Posts Tagged ‘music’
Real Event
Just a (not really) typical night down at the U…
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Did I mention that it rained? Rained and rained? It did. That was the wettest I have been from rain that I can recall. My fingers became pruned. I am only a casual fan of U2, but I have the utmost respect for them. Being there was definitely special. It was a really remarkable event Saturday night. In addition to the natural excitement of such a large gathering of fans, and the world-class production of the show, we were able to view the fireworks of the Minneapolis Aquatennial Festival during the concert. And it all coincided with a pretty dramatic lightning display traveling across the sky. It was not very clear which of the flashes and booms were coming from which source.
With the weather having been so incredibly hot and humid lately, the fact that the evening started out pleasantly comfortable may have caused me to drop my guard. I did not fully prepare for the obvious outcome that played out. Not only did I get really wet, so did everything in my pockets. Luckily, both phone and camera survived. My wallet looks a bit worse for the wear.
Actually, the soaking was not the worst part. Waiting can be a real drain, but waiting in the middle of the night when you are soaking wet was a real buzz-kill. There was gridlock in the vicinity of the stadium for a long time. We were prisoners in the parking ramp for 1 hour, 45-minutes. The eventual exit involved turning around and driving the wrong way down, since everybody else was doing it.
Eventual bedtime… after 2 a.m. Fitting, I’d say, for such a significant event.
Friend Blessings
I have been blessed with a true friend in Gary Larson, my trekking buddy and cycling comrade, who has welcomed Cyndie and me into his semi-annual gathering of long-time friends for their music parties. Last Saturday we joined the gala event for a fine dinner followed by some spontaneous music making. Dessert was so spectacular that Cyndie paused to capture it in a picture.
It is an interesting challenge for me because I never mastered the finer points of music theory which would allow me to actually know what chords to play for a given key. When attempting to play along with somebody in an unrehearsed performance, I am left to hunt and peck for something that sounds right. They have been polite to accommodate my shortcomings and we forge ahead together for a very enjoyable session.
Here I am with Peter on mandolin and Mike on banjo. We are performing the obligatory opening number… tuning. Since I rarely seem to know what chords to play, my first cheat is to look over at the finger position of the other players. However, if they aren’t playing a guitar tuned the same as mine, what I see doesn’t provide me with information I can use. It adds to the excitement.
One of my favorite things to do is harmonize when singing. It can be a bit tricky since I usually don’t know the words to the songs, and often find myself guessing about the intended melody.
I complicated things a bit on this occasion, since I was well into my little experiment of playing doctor with my asthma condition, and in its untreated state, I was suffering from a compromised lung capacity. (See yesterday’s post, if you haven’t already.)
In a beautiful demonstration of true friendship, Gary called me yesterday, after reading my post, to offer some perspective about treating an affliction like asthma. I was pretty uncomfortable all day long with pressure that felt like someone was sitting on my chest, and my persistent clearing my throat with a regular cough interval, was annoying me for how annoying it must be for everyone else. I decided that as soon as I got home from work, I was going to resume my regular full dose of control medicine that I have been prescribed.
I may not know what my ultimate un-medicated situation would be these days, but I do know that my asthma is treatable. Whether or not I am currently experiencing the worst it would get, I think my experiment has proved well-enough that I am a legitimate candidate for medication to control my condition.
Thank you, Gary, for taking the initiative to call and share your thoughts. It is what a friend would do.
Striking Fancy
I no longer recall why I was feeling a need to try to define my tastes in music, but it has been looming as a task I should tend to since I mentioned it in a post last week.
So, what music strikes my fancy? First of all, keep in mind that I grew up in the ’60s and ’70s and that will be clearly reflected in the bulk of what appeals to me. I think it would be fair to say that a core interest of mine is singer/songwriters. Two people who come to mind right away are Bruce Cockburn and Ani DiFranco, but that list includes Greg Brown, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, John Hiatt, Rickie Lee Jones, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Joan Armatrading, Michael Johnson, Harry Nilsson, Karla Bonoff, Loudon Wainwright III, Lucy Kaplansky, Randy Newman, and Steve Goodman, to name enough that I’ll leave someone worth mentioning out.
I like the guitar sound of Eric Clapton and the ’70s rock of Derek and the Dominos, The Allman Brothers, Santana, The Band, Little Feat, Dire Straits, Hall & Oates, and Loggins & Messina, as well as the monumental groups, The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Doors and The Who.
I have a weakness for harmony and that drew me to Crosby, Stills, & Nash. Some of my favorite harmony is provided by singing siblings, of which The Roches may take the cake. Los Lonely Boys are siblings whom nail some pretty fine vocal harmony.
There are times that I get a hankering for music out of the jazz category, and Weather Report is probably what best defines the subset of jazz that I find most appealing. Steps Ahead, a jazz fusion project of vibraphonist, Mike Mainieri, is also one of my favorites, especially when Peter Erskine was on drums. I’ve got some Al DiMeola and Larry Carlton in my collection.
I have always had an ear for acoustic guitar. The group, America, knew how to use several together to great effect, as did the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Guitarists Leo Kottke, Norman Blake, David Bromberg, Billy McLaughlin, Bruce Cockburn, Pat Donohue, Laurence Juber, Peter Lang and Rodrigo Y Gabriela come to mind.
I like randomness and that leads to my interest in Wookiefoot, Adrian Belew and his work with The Bears, Hindu Rodeo, Tim Curry, Trey Anastasio, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Moxy Fruvous, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, The Duhks, and Pomplamoose. At the same time, I am a fan of classics like Chicago, The Rascals, Lovin’ Spoonful, Three Dog Night, Cat Stevens, Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan and the solo work of John Lennon and George Harrison. I don’t think there has ever been a song that Stevie Wonder recorded that I didn’t enjoy. I like some Roxy Music and a fair amount of Talking Heads. I’m a huge fan of Stevie Ray Vaughan. That brings to mind the band, Indigenous, and their guitar star and singer, Mato Nanji.
More recently I have liked what I’ve heard of Ray LaMontagne, Of Montreal, Nickel Creek, The Avett Brothers, and Mumford and Sons. All of them probably reflecting the artists I have listened to for so many years.
For what it is worth, that is a painting of some of my musical interests using just a portion of the colors that make up the sound pallet from which I have been influenced. Time will tell what purpose it might serve… if any beyond what it is on its own here as a random Tuesday post.
Musical Likes and Dislikes
Last weekend I made a point of pulling one of my guitars out of its case and spending some time tenderizing my fingertips on the steel strings. It has been a very, very long time since I played a guitar. It saddens me, but it is something that I face as a function of the limited number of hours in a day and the ridiculously large percentage of those hours which a day job consumes, and the variety of other interests which occupy the minutes and hours left over.
The calluses on my left hand never seem to survive the hiatus between periods of activity. It really is a shame, because I think music really deserves to be my first love. I guess it is no surprise that if I am not making my own music, the next best thing is listening to the music of others. Some nights I like to make a point of avoiding the visuals of television or video and put on a random shuffle of my collection of music to fill our space while I go about my activities.
Yesterday at work, late in the day, I had put on some background music for a part-time helper who arrives after most of the regular crew has gone home. In a work setting, it can be a challenge to select something that isn’t elevator muzak and also isn’t offensive to anyone within earshot. I noticed that my iTunes Radio had been left on something from the 70’s, which seemed to fit the general age group of the people on hand at the moment.
I was occupied enough with my own tasks that I was paying only sideways attention to what was emanating from my computer speakers. Then a song came on that sounded completely different to me, as compared to the previous too-many-hundred times I’d heard it before. It was “Roxanne” by The Police.
This is the kind of song that played so often on the radio that my senses just glazed over when I heard it. Like all over-played songs, in time, I didn’t want to hear it at all. Now, some 30-plus years later, I was hearing it from a fresh perspective. I find myself amazed every time this happens, but given a span of time, and the random happenstance of any moment, one song can suddenly emerge anew in my ears. That song really has some great moments. It’s as if I can suddenly discern what all the fuss was about back in the day. No wonder so many people were fans. At the time, I barely noticed anything about their music that deserved more attention.
Now I am trying to imagine how to define my tastes in music. One possibility is by revealing what lies mostly beyond the fuzzy area of my interest. Even though I can appreciate hearing some orchestrated classical music, it is a rare occasion that I will purposely put it on. I don’t care for most country music, nor heavy metal rock or acid rock or electronica or hip-hop or rap or radio favorites of any genre or pop or punk. I do find isolated moments from each category which do appeal, however.
I guess the next question might be, is the bulk of my interest defined by the music that I didn’t itemize there? I’d probably have to keep going on listing categories to which I don’t listen to achieve a more fitting result (latin, disco…?).
So, what is it that does strike my fancy? I’ll look into that in a future post…
Musing on Music
Have I mused on music already here? I don’t remember.
It was 40 years ago now that the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held. Three days of peace and music. I was 10 years old. I don’t have any recollection that I had any clue it was occurring.
I’m not clear about what point in my life it was that I got hooked by the music being made by artists like the ones that were so well represented at the Woodstock concert. The first album that belonged to me was a gift from a sibling or siblings (anyone remember?). It was the Monkees, “Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. That album was released in November of 1967, so maybe I got it Christmas of that year. I remember it was a trick where they taped the album to the cover of the box the present was wrapped in so when I lifted it and looked in the box, there was nothing there.
The next record I recall was one that my sister, Linda, allowed me to select for myself, as a gift from her. I didn’t have a clue what to pick and went with what I saw before me when walking the aisle of the local record store. Black Sabbath’s “Ironman” was something that I recognized as having heard on the radio and it was in the front of a stack down at my eye level. I picked it and remember her trying hard to make sure that was what I wanted, I’m pretty sure because she could sense it was not a well thought out selection. But I held firm, trying to portray that I was making an informed decision. I wasn’t.
Eventually I came to revere the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The first concert I ever saw in person was The Allman Brothers Band. I was a fan of The Beatles, Derek & the Dominos, America, Loggins & Messina and a wide range of related groups. I have always liked live recordings and I think my favorite albums from all the above artists or groups are their live concert recordings.
Impressionable years
Somewhere in my very impressionable music years, I heard the live recordings of Santana, The Who, Richie Havens, Country Joe & the Fish, Canned Heat, Ten Years After, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Joe Cocker, John Sebastion, and I’m sure others that performed at Woodstock, and those songs all locked in my consciousness as foundation blocks. I probably heard them from the movie and its soundtrack. But from those songs, I built a fascination for Leon Russell and the recordings like Mad Dogs & Englishmen, The Band, “Rock of Ages” and “The Last Waltz”, Little Feat, “Waiting for Columbus”, George Harrison and the musicians he recruited for “Concert for Bangladesh”.
This wasn’t music that was played on popular radio (remember the AM band?). This is what record albums were all about. Eventually, I got a job at a retail record store for about a year and became immersed in more albums than I could comprehend.
I wasn’t old enough to be aware that the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was happening at the time, but it became a very significant part of my music world by the recordings of the music that was made there. And the music that was made there came from the spirit of that moment. Woodstock was a very important event for me, after the fact. And it became more so, in the accumulating years after it actually happened.
Relative Something 