finding new music
so how do you find new music?
Lately one way that I’ve used is the iTunes store. Every Tuesday they post a free song. Right now my “free” collection is around 65 songs. They aren’t all hits, but they are pretty good, and after a while you hear some tunes on the radio.
My most recent find is Katie Melua , however I didn’t find her via iTunes, instead it was an email from TicketMaster that made me listen. She’s scheduled to play here in July so they were promoting her concert. I hadn’t heard of her so I dug around some, and after listening to snippets of a few tracks I bought her album “Piece by Piece” on iTunes.
She has a great voice and her arrangements are unique. Two selections that are my immediate favorites are “Nine Million Bicycles” and “On the Road Again”. The first one has some great lyrcis and meoldy that evokes a chinese feeling that matches the lyrics. “On the Road Again” is very nice rendition of the old Canned Heat favorite. I’m curious as to how she chose the song. Pick up the album if you’re looking for a great voice.
Jun 28, 07:10 PM | Music |
old and dead
Being a long time deadhead I’ve always kept some Dead music around. Truth be told, I was never a big fan of their more recent music and albums, Guess I’m old school too when it comes to psychadelic music! Anyway after getting the box set “The Golden Road (1965 – 1973)” it rekindled my interest in their earlier songs and concerts.
About the same time I came across a new site complete with podcasts called Closet Deadhead which unfortunately no longer puts together podcasts. Legal issues made it tenuous to continue. The podcasts were fun for awhile but were so random in their selection and also random as to whether I liked the selections or not.
So using a few of the links from the closet deadhead site I started hunting around for concert tapes. One in particular. My first dead concert! April 3, 1970, University of Cincinnati Field House. After poking around I found a site that had the concert available for download. According to the concert review this was the first time that they played the acoustic version of Candyman. So now I’ve got my “tapes” and it’s great to listen to them nowing I was in the front row. Now I need to breakout my old photos & slides from the show and make them digitial!
Footnote: I’ve tried to relocate the site, but no luck. It seems that there was a change in policy regarding a major source of online Dead music, archive.org [ read here ]
fresh old cream
Lately I’ve been enjoying watching & listening to the DVD of the Cream Royal Albert Hall concerts. I already had the CD’s but got the DVD for Christmas. The CD’s are great stuff. The old Cream standards are all there, Sunshine of your Love, N.S.U., Badge, Spoonful, and my current favorite, White Room. There’s a great rendition of Rolling and Tumbling too! On a recent road trip I was able to get through both discs in one sitting (yes it was a long drive!) and listening to Clapton’s guitar with Bruce’s bass running under it was tremendous. You can listen and watch a clip (White Room) of the concert at their website
So when I finally got around to watching the DVD the songs were familar, yet watching them play added a whole new dimension. One that I never had since I never saw Cream play back in the day. The footage is crystal clear, and the sound is great (even with my desktop speakers – Monsoons). I still need to watch it using the surround sound system so I can see how it is with 5:1 sound.
If you’re a fan of Cream, I’d recommend either the CD or the DVD. They never sounded better.
