave your guesses in the comments. Each correct guess will garner you instant fame and nothing more as I'll add your name to this post. I'll think about leaving clues if things bog down too much. For what it's worth, I tried to arrange the clips in the order I think they'll be increasingly difficult to identify. But, as usual, I expect to be surprised.

Oh, by the way. The 1812 Overture is not in this group.

An Unexpected Musical Pleasure

Kid Creole and the Coconuts -- Heart of Gold, set to the tune of Simon & Garfunkle's El Condor Pasa.

Backing Up or Reformating iTunes Music

One of the misconceptions I sometimes hear about music purchased via Apple's iTunes Music Store (ITMS) is that the songs cannot be converted to another format for back-up purposes, or for playing on your home or car stereo without using an iPod. The confusion arises because music purchased from iTMS is downloaded in MPEG-4 AAC format rather than the more familiar MP3, and it has DRM protection built into it, so that right out of the box, so to speak, it won't play on anything but iTunes or an iPod.

The fact is, however, that you can convert your purchased AAC music into regular old uncompressed AIFF files -- the same kind found on any commercial audio CD. In fact, iTunes itself provides you with the capability of doing this, and if you want to make a back-up copy of your purchased music (and also play it via non-Apple outlets), here's how to do that.

Note that the following instructions apply to the Mac version of iTMS, but they should be similar, if not identical, on the Windows version.

First, insert a blank CD, then open iTunes. Select the "Advanced" menu item under iTunes Preferences, and then click on the menu option labeled "Burning." Select the appropriate settings for your CD burner, but make sure the radio button labeled "Audio CD" is toggled on. You're going to make an audio CD, not a data or MP3 CD. Once you've made the appropriate selections, click "OK."

You should be back in the main iTunes window. If you haven't already done so, create a new Playlist containing the songs you want to backup to CD. Keep in mind that the songs being recorded to the new CD will be uncompressed and thus more than ten times larger than the originals. I recommend using total minutes rather than file size to determine how many tracks you can burn to the CD.

Once you've created your Playlist, click on it to highlight it and the "Burn Disc" icon in the upper right corner (see screenshot at right) of iTunes should be clickable. Click it to start the recording. The end result will be a CD containing the songs in AIFF format, and it should be usable in any car or home CD player.

There are some downsides to this approach. First, since you're working from a compressed source file, the quality of the resulting AIFF will be somewhat lower than if you'll find on the original CD of whatever music you're backing up. Whether you'll notice the difference in quality will depend on the sensitivity of your ears and your stereo system. I'm guessing that 95% of us won't be able to tell the difference, but your mileage may vary.

Second, you'll lose all identifying information for the tracks you backup: album name, artist, song name, album art. If this is important to you, you'll want to create a copy of the disk you just made and use the copying software to manually add that information.

Now, there are a couple of other things to keep in mind. First, this is not intended to be a process whereby you bypass the DRM and make a bunch of copies of purchased music for your friends. We'll all be terribly disappointed if you do this. OTOH, I'm not your mother.

Second, this process is useful for another purpose and that's to edit purchased music. Why would you want to do this? Well, that's up to you, but here's one recent example of why I made a copy of a song. The original version of the song is about eight minutes in length, a nice catchy hip-hop tune with good lyrics...but the last two minutes contains a bizarre recording of a series of messages from an answering machine. I'm sure the artist's vision required that this be included, but I don't share his vision, and I certainly don't want to listen to those messages everytime the tune pops up on my 'pod. So I converted the song to AIFF, fired up Sound Studio, cropped the song at the point the music ends and the messages begin, added a tasteful five second fadeout, saved the new version to another AIFF, then imported it back into iTunes in AAC format. I not only saved two minutes on my 'pod, but I eliminated something I didn't want to listen to. (I did keep the original version intact.)

One last note. If all you want to do is make a back-up copy of your iTunes Library, you're much better off copying it to DVD. Use the same process as described above, but in the Preferences/Advanced/Burning panel, select "Data CD" (even if you're going to burn a DVD).

I Knot Rhythm

In a feeble attempt to counterbalance the previous post about big dollar gifts, and also as an acknowledgement that as a guitarist, I make a fine dishwasher, I offer for your consideration the Zydeco Tie, courtesy of Lark in The Morning. Here's all you need to know: