300th Post

It has taken about three and half years to accumulate 300 posts. I have a very small readership, but that is OK, as my main motivation is a personal document of the music that is engaging me at any given time.

Friends and acquaintances will ask what I am listening to and before this blog I would generally be stupefied by the question.  Now I can pull out my iPhone and scroll through  recent posts and give an informed answer.

I still struggle to articulate what about an album touches my heart and soul. I don’t think I have written a negative review. I have listened to lots of music over the last several years I didn’t like and many a beloved artist has let me down.  But I am not interested in spending my valuable time and energy documenting an album I hate.

Despite listening to thousands of albums I still get excited by a new release and discovering an old album (e.g. my recent Keith Jarrett post).  Blogging album reviews has enhanced my listening because it forces an engagement with the music.  I still get geeked-out by a cool guitar tone, a great groove, a clever lyric and the human voice exposing a genuine emotion (whether brilliantly acted or if it is for real).

I am in my mid-50s and I have been serious about music for most of my life.  I have been around long enough to have heard the influencer in their time and I am still curious enough to seek out and hear the influenced in this moment.  I am critical enough to separate the purely derivative from the real artist who borrows to make something real – their twist on a classic recipe.

I still have a lot to write about: music I have not yet met, my personal “hall of fame” recordings, introductions to my favorite artists and general music trends.  I would like to explore budget audio as it saddens me young music fans don’t have the passion for sound that my generation had (I debated saying “has,” but it is  sadly “had”).  I would like to think if they were educated about their options, where aware of reasonably priced components and had a chance to experience quality audio they would be hooked.   And then there is food and drink which often forms the analogies I use to describe music.

I have enjoyed writing this blog and hope I have helped you discover something new or be reminded of something you have forgotten.  Forgive my lapse in grammar and spelling – I could use an editor.